Australia Team '05

Dear Friends and Family of the BJU Australia Team:

This will be our final update for this year.  Wednesday morning at 7 a.m. (Tues. 5 p.m. EDT) we will fly out from Cairns to begin our long journey home.  We have a few pictures to share from the past week at http://homepage.mac.com/gmatzko/2005BJU/PhotoAlbum84.html
We didn’t include as many ministry pictures this time, but we can assure you that the students were busy right up to the end and will need a good rest when they return home.
 
It’s hard, if not down right impossible, to summarize the last two months, so we’ll share a few representative testimonies further down the page, but first a bit of humor in the form of an email sent to the team written in Auzzie slang:
 
Ow-ya-goin?
Glad to hear you had a "u-beaut" flight. Hope they gave you some "brekkie" on the plane. "Fair dinkim" it sounds like the Tarago was as "full as a goog" and "chokkers" with all "youse" "blokes" and "sheilas”. What a "shocker"! It's a good thing you didn't have a "prang" on the way. Hope "youse" weren't all "unco" or feeling "crook" when "youse" finally arrived at camp ("Woop Woop") looking like question marks. "Youse" must have been "as happy as Larry" to get out of that "rust bucket" and go "walkabout". "Good onya" for being such "good sports".

Now I've got some "ripsnorter" of some news that you'll be "rapt" to hear. We had another little "rugrat" from the Holiday Kids Club turn up at Sparks tonight. Isn't that "grouse"? The little "digger" came "as keen as mustard" even "sporting" his passport, name tag and team badge because he thought they were so "purler". The little "mate's" name is Ellie and he was on Mr. Tyler's team. How "heaps good" is that!!

Well I'm "zonked" from trying to sound as "ocker" as all "youse". Actually, I feel like a bit of a "drongo" so I think I'll "choof off" and have a "cuppa".

Hoo roo,

PS Glad to hear the team had a "bonzer" of a time here. "No worries mates"... it was our pleasure. We think "youse" are all "crash hot" even if some of "youse" are  "ripper dooley larrikins".  

Next, a few testimonies selected from the final evaluation forms:

“The Lord has increased my love of & burden for Australia, and I feel he would have me come back here some day.”
 
“One of the highlights was the warmth and love given to me by those people with whom I stayed. Even though I stayed with total strangers, there was a wonderful fellowship between us that emerged almost immediately because we had a common bond in Christ. I loved asking people about their salvation testimonies and hearing their stories of God's working in their lives to bring them to Christ. Each story was different, but each story spoke of God's mercy and grace in their lives. I learned so much about the uniqueness of God's working, how He tailors the gospel and circumstances to every individual.”
 
“I have found God to be very real to me.  When I prayed for God to speak through me or work through me, I really understood that and saw Him answer that.  I have realized what an example He set of being a servant leader and how he has called us to do the same.  I have received so much at the hand of my good God.”  
 
“Seeing the beauty of Australia and the diversity of the landscape and the people and hearing creation lectures increased my appreciation of God as the Creator. I have also grown in my ability to be flexible and allow God to handle the details and strengthen me to adjust to unfamiliar situations.”
 
“I have seen that I don’t have to be in a regular routine or familiar settings in order for God to be able to speak to me from His Word.   I have also come to see that my resistance to God in what I thought was one area actually bled into lots of areas of my life.”
 
“I learned how much I need to improve if I am to be effective for the Lord. Also I learned that I can do more than I expect. Getting out of my comfort zone showed me I can do more than I ever thought.”
 
“I realized that rather than any ‘special talents’, the most important thing for a missionary is a love for God and love for the people you work with.”

Praise God for all of you on both sides of “The Big Pond” that have made it possible for these fine young people to learn such valuable spiritual lessons during their two months in Oz.

George and Darlene Matzko
2005 BJU Australia Team Leaders

Psalm 90:17

Critter Corner… the final episode
Our return to Camp Benaiah this past weekend reunited us with some of our favorite and not so favorite critters of the summer. The guys were delighted to find that “Sydney the frog” was still residing in their half of the toilet block. During work in several of the flowerbeds and gardens at camp, we girls were quite literally reunited with several nests of green ants. Other gardeners caught a “baby” huntsman spider… only a couple of inches big. Following our tea on Saturday evening, we were all in the hall eating ice cream cones when we became aware that there was a bat flying rather frantically around the interior of the hall. It became immediately evident how much all of us had changed. Instead of anyone screaming or rapidly exiting the building, we all continued to sit calmly licking our ice cream cones. The girls jokingly shouted for Joy. A couple of guys who had finished their ice cream opened several doors and made a couple of weak attempts at directing the bat outside.  

Dear Friends and Family of the BJU Australia Team:
 
The countdown has begun, not the NASA one, but the last week of team ministry in Australia. This will be the hardest week for us to keep our minds where our bodies are. Last week, the team was split in half between Northern Queensland and the more southerly states of South Australia and New South Wales.  We don’t have any pictures from the north, but you can see what the southern part of the team has been doing at http://homepage.mac.com/gmatzko/2005BJU/PhotoAlbum83.html.  
 
Last week we requested specific prayer for the camp in the Adelaide hills and a particular boy named Matt.  Those of you who prayed will rejoice with his cabin leader.  Here is his report:
 
“I had a “trying” cabin and it seemed all the kids that were mentioned in our morning meetings as needing special prayer were in my cabin. I had two guys who were not saved, had not been to church, hadn’t read the Bible, and didn’t even know the story of creation. One of them was very hard at the beginning of the week, didn’t want to be there, didn’t want to be in the services, and didn’t want to listen. Tuesday night the other unsaved guy asked what it was to “be saved.” In my explanation, I had to go all the way back to Genesis and begin with creation, the fall, our sin, our need, Christ’s birth, death and resurrection, etc. It took over 30 minutes to get through it, but they listened well and I think really raised questions in their minds and made them curious. He started listening in the services, got a camp Bible and would follow along, and noticeably softened to God’s Word. Thursday night he told another camp leader that he knew he was a sinner, that Christ had died for his sins, that he was sorry for his sins and needed Christ. He told me that he was going to go to church this Sunday and start reading him Bible. It was amazing to see how the Lord took a boy completely opposed to anything about the Bible, to desiring to read the Bible and be in church! Our God is so amazing. Praise him!”

Another testimony from the Adelaide Camp:

“This past week of camp, I had the older teen girls in my cabin. My heart ached in particular for two sisters who come from an area about seven hours away where there is no good church for them to attend. One of them, when sharing her testimony at night to our cabin, started crying as she described the struggles that she has without any Christian friends around her, and without any Christian fellowship at church. I wish that camp could have continued on so that my girls could have had the continued spiritual help. We’ve shared email addresses so that we can keep in contact. I feel so humbled and thankful to the Lord for all that He has made available to me growing up.”

Since leaving the Adelaide area, we’ve been in the Grafton/Coffs Harbour area in NSW and have greatly enjoyed the warm hospitality of pastors Davies and Mitchell and their people and even squeezed in some time to see The Big Banana.  It is one of a collection of big things to be seen all over this country! (The Big Merino, the Big Prawn, the Big Gum Boot – you get the idea.)  This Friday, Lord willing, the team will be reunited in Ingham.
 
This is what we know about the situation in Northern Queensland:

The report from Townsville has been encouraging with larger numbers on the first day for the two concurrent after-school Bible clubs than there have been in the past.  In Ingham, Lorna’s presence at school is making it possible for the teacher, Sis. Becky Jaworski, to have a needed medical procedure done this week.  Please also pray for the Mock family waiting in Brisbane, far away from their Cairns home, for critical surgery to be performed on their little baby.
 
George and Darlene Matzko
2005 BJU Australia Team Leaders

Psalm 90:17
  
Cultural Corner (the musings of Miles)
Two things in particular have been predominant in my sociological ruminations of late. (1) The irony that “Waltzing Matilda” (emphasis on “WALTZING”) is in a 4/4 time signature and not the usual waltz time of 3/4.  (2) One of the great mysteries I had hoped to clear up while in Australia was whether it was true that toilets in the northern hemisphere swirled the water anti-clockwise while toilets in the southern hemisphere followed the clockwise persuasion.  You can no doubt imagine my keen disappointment when I discovered that toilets in Australia don’t swirl at all.  Rather, after selecting “half flush” or “full flush,” the water is transformed into what I can only describe as a violent, gushing cataract with no trace of a whirlpool vortex at all.  Alas, this is one mystery that will remain in the realm of science . . .

June 8, 2005

Dear Friends & Family of the BJU Australia Team:

As I promised Sunday I've posted some pictures of the team during the first couple of days in Cairns at http://homepage.mac.com/gmatzko/2005BJU/PhotoAlbum76.html. They've only been here for a few days but they have already participated in two services at Trinity Baptist, had training sessions with the two pastors, taken a hike, taught two religious education classes in the a public school, helped with Awana, letterboxed two communities (1300 fliers), went sightseeing and helped clean up the church property! We even got some email feedback from a recipient of one of our fliers: I have just received a leaflet in our mailbox from which it is clear that you are wallowing in a morass of ignorance

We asked Miles to write his impressions of RE: Our first chance to conduct religious education classes came today at the Aloomba State School. The children are quite well behaved and all wear school uniforms, but - much to the amazement of the team members - are not required to wear (or even bring) shoes to school! We divided the team into two groups: one with grades 1-3, and the other with grades 4-7. Each class had about 30 children and lasted 30 minutes. In the grade 1-3 class, the team presented a Bible story with a balloon visual aid as well as testimonies. In the grade 4-7 class, the team presented two stories with Scriptural application, a musical number, and salvation testimony. (PS - you won't see any pictures of RE classes since picture taking is verboten)

Critter Corner - from the pen of Jen Owen:
On this week's critter corner, we are featuring one of Australia's finest: the green ant. Most of us team members had never heard of green ants before, but those of us who were privileged enough to trim bushes yesterday during the church work day soon became intimately acquainted with them. Green ants cannot fly (thankfully). However they are good climbers. They climb everything- bushes, chairs, rakes, hedge trimmers, screaming girls trying to trim the hedges. The best part about green ants is that they are relatively easy to squash. A person does not have to worry if there are green ants crawling on him without his knowledge. As soon as green ants touch skin, they start chewing on it. Another great feature of green ants is that they are not poisonous and do not leave big welts. According to Joy, the only student team member to have previous experience with these little critters, green ants are quite tasty. If you pinch off and eat their backs, you will be greeted with an acidic sort of lime-like taste. Joy is the only one who is brave enough to do so. So, if you ever come to Australia, remember, if green ants start eating you, you can eat them too.

Tomorrow we travel the 3 hours to Camp Benaiah. Goodbye to home
comforts!

George and Darlene Matzko
2005 BJU Australia Team Leaders

Psalm 90:17