“Today was our last day of bush mission and let’s just say, it was very bittersweet.
After breaky club, the program started by singing everyone’s favourite songs from the Leonora chant to Colin Buchanan classics. Adventurer Phil taught us about the God who provides through the drama in which God helped Moses split the sea and led God’s people through the wilderness.
The day began with providing the kids ham and cheese toasties at breaky club. After signing all the kids in, we started the morning session for the last time this year. We gathered to enjoy community singing, the drama and after, we split into three rotations.
The kids enjoyed hearing the Bible talk by the program’s favourite puppets, Bob and Bill, whilst remembering the memory verses and making bracelets with beads that resembled the tokens which they earnt throughout the week.
At the craft station, the youngest group made falcon necklaces out of paper plates, straws and string. The two older groups created realistic geckos and slithering snakes using pipe cleaners as the structure of the animals and wrapped it around with yarn to create their final craft.
After working hard on the crafts, the kids were blessed with delicious snacks for the big game of cornhole they were about to play using the Egyptian sarcophagus cutouts they had painted the previous day.
The morning program ended with singing the Leonora song, which was specifically written for the kids to tell them that Jesus would never leave Leonora. The group leaders handed out goodie bags to the kids and prayed together.
After packing up the rec centre, we headed to the park to host a community barbeque and basketball game. While enjoying dinner from the barbeque, the basketball game between the Leonora Bush Mission team and the Leonora town basketball team, the Blazers, was a wild match. After a tough game, the Leonora town team ended on top with a score of 55 to 60. Once the game ended, we said our final goodbyes and continued with the last journey back to the sports centre. We enjoyed God’s creation by looking at the stars with the Leonora mission group on the oval as well as prepared for the long bus ride the next day.”
– Josephine, Catherine and Marco
“Today was the last morning session with the kids, so we made time for opportunities to tell them our story, hand out Bibles and reflect with them on what we had taught over the week. I had a wonderful experience with a little girl named Rosie, at the end of our morning session. This little girl had been visiting her cousins in Leonora (normally she lives in Kalgoorlie), and came along with her cousins to the Bush Mission. She was really shy at the start of the week, but we managed to get her to come out of her shell a bit, and today, we (Mrs Kuipers and myself) gave her a Bible, and read one of the stories with her and prayed with her. She really seemed to take it to heart. It was a wonderful experience and made me so happy to see the effect that our words had on her.”
Reflections on the week
“This past week has been extremely tiring and stressful, but also immensely rewarding. Seeing the kids develop over the week and making close connections with them, it makes you feel so happy and joyful that you’re able to give them the good news. These kids truly deserved the sacrifice that we made, and it was well received.”
– Rebekah
