First Church Visit for 2012: April 6-16

Church Training 2012 commenced with a bang as the Ing’s, Thomas-Thong’s, Danielle, Dave and Kate went to Bundaberg QLD. We were scheduled to speak at a youth camp, preach at the Hinkler SDA church, share and afternoon concert, and do some 5.5hrs of training in lifestyle, natural remedies and hydrotherapy. During the time before we left for the trip there was much preparation to be done on the Eastward farm, making sure that we weren’t going to be coming back to a jungle. This and other unfortunates led to us being majorly unprepared.

We arrived at the Lake Monduran SDA campground on Friday afternoon at around lunch time after spending some lovely time with family, old friends and meeting new friends on the trip up north. After setting up camp and registering it was down to business. During this camp on the first weekend of our visit, 4 sermons were presented, a couple of Bible Studies, and a host of wonderful special music from our team. We spent just about all of our spare time frantically practicing for the concert that was to follow on the next weekend and preparing these messages.

It was a lovely time, and the results were blessed. Young people made decisions to re-evaluate their lives and to surrender up things that had become a barrier between them and God (idols). As a result of the word of God an invitation has been given for us to share at a camp in Rockhampton, and no doubt we’ll be back for another camp at Bundy in the future.

The next week was spent in preparation for individual responsibilities, personal preparation, church community help work, consultations and some real fun with the Curnuck family. We were blessed to unintentionally spend the whole time with the Curnuck family due to the providence of God in a set of lost keys. Why don’t I just tell you the full story….

We got back on Monday after camp and got ourselves set-up for the next little while. Then on Tuesday we decided that it was time for some recreation after a full on weekend; so we went to the beach and had a lovely time. When we got home, Russell and Janelle got a phone call and thus the keys to their car were left in the ignition. How the keys got around for the rest of that day no one recalls, but we found the next day, when we were about to leave for setting up the church, that they were nowhere to be found. This was a mystery to both Russell and Janelle, and after much prayer and hours of searching for them, the only thing that could be concluded is that maybe one of the kids had been playing with them. This was not the case according to all of the children and after a final search through every single nook and crevice we decided that it must just be God’s will that we not have them currently. So, we unpacked lunch, ate it at the house and then piled into the other two vehicles and travelled to the church for set-up.

In the whole situation I was amazed at the composure of the Ing’s. They were not going to let this situation distract them from the ministry opportunities of our trip, or mess up their time away.

A phone call was made and a friend of the Ing’s was asked to go to their Collombatti home in the bush in NSW to get the spare keys for the house, car and rhino rack. These were now on their way but wouldn’t arrive until at least Monday the following week. We continued on with our week and were able to enjoy much pleasant time at the Curnuck’s place despite this perplexing situation.

On the Sunday of our now extended time there, we awoke to some saddened hearts of those around us. It turned out that their Step Grandfather had passed away during the late hours of the previous evening, and there mum had gone over to be with her mum. This was a particularly distressing experience for a family of girls who hadn’t a father’s shoulder to cry on. But due to God allowing our keys to be so providentially misplaced we were still there and Russell and Scott were there and able to give a similar environment for the girls. This was God’s providence yet again showing just how much he cares about the affairs of the individual lives of all of His children.

Praise God for a lost set of keys that made it possible for us to have such a wonderful and powerful effect on the lives a family.

Also during the week we were able to have health consultations with a man named David Wills who has serious health concerns due to poisoning. We were able to give him lifestyle advice and a treatment plan that would make it possible for him to achieve optimal health again, by the grace of God.

We were able to encourage some more of the youth, offer treatments, weed rebuild and replant a garden and make some wonderful new friends and connections. The kid’s had fun too, with time spent on the neighbour’s horses, bushwalking, a beach day, music and new friends to play with.

During our training on the second weekend of our mission trip to QLD we were blessed to see the hand of God at work yet again. As mentioned earlier, we were blessed to conduct workshops and lecture on the topics of: diet and lifestyle, natural remedies and hydrotherapy. The audience was fairly well attended even for the start of the talks on Sunday morning. Dr Russell began the day by talking about the 8 principles that if applied to the life will bring about health and healing to any and every individual, with a focal point on Diet. The audience was engrossed as they sat and listened to Russ speak. People were very interested as they heard him share God’s principles of rest, sunlight, exercise and even pure, fresh air. He spoke of the benefit of water in one’s life, and of temperance in all things and tied all together by sharing that this is assisted quite majorly by a healthy relationship with God.

Next it was my turn to speak and I shared several hours worth of practical tips and methods of using natural remedies such as charcoal, pine pitch and poultices and the treatment that is possible with hydrotherapy. People were able to interact, by asking questions, receiving treatments and being demonstrated upon. The main point that people learned throughout these workshops is that God’s principles are incredibly simple, natural and completely affordable. Those who had treatments received an incredible amount of benefit from it, and those who were listening to this information were really impacted. I believe that there were many after all the programs that we were able to run who went home and made a decided effort to put these principle into practice; and I have heard many stories already of people doing such in their homes. Praise God!

It was a wonderful experience for all, and the day when we had to say goodbye was indeed a very sad day. We made such great friends there on our first mission trip to the churches of Australia that it was hard to come home again. We pray though that we have left a bit of a legacy behind, and that there will be activity in the area of Health Evangelism in the Bundaberg that we were able to encourage during our short stay with them in April.