Christmas outreach!

Photo left Yolgnu women and children at Garthalala, photo right people at Birany Birany!

Over the Christmas period the evangelism team Yolngu for Jesus planned a few outreach trips to the homelands, but due to the ex-tropical cyclone Grant we couldn't go untill Thursday.
Initially there would have been an overnight stay, but instead we did an afternoon trip where I took the team to 2 homelands! Because the people didn't expect us to come, it came a bit as a surprise so soon after the cyclone had passed through.
The first homeland we visited was Birany Birany (pronounced Brang Brang) I had to work hard to get landed, first I did a so called runway inspection at 200 feet. Then when I wanted to put the plane on the ground the wind blew me completely off the centerline and I had to go around for a second attempt, which succeeded!
Afterwards Eunice told me she was praying that we could land at Birany Birany because it is her homeland and the people needed to hear the Message about Jesus!
The people you see on the photo was all that was left, the rest were visiting other homelands or went to town.
We would all share our personal testimony about how we celebrated Christmas before we were Christians and the difference after we became Christians.
The Yolgnu people are very open to the Gospel and especially when the 2 Yolgnu ladies Eunice and Faye began to talk in their language they were all very excited and they began to share some miracle stories. One man was taken by a crocodile and another man from his village, named Andrew, rescued him. The man told us he is thankful to God everyday for his life.
Andrew promised Aron to make him a fishing-spear, which indicated that he was really fond of him being around. Kevin also a member of our team, preached the Word to them and told them about how Jesus was born into this world to save them so that they can have eternal life if they put their faith and trust in Him! Because there were 6 men from the village, Kevin warned them about the consequences of the ceremonies the Yolngu have, which are done only by the men!
Our next homeland was Garthalala and also over there were only a few women and children around, almost all the men had gone out. Aron shared some candies with them and also we shared our testimonies. The lady we met at the village is into discipling the children and is strongly related to the Yirrkala church. She told us that she was praying against the cyclone in the name of Jesus for several days! Eunice and Faye shared in Yolngu and Kevin was leading in worship with the guitar! The children were a bit shy but loosened up after we gave them some presents. Tiina Higham our MAF homeschool support teacher received those from her home-church in Finland!
Please pray for more Yolgnu people like Eunice and Faye to participate in evangelising over Arnhemland, they speak the language which opens up so many doors. But they themselves need to be discipelled first. Also that God will open up some funding for outreaches like that to take place more frequently, the next trips we are planning are at Easter, but Yolgnu for Jesus would like to do more in between. Pray for Kevin and Gerard and encourage them to keep going on with this great call to evangelise and disciple among the Yolgnu!