A small team of Evangelical Students (ES) from North Terrace in Adelaide travelled to Coober Pedy after our recent National Training Event (NTE). Blake captured the team’s initial impressions well: “Coober Pedy is a weird place!”.

We heard from a member of the local historical society that a mission team from Adelaide Uni and the Teachers’ college visited Coober Pedy in 1961. There may have been other teams who visited between then and now, but it’s certainly the first time in a long time that an ES team has visited this iconic outback town.

Besides the unique experience of living underground in a dugout, Coober Pedy brings lots of different worlds together: the Aboriginal community, tourists, miners, various transient workers and other locals.

Dave & Margie have been pastoring the church there for around a year and we really noticed how God is using their skills in forming relationships and connecting into community life. God has answered prayer recently for engagement with the local school. Flowing from this, the team enjoyed a ‘casual’ indoor soccer match with local kids. Michael in particular saw this as a highlight and hopes it leaves a positive memory for these kids.

One interesting aspect of ministry in Coober Pedy was the interactions with tourists. The church is one of four in town who are on the ‘tourist circuit’ – the church stays open and people can just drop in and take a look. Many of these tourists were happy to talk to the team giving a really natural way to share the Gospel. Hae-Yun reflected on one of these conversations “I felt very challenged with Kylie and all her big ideas. I was excited about her hunger and the chance to share parts of the Bible and faith with her. I also found it uncomfortable at times and it’s made me think about how to share my faith with people who have a really different personality to me.”

Part of Dave & Margie desire for the church is that it will serve the community in practical ways. And so they put the team to work cleaning up large amounts of rubbish after a Christmas party at the Umoona Aboriginal Community. Erica loved
the opportunity to do something so simple but practical: “I enjoyed getting to practically support people. Loving them in this way alongside some of the other workers there has allowed us to learn more about their culture and improve our awareness of local Aboriginal communities.” We also helped one of the locals with some moving and joined Dave & Margie in their regular involvement with Park Run and the tennis club.

The team also had the chance to run the Sunday service where Elijah preached from Genesis 9 (the Noah story). The town had recently experienced unusually heavy rain so talk of rainbows and God’s gracious provision was very timely!

As we left, James shared that he “now has a huge appreciation for country ministry and how much it can benefit the entire community – even those not engaged in church.”

Thank you very much to the Catacomb Church in Coober Pedy for welcoming our team and inviting us into the many ways they are engaging with their community and the tourists who come through town. Thanks also to BCA for their assistance in making this trip possible!