This year the Leonora Bush Mission team celebrated 25 years of bush ministry in the Leonora community. Each year Dave and Avril McLennan have worked with a team during the first week of the Term 3 holidays, and this was Rehoboth’s 7th year of bush mission work in Leonora.
A team of fifteen bright-eyed Year 10 students left early on the morning of Saturday 23 September to make the gruelling 12 hour bus trip to Leonora, where they spent the next week running a holiday program entitled “Guardians of Ancora” for the local children.
Our students were warmly welcomed by the Leonora Christian Fellowship, and very quickly found themselves leading the congregation in worship. We were treated to some lovely home baked country goodness after the service and then it was off to set up for the week.
Throughout the week students worked hard at introducing the local children to the gospel message through dramas, skits, singing, sport, and crafts.
Thank you to Nozie Tshado, Sarah Tuffin, Tadiwa Kapatika, Jamaica Kappert, Allira Terpstra, Tanya Allen, Mukho Saw, Leah van Dam, Aynsley Vivian, Caleb Dalais, Zac Beaney, Ethan Hunter, Sofya Solovyova, Tiani Klomp and Joash Oostryck for your kind, compassionate, servant-hearted service to the children of Leonora! You really are amazing!
Special thanks also to Miss Webster and Mr Taylor for all their hard work and organisation to prepare the students for their bush mission experience.
We were also well cared for by our amazingly talented cooks Jeff, Anneliese, and Brenda who made sure that we were well nourished to keep up the work throughout the week.
The week was challenging and confronting at times, but each time we return from Leonora we feel like we have left a small part of ourselves behind. Leonora is a special place with many beautiful people and we all felt blessed by our experiences in the outback.
Some observations and feedback from our students about their week in Leonora:
“We can do a lot with what we have…”
“God is the one who started this and God is the one who will continue this work. What He starts He will complete, He is the founder and perfector of our faith.”
“They don’t know much about God, but they know He exists, and that He loves them.”
“Trying something new, working with the kids, showing the kids love, and learning more about how to relate and engage with the children”
“Learning more about compassion. They see good in other people, it reminds us to look outward and be less focused on ourselves.”
“It was great to get to know each other better”
To find out what our students got up to in Leonora, read our Instagram blog.
