Roxby Ramblings

News from the field

Roxby Rambling's

Gidday! Well, what a year it has been. Work on the building continues, people come and people go, life continues at a pace... It is hard to believe that come January, we will have been in Roxby for four years.

During that time over half of the congregation has changed. Consequently, we rarely hear anyone say, “we tried that before and it didn’t work.” Mid year the Burgan family left, leaving a big hole in our lives as well as the church, when they moved to Darwin. Ian was our tuba player, and Adam & Hannah were in the school band. (Adam and Joel would regularly practise together.) Also John who did the electrical work on the building left for Tasmania. Ali and her family left for Melbourne. Gayle and her husband left for Groote Eylandt. And so on. Despite all this the numbers are relatively stable. Andamooka is down to three people on a regular basis, though this can swell to 12 when our regular irregulars attend.

During the year, another church started in town under the Christian Revival Crusade banner. Their pastor works as a pastry cook at the supermarket. Come January, the Assembly of God will have their own full time pastor as well, instead of the Port Augusta pastor coming each fortnight. There is also a part time Lutheran minister. Early in the new year, the Roman Catholic Priest will move here from Woomera. (Their new school is expected to open with close to 100 students.) It is sad that such divisions exist, especially in a small town. The day will hopefully come when the focus in the country moves away from denominations to a true community church model.

These extra denominations have proved a headache when it comes to organising outreach in the school. For example, at our first Minister’s Fraternal meeting for the year, I floated the idea of a school chaplain. It was agreed that one of the two RC sisters would be ideal because they not only had experience in schools, but could also fill a “grandparent” type role in a community where extended family is non-existent. Plus we wouldn’t have to pay them. All present agreed to the proposal in principle. However, one person thought that we had to pay a chaplain - that it could not be voluntary. It took till November to finally sort the issue out, only to have that same group put up their own candidate after we had gone through this exhaustive process. Everyone else said that it was already decided and in the end we unanimously appointed Sister Patricia, who will now start in 2000.

I again helped out with the WMC Family Day celebrations in September. God worked a miracle in that we were able to arrange for the Christian musician Steve Grace to perform at the evening concert. Plus WMC paid his expenses to come here. The company was happy because not only was it a good performance with positive feedback from the people, it was also cheaper than getting a high profile secular musician up here. The organising for this day took some time and many meetings. I’m not sure how we got on to the topic (other than God opened the door in response to your prayers!), but one of the committee members told me about one of her school teachers who made a big impression on her. To cut a long story short, it turned out that we knew that teacher from our time at Goodna. He is a very keen Christian. Anyway, we had a great talk - although she isn’t in the kingdom, it is only a matter of time before those seeds that her teacher planted and that have been watered here, grow to the glory of God.

The building is getting closer - we have put up one of the verandahs and the other side is half done. Then there remains the paving and car park. Inside we still have some doors to hang and paint. Also the plumbing needs to be finished. Des, our plumber, despite his best intentions has been unable to finish the job as his parents have been sick and so he has been travelling to them on his day’s off. The last thing to be done is the carpet. We are looking at a possible official opening in early April. I don’t know what I will do with all that extra time I’ll have when it is finished!

God has been so good to us- the building debt is only $28,000 at present, and we look like having a final figure of less than $50,000. If we had to pay a builder, it may have been finished sooner, but we would be looking at a debt of hundreds of thousands of dollars. The ladies got together and decided that they would have a stall at the school’s monthly market day. For the last market day, we gave away gift-wrapped copies of Bush Preacher Bites the Dust by Kerry Medway with every cake etc sold. It is a good way to meet people.

Martin Bleby (ex BCA Coober Pedy) was the speaker at our Church camp in May. Camp numbers will be considerably down next year as there will be none from Woomera. (Their numbers helped us balance the camp budget each year.)

The USAF officially left Woomera in early October, and the last personnel leave on 31 March. The town is being “mothballed” in case it is needed in the future. Refugees (boat people etc) will be arriving in the next week or two. Apart from that, there is no other industry to employ people in that town. The Uniting minister there has seen his congregation go from 100+ to 10. By Easter, there will be two if Tom counts himself and his wife.

As well as being school council chairman, I have also been involved with the school vocational education program, helping arrange work placements for students. This has given me opportunities to speak to grade 10-12 students. It is a real eye opener. At a student forum I was invited to, every student agreed that it was easy to obtain drugs here in Roxby, and that it was okay to take drugs because you’re not hurting anyone but yourself. One teacher who I have had regular contact with, said to me, “We could be good friends if you weren’t a minister.” Translated, that was a big compliment from someone who is a convinced agnostic. Yet, for an agnostic, we still have some good discussions about Christianity. I ended up conducting a service of thanksgiving for the birth of his daughter. Hopefully I will be invited to help again next year.

Despite the busyness, I persevered with my Master of Ministry studies. The end is in sight - I only have one more subject to do in first semester next year. The study has been very useful in that it has given me some new tools for ministry in ways I would not have thought of.

Glenda’s bit

For Amelia, Joel and Isaac, a year of school, church/Sunday School, music, friends, activities, sports has ended well.

Amelia and Joel were both in the school choir and the concert band. The choir participated in the Adelaide Festival of Music celebrations where the Roxby choir joined with others to make a mass choir of over 400 students - quite spectacular. They both went on class camps to the Flinders and a concert band camp to Coober Pedy (Ian drove the bus). Isaac has all that to look forward to when he’s older. Amelia, Joel, and Isaac continue to learn piano. Amelia is learning flute, Joel - saxophone through the school’s ‘duct’ system - (video conferencing) with their teacher in Whyalla. They are using their talents in the church band.

The school produced a musical this term called ‘Man Of Steel’ - a send up of Superman. Both Amelia and Joel had a part and did really well. Joel ‘hammed’ up his part and enjoyed the audience response. I wonder where he gets that from?

Netball and Indoor Soccer has finished for the year so the warmer weather for A,J,I means less to do in the afternoons and Sat mornings - but that’s not a problem!

I have been involved in KYB, Sunday School, going into the classrooms at school, craft group, prayer group and social ‘night owl’ bowls. Those things on a regular basis and the every day events with a few surprises and sad farewells thrown in has seen 1999 fly by. On reflection, I can see God’s hand in so much of what has happened and I praise Him!

I was blessed to be able to go back to Ipswich and spend just over week there in October. The excuse was a 20 year reunion for our year 12 class, but the special part was staying with my dad. Some planned and unplanned catching up during the time made it memorable but it was good to come back home again to Roxby.
We’re all looking forward to holidays after Christmas when we head back to Queensland.
We trust that you and yours have a happy and holy Christmas. Thank you for your prayers and support.

Yours in Christ,

Ian, Glenda, Amelia, Joel & Isaac.

Has Roxby aged us or not???
(click on image for full screen view)

Webmaster