Photographic journey through Canterbury and Otago with the children

What an exciting time we had in New Zealand with the children.

The main reason we were there was to spend time reconnecting with our supporters. We had 30 meetings in the 25 days we were in New Zealand. So all that follows was interspersed between meetings, and Sunday preaching, of which we did 7 sessions. 

Sumner with containers used to protect from landslides

First off was the opportunity to meet Nick Magiera, Naomi’s boyfriend whom she had met at the Iris Ministries bible school in Mozambique. Nick had arrived in Christchurch from his home in Chicago a few hours earlier. Chris and Ruth De’Ath from Thrive Church in Rangiora kindly loaned us a car for the time we were in New Zealand. Craig and Sharon Reynolds were there to meet us at the airport. Craig and Sharon will be going to Papua New Guinea in a few months time to serve with MAF there.

Christine getting a piggy-back through the stream. Naomi on the waterfall edge.

Naomi was not due to arrive for another 10 hours so we had the opportunity to have a drive around Christchurch with Nick before picking her up. We had not been to Christchurch since before the February 2011 earthquake. It is hard to find the words to describe what met our eyes. Streets with house after house condemned, interspersed with empty sections. It was a pleasant surprise to see the vet clinic in Linwood we had owned for 19 years was still operating.

Picking up Naomi that evening, we stayed with John and Dorothy for the most part of the first week, besides spending some time camped at Russell and Mary’s.

View from Russell and Mary's temporary accommodation

Mandatory was a trip to Sumner Beach, including checking out our old house up Clifton Hill. We had built it ourselves in 1999-2000, as a three level pole-platform house. It was still standing, showing little evidence of any damage. The only damage was to the driveway that we had not put in! Christine’s favorite walk has always been along the top of the cliffs. Unfortunately much of the cliff edge including the original walking path has fallen into the sea, but we still managed an enjoyable walk. 

Naomi and Nick overlooking Taylor's Mistake

Next up was a walk in some native bush near Glentui. A beautiful waterfall had to be investigated with walking down a small mountain stream to get to the top of the waterfall.

Nick and Naomi rock climbing at Castle Hill

The opportunity then presented itself of a trip to Cave Stream. This is a 500m long underground stream. Its been a family trip done several times over the years, so it was an opportunity to take Nick. We also had a look round Castle Hill and a walk up to Punchbowl Falls at Arthurs Pass.

Naomi and Nick @ Punchbowl Falls

A week after we arrived in NZ,  David arrived, and we all headed down to stay with Emily and Anthony in Beautiful Valley, inland from Geraldine. What gorgeous countryside! 

Naomi and Tess with Emily in the background

Looking across to Fairlie Valley from the top of the farm

David sighting in, Anthony checking the target. David shot a wallaby 30 minutes later

David and Naomi tacking up Louie for a ride

David and Tess

Naomi and Tess

Emily tacking up Tess with Naomi and Nick looking on

Christine and Louie

Emily riding Louie, Naomi walking Tess with David and Nick

Christine getting a lesson from Emily and Louie

Nick and Naomi with Emily's dog Ellie

Due to ministry responsibilities, Christine and I had to leave the family behind the following day for Arrowtown. Naomi, David and Nick stayed with Anthony and Emily for four days before joining us in Wanaka. A wonderful time being looked after by Alistair and Adrienne Chalmers and Freedom church

Farm scene

Toi Toi walk

Looking in towards Skipper's Canyon

River walk at Arrowtown

Queenstown in the distance

It was then on to Wanaka where we stayed at the house of Emily's boss for four days, with the children joining us.  

Matukituki River

Glendhu Bay

Outcrops

Diamond Lake

Christine at Wishbone Falls

 After a wonderful time at Wanaka and ministering at Wanaka New Life Church, we had to say goodbye to David. Then it was back to Emily and Anthony's for a few days. I thoroughly enjoyed being able to get to now my future son-in-law Anthony a little during this time.

Looking down over South Canterbury and Banks Peninsula in the distance from the top of the farm

Anthony moving cattle with Ash

Naomi with the horses before an evening ride

Emily with her mare Tess, Louie in the background

Emily and Naomi on an evening horse trek

Anthony with the dogs

Family photo minus David who was already back in Australia

After saying goodbye to Anthony the rest of us drove back to Christchurch for a fitting for Naomi's bridesmaid dress and a chance to look at Emily's wedding dress. It was then onto Akaroa to the Anthony and Emily's wedding venue. Then tears shed as she returned to her home and we carried onto Rangiora for a busy week of meetings.

Another glorious sunset in Akaroa

 However, unfortunately a few days later Emily cut the tendons in her finger. This meant she was off work for 12 weeks and no driving for ten days, with threat of amputation if she didn't look after it. After finishing our responsibilities a change of plan. We were intending to stay with our friends Brent and Ann in Kaikoura, but instead it was back to Emily and Anthony for the last week. It was just wonderful to spend more time with Anthony and Emily, this time helping Emily rather than Anthony.

Beautiful Valley

Beautiful Valley with Emily and Anthony's house

View from Emily and Anthony's balcony

Returning to Rangiora is a beautiful drive even though sad because of leaving Emily and Anthony and not seeing them for another year. We will return late January-early February for their wedding later in February 

Rakaia Gorge

Back in Arnhem Land after a wonderful furlough

It seems like we have been back two months now, but in reality it has only been two weeks. Yet so many great things have happened in this short time. Christine and I both felt incredibly blessed during our time in New Zealand - blessed both by the Lord, and our many Christian friends and family. 

Holiday at Wanaka

Unity

While in New Zealand, we asked you to pray regarding the area of unity. Keep it up! In the last fortnight, we had a meeting between two leaders with ministry gifts, where the enemy has been causing disunity. This was successful in that they both saw that the accusations were not coming from each other. 

Mud getting churned up in the water with thunderstorms in the background

Over the last week there has been a joint outreach at Yirrkala, with the two churches working together to hold nightly meetings. Reverend Sam and I spoke on Tuesday night, Reverend Graeme spoke on Saturday. The remainder of the nights were taken by Peter Higham from MAF, Uniting Church and visiting ministries. The last night in particular was inspiring, with Reverend Graeme speaking on one Church, different denominations.

• Pray for not just a lack of disunity but true unity in the Lord
• Pray for a love for each other to grow between the two churches, and a desire to honour each other
• Pray for unity that is not just skin deep, but is genuine and godly.
• Most importantly pray regarding areas of deception in leaders of both churches that is promoting disunity. These areas of deception are rooted in spiritual pride.

Towering Cumulus lining up in rows with a nearby tropical cyclone

Testimony - what the enemy meant for evil...

Before we returned to Arnhem Land a woman committed suicide. Since Sam and I went to Elcho Island to stand against the sorcerers (galka) in prayer, they have now moved to Lake Evella. 

According to Sam, the galka came from Lake Evella by vehicle and over several nights slowly and secretly exsanguinated (drained blood out) a woman until she was very weak. They then rang her up on her mobile and told her to start an argument with a family and then commit suicide. Because of her weak state and fear of the galka, she had the argument and then hung herself on a tree in the middle of Yirrkala. As a result of this people (galka, family, people working for galka) from all across Arnhem Land to bring payback. They blamed a particular women in a family for the suicide saying she was a galka. As you can imagine, being accused of being a galka is terrifying. However Sam and Rosemary went to this family. As a result of this the lady and 31 from two families committed or recommitted their lives to the Lord, forgiving the other family for what they had done.

• Pray for the breaking of this cycle of witchcraft that produces incredible fear, even to the point that one of the leading ministries would not preach this week for fear of being killed.
• Pray for a move of God amongst the galkas
• Pray for Christine and I as we feel under much oppression and attack from a spirit of discouragement since our return
• Pray for Lisa (a MAF pilot), Christine and myself as we join Sam and Rosemary in the discipling of this group of new people. 
• Pray that a home-group will start out of this.
• Pray for the exposing of the true galka, and that they would come to Christ
• Pray for an opportunity for me to speak to one of the galkas I know
• Pray for the leading of the Lord in how to deal with this issue.  At this stage I do not have freedom from the Lord to approach this subject.

Diamond Lake, Wanaka

Naomi and Nick opportunity

Our middle daughter Naomi and her boyfriend Nick are staying with us in Arnhem Land for a least 6 weeks, maybe longer. Nick and Naomi met in Iris Ministries Mozambique last year.

• Pray that Naomi will find plenty of shifts at the local hospital or visiting the Yolngu communities
• Pray for Nick as he works in the hangar
• Pray that their desire to minister to the young people especially the teenage youth will quickly bring fruit.

Flying

The last two weeks have been full on flying, with long hours and study for annual exams. At my request I have come off the C210 and intend to start flying the Gippsland Airvan next month. This will position me better for the future requirements of Instrument Flying (IFR), as more of them are maintained to the required IFR standard.

• Pray as I learn this new aircraft, that I will easily transition from flying the different Cessna aircraft over the last 5 years

Spot the white fella

A recent near miss with a helicopter highlights the need for continued prayer for safety in the air. It caused me concern because there was nothing I could have done to prevent it or to see the helicopter. I was taking off from Milingimbi airfield and a helicopter was taking off from Milingimbi community. Milingimbi community is directly in the takeoff path of the airfield. Because I was full of passengers, I was climbing and slow. This meant there was little room left in speed above stall to do emergency turns, and I could not see the helicopter because the climb meant that I could not see over the nose of the aircraft. He failed to call lifting off on the correct radio frequency so I did not know he was there. My passengers and I were saved only by time. If I had not spent 30 seconds extra going through pre-takeoff checks, I could have been in the same place at the same time as the helicopter and not seen him until it was too late as he would have climbed under me at a faster rate in a position where I could not see him.

Current batch of pilots in Arnhem Land

Christine’s miraculous healing from 5 years sickness.

Check out in the previous blog, Christine’s story of how the Lord healed her from a condition that had become steadily worse over the last five years.

Christine’s new job

Christine has started work as a library technician in the Christian school where she works already. This will require some up-skilling for her as she learns a new computer program. Please pray for her as she takes on the new challenges

Family News

Our time in New Zealand with the family can be seen in the next post.

Final Word of Thanks

Thank you all for your financial and prayer support, hospitality and friendship. 

A special thanks to Chris and Ruth d’Ath for the use of a wonderful car and John and Dorothy Ward for allowing us to pop in and out continually and to Russell and Mary for allowing us to stay some nights and of course their hospitality of our 40ft container!

Christine's miraculous healing testimony

Six weeks after starting in Arnhem Land in 2008, Neville and I contracted giardia. As a result of this my body stopped tolerating an increasing number of different foods. These foods included most fruits and vegetables. As time progressed the symptom became more uncomfortable, including bloating, constipation and urinary incontinence. Doing some research I determined that it was an intolerance to amines. The number of doctors aware of this condition is extremely small

Amines are found in all preservatives, additives, flavourings and colourings, both artificial and natural. Contributing to this, is that companies producing foods at the supermarket are not legally required to inform on the packaging if the additives etc do not exceed 5% (country dependent). 

By severely restricting what I ate, I could live a reasonably normal life. However if I wanted to go out for a meal, I could not eat at a restaurant, or visit someone’s home for a meal without having problems.

As a missionary this is extremely difficult. It negatively affects our furlough, travel, holidays.

Over the last five years we have tried many different natural remedies as there is no cure for this intolerance except not eating the expanding list of foods. None of the remedies or recommendations helped.

During our last visit to New Zealand I shared my frustration with our friends and supporters, and asked them to pray. At our first meeting in New Zealand our sending church leadership team decided to fast and pray for me on the following Friday. I joined them in a short period of fasting as I was now losing weight. Three leaders as well as several others we shared with all believed it was demonic in nature, three of them independently seeing in the spirit a type of lizard or bug on my back at different times.

From this time onwards I started to eat foods that previously I could not eat. Just testing the boundaries and eating a little at a time. The first day I became ill, but from that day onwards I started to improve in small amounts. The following Friday we drove back to Christchurch to attend our normal church prayer meeting. At this time in according to the Word of God the elders anointed me with oil and prayed for me.

If any among you are sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. (James 5:14)

The Lord then reminded Neville that when we became sick we were looking after someone's house. In the house were multiple objects that had Yolngu art on them. Because they were not ours we allowed them to stay in the house for the three months we were there. Paintings like these usually have animals on them with lines and dots. The animals are invariably evil spirits and the lines and dots refer to very strong spirits called principalities, powers and rulers of the darkness of this age (Eph 3:10, 6:12, Col 1:16, 2:15). It is our belief that the bug or animal seen on my back was the spirit portrayed in  one of these paintings. 

Once we had asked the Lord’s forgiveness for disobeying the word of God that tells us not to have these in our houses (2 John 1:10 with Gal 1:8), the elders commanded the spirit to go from me. (Luke 13:10-)

For the rest of my time in New Zealand I ate anything put in front of me and was totally healed.

Since being back in Arnhem Land, there have been some symptoms that have tried to come back. As I have maintained my confession of the Lord’s healing, these symptoms have not stayed.

I can say that all glory must go to my Lord Jesus Christ for this healing as no man has been able to help me.

Return to Arnhem Land

Introduction

In this blog we cover an update of what is happening amongst the Yolngu people, recent outreaches we have done, our return to NZ for five weeks towards the end of March, update on my medical evacuation out of South Sudan, and our shift to Nhulunbuy from Yirrkala.

Update on what God is doing in Arnhem Land.

The taking of a boy by a crocodile opened the door for us to come and teach the Word of God in a community that has

never had an outreach before

The most encouraging part of returning is to see that the current move of God does not seem to be dissipating at all. The last revival in the 1970's did not last as long as this current move. If anything it seems stronger than when we left. 

This is a critical time for Arnhem Land. Mistakes were made in the last revival, that caused it to fail after 4 years. It is true that God starts revival but the church must maintain that revival. The church in Arnhem Land is at this time most closely resembled by the Corinthian church. Problems of division and wrong concepts of spiritual truths, as well as cultural difficulties afflict the Yolngu, as it did with the church of Corinth. That more was written in the Bible to the Corinthian church than any other church reflects the need for the next phase in Arnhem Land. This phase is solid teaching of spiritual truths relevant to their culture, but with a spiritual authority that will stand against the onslaught of witchcraft and syncretism that would try and bring this people back into their destructive old ways. Mission Aviation Fellowship have been at the forefront of working with Yolngu church leaders in spreading the gospel and in presenting the gospel in a manner that will be accepted by all generations. It seems that the miraculous is still very present and not lifting at all, as sometimes happens in other revivals.

Rev's Sam and Graeme teaching their church on unity

• Please pray as we look at ways of bringing the Word of God to more people in a powerful way, but to more people at once, so as to counter false teaching, that always arise when there is a genuine move of God. 
• Pray that God will endorse the Word of God, with signs and wonders.

Recent outreaches.

Coreisha was crippled when we left for
South Sudan, she can now walk

Within a fortnight of our arrival Christine and I travelled by 4WD 120km to a community that does not have an airfield, to where a boy's life was taken by a crocodile late last year. This was a fantastic opportunity to bring comfort and teach the Word of God to this fledging church, which has not had an outreach before.

Janet wants the Holy Spirit to
teach her wisdom

The weekend before last we went again to Sam's church. What is most encouraging to us is the way this church has grown steadily by 50% while we were away. This reflects the maturity of Reverend Sam Marika and Reverend Graeme Marawili, whom I have introduced to you previously. 

What is very exciting, is that Graeme is the first pastor/teacher (as a gift of Christ to the body - Eph 4) from the current outpouring that I have seen in Arnhem Land, and explains why this is probably the largest church of consistent attendance by Yolngu.

Last Friday we again held an outreach in Yirrkala. It was a memorial service for one of the ladies that first recognized the new move of God, when she saw, in the Spirit, fire burning over our meetings. She brought ladies to the initial meetings 5 years ago. She had been instrumental in the translation of the Bible over the last 30 years. As a result many Christians were gathered. It was a great opportunity to encourage, and at the same time teach the true Biblical way of honouring those who are their ancestors, without worshipping them. Then this last Sunday I taught from the Word of God. It felt like this was the first time in 5 years I could give them 'solid meat', yet they were hungry for more.

• Pray for open doors into different communities after Friday's ministry.
• Pray for Reverend Graeme as he attempts to build a united body of believers in Arnhem Land
• Pray for the church that the Yolngu will grow in maturity and in unity, and with the spirit of revelation, knowledge and wisdom.
• Pray for Reverend Sam, to step back into a more evangelist/itinerant minister. As the need for salvation of souls comes less critical, pray that he will grow in his spiritual authority, continuing to bring unity. Pray for him to mature into a fathering role of discipling leaders. Pray that as we look at ways of opening doors of ministry for him and his wife Rosemary, that they will rise to the new levels of responsibility and spiritual authority needed in Arnhem Land at this time.
• Pray for greater unity between Reverend Sam and his nephew Gerard. It is critical to the next phase  that this happens, as both are strong leaders with a desire to see a mature unified Yolngu church. The enemy seems to continue to try and keep them operating separately, but in this next phase we need them to be able to work together.

Brief furlough to New Zealand in March/April.

We last got together with David and Naomi for a day in 2011. Part of our time in NZ will be spent with all the children for a bit longer this time!
This time there will be 8 hanging out together 

Christine and I will be returning to New Zealand from the 23rd March until 27th April for a brief furlough. Although this is a time primarily to meet with our supporters there will also be some family time. Our eldest daughter Emily is getting married in Feb 2014 so there are some things we need to organize there, as well as spend some time with the other children. Naomi and David will both be coming from Australia with their respective boyfriend and girlfriend, so it will be a fun time. Naomi has just returned from 3 months in Africa, attending Iris Bible School, and doing various outreaches, seeing a great harvest for the Kingdom of God. It has solidified her passion for mission as a nurse. David has finished his internship at a church in Bendigo. 

We  are hoping to catch up with as many of our supporters as we can, as well as looking for new prayer and financial supporters.

If you are wanting to catch up with us, please let us know as soon as possible. We will also be needing assistance with accommodation and a vehicle during this time, if anybody is able to help in this matter.

Illness challenges

Thank you to all who have been praying for us over these last 6 months, highlighted by my medivac out of South Sudan. I am pleased to say that with the help of God and some lifestyle changes I am able to overcome this sickness.

Christine has identified the cause of the sickness she has been fighting for 4 years. It is managed through diet as well, so we both are eating a lot healthier than we were a year or two ago. The main difficulty for her is when she travels away from home. At home she can choose the low salicylate and gluten free foods she requires, but when she travels it is hard for people giving us hospitality to cook for her as it is a little understood disease. 

• Please pray for us both as we return to New Zealand for furlough in March and April, that we will easily be able to manage our diet there.
• Pray for complete healing for Christine.

Shift of accommodation.

What a blessing to arrive back to a clean house, freshly painted inside, and totally refurbished with a new kitchen, laundry, bathroom, toilet, and brand new appliances including new AC units. A huge thank you to MAF and the maintenance staff that made it happen. There is a nice beach only 5 minutes drive away (but no swimming of course due to crocodiles and jellyfish). Importantly, we are still close  to our Yolngu friends and family.

Map of Gove Peninsula showing Nhulunbuy, Yirrkala and Gove