Leonora is a town in the Goldfields region of WA, about 830kms northeast of Perth. In 1992, Dave and Avril McLeenan established a bush mission in the town as a ministry for the local children. Rehoboth has partnered with the McLeenans for 8 years now, sending a team of Year 10 students who give up a week of their September school holidays to help run the program and get a taste of missions work in a remote community.
Stayed tuned over the next few days as we hear from the students about their experiences.
The bus trip was never ending, but when we saw the lights (light) we knew we had made it to Leonora. As soon as we had hopped off the bus, we were welcomed by some local children who outperformed us in a crazy dance battle. We then made our way to our sleeping arrangements (the golf club) and fell asleep, hopefully.
Day 2 started off with a bang. Everyone was up bright and early. We then wandered through the town to the local church. After that, we prepared for Monday’s events.
Along the way, we stumbled along the gorgeous Sharon (orangutan puppet). Sharon changed our lives for the better, and will forever be in our hearts. Sharon was promptly adopted by Shanae and Marcus and other family members, Anandi, Darcy, Elissa, and Brody. However, Sharon got a lot of hate but we taught her to overlook the haters.
That brought us to the end of Day 2. We hope to meet the kids tomorrow and have a great time with them and be reacquainted with Sharon (just to be clear, Sharon is an orangutan arm puppet).
Shanae, Anandi and Marcus
On Sunday, we first went to a very small local church, of which we were in the majority. There we led the church in worship songs with Dan leading on the guitar, myself (Brody) on the box drum and everyone else singing.
During a brief walk through Leonora to Tanky Hill, we were blessed with an amazing view of the whole town. We then went to the Recreation Centre and prepared the whole place for the arrival of all the kids tomorrow.
At first this seemed rather easy, but as the day went on, the lack of sleep from the day before caught up with us. We were extremely exhausted. Despite being drained of energy we were able to get some good work done.
We set up the backdrop for all of our plays and skits and also set up the sound gear for the mics and speakers. We also had to lay down tarps all through the squash court for all the kids’ paintings. The other squash court, however, got very untidy from all of us trying to make a massive, non-appealing Mega Maker machine. Therefore, of course we cleaned up the other court, which took a lot of effort and a lot of cooperation which was hard due to being tired and sweating in a small area.
However, this experience was great to be a part of because we were working efficiently as a group. We learned things about each other and how we can all work together to get a lot of stuff done. We hope this is foreshadowing what is to come for the rest of the week.
Brody and Chris
