Boomerang Vol. 9: Cairns, Australia & Beyond

After the great receptivity to the gospel we experienced in Papua New Guinea (PNG), our time in Cairns, Australia among Aboriginals was more heartbreaking. The mainstream Australian culture is often at odds with the indigenous cultures resulting in estrangement, rejection, frustration and excessive substance abuse and alcoholism. We saw all of this up close and personally while serving an indigenous ministry in Queensland. We lived in an aboriginal community in the Daintree Rainforest providing sermons, children's ministry, worship times, community cookouts and men's and women's church meetings. Sadly, it was not uncommon for some in the congregation to show up under the influence. There is a great need for this community to be served with grace and humility in order to bring healing and restoration to the beautiful, enigmatic original peoples of Australia. If God showed us what successful ministry looked like in PNG, than the Cairns outreach showed us a glimpse of the tremendous remaining need for ministry worldwide and God's love for all the peoples of the world.

We then returned to Perth and were graduated from the YWAM missions program. The training has been both extensive and excellent. We are more excited than ever to be missionaries! Consequently, we have accelerated our training timetable. Instead of remaining in Australia until January 2010 to start the next required YWAM training we need to serve with Create International, the Lord has led us to go immediately to Chiang Mai, Thailand to take the course in July. The Discipleship Training School (DTS) we just completed is the required training to serve as a YWAM missionary worldwide. The School of Frontier Media (SFM) is the training program specific to Create International.

In this SFM program we will learn how to use many forms of media in appropriate, culturally-sensitive methods of evangelism. The first three months are a lecture phase with numerous experts in the field covering a wide range of relevant topics. This is followed by a practical outreach phase in an unreached area of Thailand to apply all we have just learned. The goal is to create an evangelistic film in the language and culture of this unreached people. This is the exciting, frontier missions work we have been so eager to do!

In the meantime, Sam has returned to the US to live with his grandparents. He will spend this next year finishing his senior year of high school and preparing for college, where he anticipates pursuing a degree in linguistics, mathematics and computers. Our plan, Lord willing, is to meet him back in the States after our school is completed. We already miss him terribly out here, yet we are confident that this is a good choice for Samuel at this time. Please give him a big hug from us if you see him before we do!

Rachel and Abigail are doing very well through the transition of this school ending and another big move coming. It is not always easy, we are finding, to be the children of training missionaries, yet they are remarkable, faithful girls who are trusting God along with us to provide for their needs.

We have been amazed at God's faithfulness through his servants like you who have supported us in prayer and financially this year. We are humbled by your generosity in the face of a faltering worldwide economy. God is still able to provide for those who trust in him. The economic decline does effect us, though. In the past six months we have essentially lost 20% of our support due to the dollar's decline. Our even leaner budget has made meeting our financial commitments to provide necessities, required YWAM training and our kids' education difficult. We have been blessed with gifts for our travel to Thailand yet still could use some assistance with our tuition and expenses when we arrive in Chiang Mai. In total, our need is $4,400 over the next two weeks and $3000 before August 1st. This number looks large, yet we have seen God provide in amazing ways for us and other missionaries out here. We know God is capable of providing all we need even as he asks you to help. Please join us in praying for this need and thank you in advance for your wonderful support of us as we work to fulfill God's call.

You may send gifts and donations for our support to Ripe for Harvest and please designate Account #247 in the memo line but please do not include our name on the check. Send it to:
Ripe for Harvest
2824 N. Power Rd #113282
Mesa AZ 85215-1674
Ripe for Harvest is able to issue a tax deductible receipt in the USA, whereas YWAM Perth in Australia is not.

We may upload a photo journal like the one we recently did for PNG, however, if you are our Facebook Friends we have uploaded over a 100 photos from our time in Northern Queensland. The Atherton Tablelands is truly one of the most beautiful places in Australia and we took a lot of photos of amazing Australian countryside, sea shores and rain forests. Enjoy!

Some people like the blog and others prefer the online newsletter format. We will continue to do both and some of the time the content will be redundant. However, the blog will always have more in depth information than our online newsletter. Thanks everyone for subscribing online to one or both of our sites so we can stay in touch with all of you.

If you need more information, you may always email us both at baldwinboomerang@gmail.com or go to http://groups.google.com/group/baldwin-boomerang and request a subscription from us. And please be sure to send us your stories and updates as well! Also, Rachel has been winning praise for her blog which shows an insightful young woman's take on our experience: http://fromrachek.blogspot.com.


Everyday we are out here is one filled with gratitude that we have the best job ever! Thanks again for making that possible for us time and again. A special thank you to everyone who helped make Allyson's recent birthday in Perth well celebrated. We'll next catch up with you when this Baldwin Boomerang lands gracefully in Thailand!