Chapel at Nungalinya College

Nungalinya is a Bible college in Darwin for Indigenous Australians. Our office and bookshop are on their campus, so we are invited to join them for chapel each morning. I've been trying to get along, as I've found them a great way to start the day. We sing together in various languages and then a staff member, visitor or class shares a message.

The first one I went to was on John 15:1-8, where Jesus calls himself the vine and his followers the branches. The speaker showed us a citrus branch that had been growing straight up, using lots of water, but that would never bear any fruit - so he chopped it off. I hadn't realised that some trees had branches that gardeners know would never bear fruit. It really made the illustration come alive.

The songs that we usually sing remind me of kids songs or the types of things we usually insert as bridges in new songs. But their short repetitive nature makes them not only easier to sing in multiple languages with people used to memorising things, rather than reading them, but it also gives me an opportunity to really meditate on the words and sing with genuine passion alongside my brothers and sisters in Christ.