Since starting in outreach ministry with the Aboriginal Berean Community Church, Jack & Lill Harradine have ministered in Port Lincoln including Ceduna and the Koonibba Aboriginal community, Meningie, Tailem Bend and Murray Bridge. In June they moved to Copley to re-open the Copley Christian Fellowship. Here Jack will pastor the faithful in Copley, Nepabunna and Leigh Creek. BCA has a long history with Leigh Creek, having first sent missioners (Field Staff) there in 1963. Jack tells us how they had a flying start in Copley…

Some years ago, I think around 2011/2012, we visited Copley with a retired Anglican minister and his wife. At the time they had a minister there from the South Sea Islands, but a few years ago he had a massive stroke and there hasn’t been regular ministry since.

For quite some time, some people in Copley had been asking Lill and I to come back. But there was asbestos in the lino floor of the main meeting room and the bathroom and laundry had asbestos walls, all which made the building unusable. So there wasn’t any point in coming, because there was nowhere to meet.

One day I happened to be talking to the National Manager of Mobile Mission Maintenance. He said to me, “Jack, we have worked in every state and territory in Australia, except for South Australia. Is there someplace we can work?” and my mind went to Copley.

When I told him about Copley, he was excited and keen to send a crew. Volunteers came from all around Australia in May and they renovated the place from top to bottom. They spent about two weeks, working on it every day.

God then spoke to us and said, “Copley’s got a nice new building, but they don’t have a pastor.”

We had our last day in Murray Bridge on Wednesday 18 June and arrived in Copley on Thursday 19 June. We held outreach on the Friday and Saturday and officially reopened the church on Sunday 22 June. I also baptised a lady who had a dramatic conversion three years ago.

Everyone has been just so, so welcoming and so glad that we’re here. There are no other churches around, and these little places matter. Copley has about 60–80 people and Leigh Creek has 160–180. Leigh Creek was a mining town, but when the mine closed the population went from 800 to 160 in just two months.

We are the only ministry between Marree (114km north) and Nepabunna (57km east). We have one service in Copley and one in Leigh Creek. A lady who lives on a cattle station, travels all the way from Marree, about 1.5 hours’ drive.
She’s a whitefella but we never, ever discriminate. We have a couple of whitefellas in the congregation. These people all went to school together. There are more blackfellas here but it’s a mix, and no one seems to care.

One lady who came to Bible Study said, ”I’m so thankful to God for sending you here,” she was almost in tears. This is what we hear every day. We just keep trusting in God and thanking Him for the fact that we’re here.

It’s a beautiful place because it’s so rugged, but it is really isolated. We’re almost at the start of the Birdsville Track and the Oodnadatta Track – two of the most famous, if not the most famous in Australia. For any Nomads reading, Copley is well worth a look!

Please pray that God protects us in our ministry as there is still some black magic practiced out here. Pray for God to open doors. Pray also for resources, because we urgently need some study Bibles. Many people out here have King James Bibles, and they’d never heard of study Bibles. May we teach well and bear fruit for the Lord.