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.
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!
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.
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!
2 comments:
i like the picture of me serving burgers. makes me look like a missionary.
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