I have fallen in love with East Timor and I pray that God would make a way for me to come back to East Timor!
From the start.....
We arrived in Darwin and we got picked up at night time and taken to the YWAM base in Darwin which is the sister base to YWAM Townsville. While we were in Darwin we got to work with the aboriginal community alot.
We went to a church called the 'Longrass mansion' where we would serve food to the people who would come, and we would spend time getting to talk to the people who came to the church. We did that a few times while we were in Darwin adn we also joinjed in on there church service on Sundays while we were there but we never were asked to lead the service - just to join in.
In Darwin there is a community called 'Bagot Community' where our team went and we would go talk to the people in the community and then find all the kids who lived there and take them to this water park in the afternoon and for a BBQ dinner.
When we first arrived at the community, we turned down the drive way and the first thing we see is a car on the side of the road that had been destroyed somehow - it had smashed windows and it was in really bad condition. To add to that, there were not many people in the community walking around so it was really quiet and it reminded me of a horror movie almost because it was so eery when we first arrived there.
We were working with two people, David and Isabel, who have been helping in the aboriginal community for ten years already. They do such an amazing job and are so obedient to God in doing this work - they are amazing people of God!
Each friday we went back to Bagot community and we rounded up all the kids in the community and piled them into the vehicles and we were off to the water park.
What amazed me the most was that this water park was free and it was pretty cool! In New Zealand you would have to pay to go to a place like this...
While we were at the park our team would give a short skit and message and share the gospel with the kids who came. Isabel said that they needed to share the gospel each time because they didn't know how many of the people would be alive next week... crazy!
(Making sandwiches for the homeless at vinnies)
(Making sandwiches for the homeless at vinnies)
(Longgrass Mansion church)
On Sundays we would go back to the community at night time and be apart of leading the church service. The difference with church at this community was that there was not a specific time for church to strat because even if you set a time, the people who came would come at their own time anyway. That meant that we could have a late night. We had to go walk around the community and invite people to church as well as people would be picked up to come to church.
Each Sunday some of us would share a testimony or a short message to the people and Katie and Hannah did an amazing job at leading worship! They are really good at singing and Hannah plays the keyboard beautifully!!
Other opportunities we got given in Darwin were to help serve other churches by doing some cleaning and maintenance around the property and some of the people in the team also got to go to a detention centre and hang out with the kids there and also we went to a middle school and hung out with the kids on their lunch break.
We also got to be apart of the lectures and prayer and worship time with the DTS students and staff that were at the base at the time and help out at 'Vinnies outreach centre' serving lunch to the homeless and cleaning up around the property - the ladies we met there were so cool! They gave us a certificate so we could remember our time there and the also shouted us a trip to 'Crocydylus park' for the day to go feed the crocs and hold baby crocs and have a look at all the other animals there too! It was a really good day!
We had a team photo holding 2 baby crocs :):)
Darwin is a really beautiful place and we got to have a few BBQ dinners as a team and with everyone at the Darwin base one night too. We had a really cool worship night at the beach the night we had the BBQ with the Darwin team - that was for Easter weekend.
The team at the Darwin base are all so nice - I loved getting to know them.
There was Tara, Ryan, Andrea, Ron, Shelly, Kurt, Becky, Wendy, Joel, Jordan, and others but I can't remember their names - we have met so many people!
Now to East Timor - WOW WOW WOW! I love it soooooooooooooooo much!
The kids, the adults, the village, the staff who helped us - what amazing people - I love them so much!
We went from Darwin to Dili on the plane which took 1 hour - Dili is the main city of East Timor.
Roberto and Anabel, some of the staff at the base came and picked us up from the airport and took us back to the YWAM base.
(Dili, Eas Timor airport)
(Arrival in Dili, East Timor)
(Part of the YWAM Base Dili)
(Our room in Dili)
As we drove past, lots of people would wave at us and say 'malai' which means 'stranger or foreigner'.
It is nothing like the western world of course but regardless of that it is such a beautiful country! The traffic is crazy - there seems to be no rules really but that made it kinda fun whenever we rode in the back of a truck.
We got to the base and got settled in to our rooms and had lunch. In the afternoon some of the team went to this place where the staff of the base taught a kids service and also 3 of the people who came went for a hike up to a village where they got to meet people and pray for them I think ... soemthing like that.
The kids service was taught in Portugese I think so none of the kdis understood english. That meant we couldn't understand but we still joined in where we could like playing a game with them :)
When the service finished I got to get a ride back to the base on the scooter with Elizabeth I think her name was! It was cool because she needed to stop off for some food on the way back to the base so I got to see some more of Dili. It started raining a little while we were out so we got a bit wet but it was ok :)
The next morning was the morning we would leave for the village we were going too. The village was called 'Seurtulan' and the language they spoke was 'Tatum'. We got to learn some of their language while we were in the village - it was so cool!
As we were driving up to the village, we were on the back of 2 trucks. It took about 4 hours to arrive in the village and the road was full of potholes so it was a very bumpy ride. The drivers had to beep their horn when they went around a corner because the roads were narrow. The people we passed on the way to the village would call out 'malai' too.
We got to see so much on the drive up to the village and it was amazing to see the markets set up on the sides of the roads and the houses and how different they all were compared to the western world!
We stopped in a city called 'Manatuto' which was about an hour away from the village and it was so amazing to see the way it was all set up - it was nothing flash like the western world but at the same time it was so beautiful!!! I LOVE EAST TIMOR!
(View from our drive to Seurtulan)
(View from our drive to Seurtulan)
Anyway... Some of the team had their first experience shopping in East Timor there, even if it was just a small purchase.
When we arrived in the village, the kids of t he community came chasing after the truck to the house where we were staying and they wanted to help us get all the gear inside. They would tell us their name but it definately took a few days to remember them because they are so different! We got to play with them that afternoon and it was so much fun! I was playing with a ball with some of the kids there as soon as we got there basically.
(Beautiful Seurtulan kids)
(Beautiful Seurtulan kids)
(Beautiful Seurtulan kids)
(Beautiful Seurtulan kids)
(Beautiful Seurtulan kids)
So much happened! So I will not right everything but just some things...
-We would help teach english and health to the kids in the community
-We would lead a kids service and teach them about God more
-We would have worship with the community almost every night
-We helped build some of the houses in the community for the people who will move in
-We had intercession and team time alternating every morning
-Our leaders helped deliver a baby
-We came to see the baby be baptised
-Build and rebuild a temporary church for our time in the village
-We prayed for people, and the village itself
-We got to walk to a beautiful waterfall and go for a swim
-We got to walk up to see the big Jesus statue
-We got to go to a memorial place in Dili
-We got to go to a museum and see the history and even recent history of East Timor
-We got to go to a BEAUTIFUL beach and have lunch there
-We got to play volleyball with people in the community in the vilage
-We got to play with the kids everyday in the community in the village
-We got to have movie night with the community in the village
-We got to have campfires with the community in the village
-We got to lead church each week in the village
-We go to to go Manatuto and have a look around the markets and eat out dinner at a restaurant there
-We got to go to the markets in Dili and go shopping
.... and sadly enough, the East Timorese coffee beans we bought to bring were taken off of us at the airport because they hadn't been roasted yet and wern't allowed into Australia :(:( between our team we had payed $150 or about that for 140 cups of coffee beens that had to then be destroyed :( it was really sad because we were going to give some as gifts too... Oh well
So much happened!!! We were blessed back to so much!!!
It is good to be back in Townsville now and too see everyone again and my parents are here too for graduation week which is really good! :)
I hope you enjoyed this blog - the last blog I will write. I could have written more in detail about East Timor but that would make the blog even longer so I hope you get the idea a bit of what I got to do :)
Godbless <3
God is so good - I never would have had this opportunity without him!
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