Laif FM station manager Tony in Wewak, Papua new Guinea
Linda and a staff friend enjoying a time at a beach for a picnic lunch after a football game.


Future Tiwi College students

A photo of the boys along with a team from Alice Springs after a game. Of course our boys won!

At Long Last

Yes… It has been a while since we have added to our blog. We apologize for the delay.
We are in the Darwin area with some friends at the moment in preparation to fly out on Saturday night (tonight) for a 5 week break in the USA. What a drastic change that will be! We are in the wet season which is also the hottest time of the year with daily heavy rains and thunderstorms. Living on the island this year has been an experience we will surely never forget! What a privilege it has been to serve with Tiwi College even though this first year of pioneering the college has been tough on all the staff. Some staff have been talking about designing a shirt that says, “I survived the 1st year of Tiwi College”.
We finished the year in what we would call “victory”! The students, school and staff have come a long way since the beginning of the year. We have especially seen the students come a long way. Many have improved drastically in their literacy skills along with their behavioral and social skills. Linda and I feel we are now connecting with most of our boys in the house. It was very encouraging to actually get hugs from some of them as they left for home for the Christmas school holidays. The last day of school was a grand faunally of football, people and food. The Hawthorn Hawks, an AFL team that recently won the Australia Football league championship were there to spend time with the students. They were actually water boys to the boys as they played football. How cool is that! Tiwi College did go on to win the game which added to the excitement. There were many locals from the communities there for the game and there was a fantastic BBQ to finish off the days events. Of course we are all ready for a break and need to recharge for the year to come. Linda and I will be returning back to Tiwi College on January 19th 2009. Until then we are very much looking forward to a restful time with family and friends.
Papua New Guinea...
During our free time at Tiwi College I have been in close touch with Tony the station manager of “Laif FM” a radio station we pioneered in Wewak, Papua New Guinea. I continue to be very proud of Tony as he leads and grows in the work there. We have been assisting him to obtain some new broadcast equipment which will enable the station to transmit a much greater distance allowing many more thousands of people to receive the broadcast. The new equipment should be installed in a matter of a few weeks and a celebration is planned where the Prime Minister of PNG will switch on the new equipment.
I’ve been hearing some very distressing news from Tony over the last few days concerning large waves pounding the coast. I’ve noticed this story has been carried in the news internationally. These waves hit Wewak last Monday afternoon about 3 or 4:00. Many of the waves were several meters high and destroyed many homes, businesses and town infrastructure. The hospitable was especially hard hit and had to be closed. The patients were all sent home. The local Toyota dealer was destroyed along with businesses including a couple of hotels and restaurants and the wharf where the town’s supply of goods and fuel are received. A hotel/ restaurant where Linda and I used to visit for a meal named “The Windjammer” is gone! Wewak is experiencing a very difficult time. Please pray for this situation and for the many people who have been displaced through this tragedy.

Love and Merry Christmas …Bill & Linda

RAIN!

Yes… RAIN!!!! We received the first rain we have had in about 5 months! We were alarmed by the rain in the middle of the night as it roared on our tin roof but what a wonderful sound it was! The dust conditions over the past couple of months have been unbelievable. Often when driving down the roads (all the roads are dirt off campus) one cannot see the road when another vehicle passes by going the opposite direction. Often we have needed to stop on the side of the road until the dust clears. The Islands here (and all of the Northern Territory) have a very distinct wet and dry season. The dry season runs from May to about November or December and then the wet season thru April. The Wet season comes in gradually beginning with what is called the “build up” which we are experiencing now. During the build up we may get occasional rain but the big story of the build up is the high humidity! Once the wet season sets in, many of the roads will be impassible due to mud. We go from one extreme to another. People have told us that here on Melville Island, the strongest thunder storms in the world occur. We hear that scientists actually study the weather here on the island because of the frequent thunderstorm activity during the wet season. There is also the threat of Cyclones (Hurricanes) here in the wet. Needless to say it should be interesting here during the wet season.
Tomorrow we go off to Darwin for a much needed break. Running the house over the past few weeks has been an extremely high maintenance task. We believe we are making progress with the boys but ever so slowly with a lot of bumps on the way.
These students have had very little (if any) structure/discipline in their lives and to bring structure into their lives from the age of 12 years and up is challenging. So often children who don’t have structure and discipline growing up come into severe consequence as adults which of course is much more damaging than if they were taught as children. One of our goals with the students is to teach them concerning right and wrong choices and the consequence thereof. Its much better to pay consequence now when they are young and learn rather than when adults when it might be too late. Also positive affirmation in the children’s lives and speaking into their lives is just as important if not more important. Please pray for our boys over the next couple of weeks while they are on break. The next school term begins on October 14th.
We are now proud grandparents to our 5th grandchild named Malachi born to our oldest son Bill and his wife Trudy. We will be going back to the states for 5 weeks for Christmas break and can’t wait to meet him!
Many blessings!!!! Love …Bill & Linda

30th anniversary celebration Photos

Linda enjoying the show

Water Buffolo burgers!

Greetings… It’s been a couple of very busy weeks for us here at Tiwi College. It’s been challenging to work with the boys in the house as they have been somewhat restless/ unsettled since the excursion. The reality of classroom study and tight structure is all but comfortable to most of the students. Our house here has been high maintenance with the boys and we are extremely tired by the end of the week. A big part of our job here is to bring structure, training and discipline to the lives of the students to help them move on to successful adult lives. Easier said than done! The process is long and often seed planting in their lives is all we can accomplish in some.
This last week was the 30th anniversary of the Tiwi land counsel. In 1978 the Tiwi Islands (Melville & Bathurst Islands) were officially handed back to the Tiwi people by the Australian government. Although the Tiwi Islands are still part of Australia, they are governed by what’s called the “Tiwi Land Counsel”. The celebration was big with plenty of food, dance and speeches. The elders did a lot of traditional Tiwi dance and the food was great! It was the first time for us to eat water buffalo meat which was actually quite tasty. Water Buffalo roam wild around Melville Island and are hunted by the Tiwi people. They cooked both buffalo burgers and buffalo meat underground. There was also turtle to eat but it went fast and Linda and I missed out. Oh well, next time.
We have 2 weeks till break and are very much looking forward to a rest. We will go to Darwin and stay for about 9 days and enjoy some R&R and civilization again. There are absolutely no shops in or near Pickertaramoor here so it will be nice especially for Linda to do some serious shopping. There are also a lot of very good restaurants and a great network of biking/ walking trails around the Darwin metro area. We always enjoy our time around Darwin.
Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we serve here at Tiwi College. Love …Bill & Linda

Excursion Photos

A view of the Victoria Coast near Melbourne
These two students found some work of their immediate ancestors on display in a Melbourne museum. How cool is that!!!
Meeting the team at training. They went on to win at the game on Saturday.
Some of the boys posing for a photo with one of the football stars during a training session we attended.
The Melbourne skyline 88 stories up on the Eureka Tower. We spent about 1 1/2 hours enjoying the views.
Two of the boys enjoying the time on the 88th floor.
A first time horseback riding experience for the students
Another new experience for the students... commuting around the city in a tram.

Return From Melbourne (and then no internet)

Greetings… We apologize for not getting to our blog before this. We arrived back from Melbourne, took a couple of days off and then the internet went down. Well it’s back up so here we go.
The Melbourne trip was quite an experience. I guess the most fun was watching the students experience new things. For the most part they were well behaved but we had our moments of insanity! We made it and we are thankful for that!
The trip from Pickertaramoor started on the road for about 45 minutes as we made our way to a boat called the “Arafura Pearl”. The boat ride was about two hours to Darwin. We then shacked up in a couple of schools till about midnight and left for the airport. We were off to Melbourne just before 3:00 am. Flying a jet was an all new experience for most of the 45 students. One student I was with saw me with my boarding pass as we walked to the terminal. He reacted a bit concerned and asked, “what’s that?” I explained to him that it was my boarding pass which we all need to board the plane. He then said, “oh no, I thought it was rubbish and threw it away!” He then rushed back to where he threw it away and fortunately found it in the can. As we were taking off another student next to me asked, “Bill, how fast are we going?” I explained, he then asked, “How high are we going to go?” I again explained, he then asked, “are we going to be above the clouds?” I said yes. He pondered a brief moment, then seriously looked at me and said, “Bill, this is freaking me out!”
It was also interesting watching the students react to the cold weather being it was winter in southern Australia and few have experienced winter. As they got off plane they enjoyed seeing their breath and some pretended they were smoking. Quite fascinating to watch!
The trip was full-on every day. The zoo, museum, shopping, AFL footy game (they met a lot of the players and also formed the guard of honor as the Melbourne team ran out for the game), the beach, they also played AFL against another school (and won). Our schedule was full!
At times it was difficult keeping 45 students together but we somehow managed our way through it.
Linda and I had a few evenings free which was nice. One night we took a tram downtown. Melbourne is a very big beautiful city with plenty to do.
Now back at the college we have been facing the “after the trip syndrome”. Many of the students have been less than responsive to school work so it’s been a challenge for all of us staff. Tiwi College is on the front lines here to bring education to the Tiwi youth. It is a battle at times and staff can get quite battle weary at times as well. It’s amazing to us to see the staff here continue to press on to see victory in the lives of these Tiwi Boys and girls. Please keep us all in your prayers. Thanks …Bill & Linda