MAD- Ministry. Adventure. Discovery.

I recently spent three weeks on a Wycliffe trip called MAD, that gives people the opportunity to experience ministry with Indigenous Australians in the Northern Territory. Some of the highlights are below.

Another country

Going into an Aboriginal community was just like going to another country.

The culture

Food, clothes, daily activities, relationships, priorities and attitudes were all very different to my own and more different than any culture I've been in before.

The language My studies were put into practice. Luckily their English was better than my Murrinh-Patha or Kriol, but we still didn't always understand each other perfectly!

The community Just looking at the buildings and roads made me feel like I was overseas.

The people Like in most places around the world, I stand out a little in an Aboriginal community!

Week 1 On the bus each day from Sydney through Queensland to Beswick where we picked up Anderson, an Aboriginal Christian, and his two boys who joined us for the next week

Week 2 Wadeye - we joined an Aboriginal family camping on their traditional land an hour out of town (3 nights) Darwin - we learnt about Wycliffe’s work with Aboriginal languages and saw some sights (4 nights)

Week 3 Ngukurr - we joined the local Aboriginal church for their Bible Convention with Bible studies, kids programs and worship

Highlight: Studying the Bible in Kriol

One of my highlights of the trip was seeing the Kriol Bible being read and studied, we even joined them and had a go at it (see pic below).

Kriol in Australia is one of many creoles around the world, it is a language made of words that have mostly come from English using the grammar of Aboriginal languages. It came about from contact with English speakers and developed on missions where Aboriginal people from different areas didn't have a common language. It is currently the only Aboriginal language with both the Old and New Testaments. Challenge Try reading this verse out loud: Falipiyans 2:5 - Yumob garra abum det seimwan main laik Jisas Krais bin abum. See translation at the bottom :)

A bit more on culture

TIME: I've experience 'local time' before where 9am church services really start at 10am. But in these communities, when I asked if something would be on, the answer was usually, “Might be”.

PEOPLE: Greeting strangers, small talk and asking lots of questions are not part of Aboriginal culture. It’s hard to know how to act in such a different culture, thankfully people were very gracious towards us!

FOOD: People don’t typically socialise or even talk over food, each family eats separately and then they get together to do things, like go fishing. Some of the Christians in Ngukurr kindly offered to step into our culture and eat with us one evening and cooked us damper straight on the coals. See a 20 sec video here.

THE GROUP: While our culture is constantly telling us to look out for ourselves, Aboriginal culture has a group mindset. This means people always share and singling people out, even for praise, is humiliating.