Linda browsing some local artwork at the Mindil Beach Market
One of our boys going back to his roots
The view as we come into Milikapiti on Monday morning to pick up some students for schoolSaturday, May 31, 2008
Photo's
Linda browsing some local artwork at the Mindil Beach Market One of our boys going back to his roots The view as we come into Milikapiti on Monday morning to pick up some students for school
Another Week In Paradise
We had a nice rest in Darwin last weekend. I was able to get a much needed haircut and Linda very much enjoyed the shopping opportunities and picked up some things we needed. It was strange to be in civilization again. The Hotel we stayed in was brand new and very nice. The room had a beautiful view of downtown Darwin. On Sunday evening we went to what’s called the “Mindil Beach Sunset Market”. The market opens at sunset and goes well into the night and offers all sorts of international food, entertainment and has various vendors selling unique craft, art and clothes items. The atmosphere has a very international feeling to it. Darwin is a very multi-cultural/ethnic city and it is actually closer by flight to Singapore and Manila than Sydney.
We arrived back to Pickertaramoor about 8:00 Monday morning to begin a new week with our boys. Man, what a week it was! It’s a good thing we had a good rest. We needed to deal with a serious anger issue this week. In fact it was by far the most serious issue we had ever dealt with in our years of working with youth. It’s a long story and will spare the details but one of our young men became very verbally abusive and threatening to the teacher staff and us. It has been building up for some weeks and we have made attempts to curve this behavior and give the student every chance to come under the authority of the school. He is a very big, strong young man for his age. It got to the point on Wednesday evening that we needed to send him back to his community. He became enraged at that point and went ballistic swinging a large piece of wood breaking windows and threatening staff at the top of his lungs. He finally calmed down after an hour or so and the police needed to transport him back to his community. We don’t want to give up on this young man. He is very smart and shows very good leadership ability. Please pray for him and for us staff here as we seek Godly wisdom in this situation.
It is amazing to us how God can turn a not-so-good situation into opportunities of learning and growth. We needed to walk our other boys through the above situation being they of course experienced the trauma of it as well. We had a day of informal debriefing on Thursday and focused on dealing with anger being most of them are dealing with all sorts of anger issues themselves. We discussed Eph 4:26-27 "Be angry, and do not sin": do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil. & Prov 22:24-25 “Make no friendship with an angry man, And with a furious man do not go, Lest you learn his ways And set a snare for your soul”. Linda and I are thrilled concerning their response and believe our boys have moved to a new level as they learn to deal with anger. What a blessing it is to see these young men begin grow and blossom.
Linda and I are enjoying a peaceful weekend here in Pickertaramoor. The weather is beautiful every day here during the dry season. The lows are usually in the upper 60’s to lower 70’s and the highs are middle 80’s to lower 90’s. The school is located in a very remote bush area so there are no stores or anything like that but we enjoy taking long walks, spending time with friends and watching an occasional DVD. We watched a movie last night called, “August Rush”. Check it out if you haven’t seen it yet.
It’s early Saturday morning as I’m writing this and it’s still dark. The realization of being here is all to evident as I hear the Dingo’s yell in the bush. Please continue to keep the students and staff here at Tiwi College in your prayers. Thanks!!!!
We arrived back to Pickertaramoor about 8:00 Monday morning to begin a new week with our boys. Man, what a week it was! It’s a good thing we had a good rest. We needed to deal with a serious anger issue this week. In fact it was by far the most serious issue we had ever dealt with in our years of working with youth. It’s a long story and will spare the details but one of our young men became very verbally abusive and threatening to the teacher staff and us. It has been building up for some weeks and we have made attempts to curve this behavior and give the student every chance to come under the authority of the school. He is a very big, strong young man for his age. It got to the point on Wednesday evening that we needed to send him back to his community. He became enraged at that point and went ballistic swinging a large piece of wood breaking windows and threatening staff at the top of his lungs. He finally calmed down after an hour or so and the police needed to transport him back to his community. We don’t want to give up on this young man. He is very smart and shows very good leadership ability. Please pray for him and for us staff here as we seek Godly wisdom in this situation.
It is amazing to us how God can turn a not-so-good situation into opportunities of learning and growth. We needed to walk our other boys through the above situation being they of course experienced the trauma of it as well. We had a day of informal debriefing on Thursday and focused on dealing with anger being most of them are dealing with all sorts of anger issues themselves. We discussed Eph 4:26-27 "Be angry, and do not sin": do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil. & Prov 22:24-25 “Make no friendship with an angry man, And with a furious man do not go, Lest you learn his ways And set a snare for your soul”. Linda and I are thrilled concerning their response and believe our boys have moved to a new level as they learn to deal with anger. What a blessing it is to see these young men begin grow and blossom.
Linda and I are enjoying a peaceful weekend here in Pickertaramoor. The weather is beautiful every day here during the dry season. The lows are usually in the upper 60’s to lower 70’s and the highs are middle 80’s to lower 90’s. The school is located in a very remote bush area so there are no stores or anything like that but we enjoy taking long walks, spending time with friends and watching an occasional DVD. We watched a movie last night called, “August Rush”. Check it out if you haven’t seen it yet.
It’s early Saturday morning as I’m writing this and it’s still dark. The realization of being here is all to evident as I hear the Dingo’s yell in the bush. Please continue to keep the students and staff here at Tiwi College in your prayers. Thanks!!!!
Friday, May 23, 2008
Our boys this week
Our boys as we went on a bush walk Thursday after dinner. We walked about 5 kilometers (3 miles) and arrived back to the house after dark. On the way the boys found a snake and killed it. They also kicked the rugby ball back and forth to each other during most of the walk. After we got home one of them said, "that walk was good fun"!Thursday, May 22, 2008
Media and more!
Yes, it been another very busy week here for us. On Tuesday, the Minister of education (3rd down from the Prime Minister) visited along with a group of dignitaries from Canberra, leaders from the Northern Territory government, leaders from the Tiwi Islands and plenty of media personal for the official opening of the family group homes here on campus. We were interviewed by the “Melbourne Age” (a large newspaper in Melbourne which is the second largest city in Australia). The article hit the paper on the 21st. It was a very positive article which was encouraging. One funny thing in the article was the reporter said, “we are from Tennessee and have southern accents”!! Quite funny!
I was also interviewed by the “4 Corners” program media. The special on Tiwi College will be airing sometime next month.
It was a very stressful couple of days for us as we prepared the house being we were the host house. We had in excess of 60 people on our covered porch area for the celebration and some tours around the home. We were glad when all of this was over.
Overall we had a great week with the boys. We are seeing steady progress and it is encouraging to see the boys settle down into a routine around the house. We are working to make them feel safe and loved as the Tiwi College culture is developed.
We were very surprised yesterday when our leadership asked if we would like a weekend in Darwin to rest in a nice Hotel expenses paid by the college! What a huge blessing!!! We will spend two nights in Darwin and return on Monday morning to start another week. Of course Linda will like the shopping opportunities and we will both enjoy some meals out to local restaurants. Darwin is a beautiful city and we always enjoy our time there.
Here’s a couple of tidbits we came across this week with the students that made us laugh and/or shake our heads….
On Monday as I was picking up the students from Milikapiti for the week, one of the young ladies told me that her brother has a Dingo for a pet. I then asked if he bites? She replied, “only if he’s hungry”!!!!
Another one was… during class, one of the boys was struggling to sit and participate. He then left the classroom setting and went to the bathroom and used a piece of soap to scribble a four letter word on the mirror. The interesting thing is that he spelled the four letter word wrong!! Needless to say this student is struggling with his reading and writing skills and really needed to get back to class!
Keep us, the staff and students at Tiwi College in your prayers. Thanks
I was also interviewed by the “4 Corners” program media. The special on Tiwi College will be airing sometime next month.
It was a very stressful couple of days for us as we prepared the house being we were the host house. We had in excess of 60 people on our covered porch area for the celebration and some tours around the home. We were glad when all of this was over.
Overall we had a great week with the boys. We are seeing steady progress and it is encouraging to see the boys settle down into a routine around the house. We are working to make them feel safe and loved as the Tiwi College culture is developed.
We were very surprised yesterday when our leadership asked if we would like a weekend in Darwin to rest in a nice Hotel expenses paid by the college! What a huge blessing!!! We will spend two nights in Darwin and return on Monday morning to start another week. Of course Linda will like the shopping opportunities and we will both enjoy some meals out to local restaurants. Darwin is a beautiful city and we always enjoy our time there.
Here’s a couple of tidbits we came across this week with the students that made us laugh and/or shake our heads….
On Monday as I was picking up the students from Milikapiti for the week, one of the young ladies told me that her brother has a Dingo for a pet. I then asked if he bites? She replied, “only if he’s hungry”!!!!
Another one was… during class, one of the boys was struggling to sit and participate. He then left the classroom setting and went to the bathroom and used a piece of soap to scribble a four letter word on the mirror. The interesting thing is that he spelled the four letter word wrong!! Needless to say this student is struggling with his reading and writing skills and really needed to get back to class!
Keep us, the staff and students at Tiwi College in your prayers. Thanks
Friday, May 16, 2008
Recent photo's
The students enjoying the daily ritual of an afternoon swim after school.
One of our boys "Kenny" helping the campus maintenance man install curtain rods
Enjoying a Kangaroo and Damper meal together around the fire.
Kangaroo For Dinner
Yes, we had our first kangaroo meal with the boys this week. Kangaroo meat is very good. We were both impressed. It’s a little hard to eat when one thinks about those cute little animals that hop around but very tasty indeed! We also had traditional Damper Bread with our meal. Damper bread is a traditional bread eaten by Australian Aboriginal people. We also enjoyed a time around the fire as we enjoyed this traditional feast.
The past couple of weeks have been very busy for us. Our weeks have started out with me (Bill) driving to a community called Milikapiti to pick up students for the week. Milikapiti is about a one hour very dusty drive from the College here at Pickertaramoor. Once in Milikapiti, I go to the local shop and find a couple of students. At that point we drive around and pick up more students making sure everyone has their bags for the week. This process can last an hour and I’m always glad to be on our way back to Pickertaramoor. They then go home at 1:00 pm for the weekend on Friday. Tiwi College is definitely on the front lines here as we work to bring hope for the future to the Tiwi people. The challenges are numerous but we are slowly seeing the work develop.
The past two weeks with the boys have been challenging at times but we are seeing substantial progress. We are seeing the boys fall into more of a routine in the house with very little acting out.
Early this week we had the media with us from an Australian news show called “4 Corners”. 4 Corners is very similar to 20/20 or 60 minutes and is a well regarded show that has been airing in Australia for around 50 years! It was definitely a stressful day for Linda and me as they spent a good part of the day filming activities in the house including dinner time and lights out as we tucked the boys into bed. They also did quite a bit of interviewing with some of the students. The reporters told us it’s going to be a positive report on what Tiwi College is doing. It should air in 3 or 4 weeks. I think it will be streaming on the Internet also so we will pass on the link when it becomes available.
Next Tuesday we are in for another media circus when a government minister visits. We understand that this lady visiting (along with a group of dignitaries) is number three in charge in the Australian government. They are actually coming to our house to dedicate the school using our house as “dedication central” with a gathering in our living room. Our house here is the “show house” per say being it’s the newest and probably the nicest. We will be glad when the show is over!!!
We miss everybody back home but we are truly glad to be here during the pioneering stage of the school. It is difficult, often stressful work but the joys along the way are irreplaceable! We don’t have TV here yet but we are supposed to get a phone and Internet connection in the house by the end of May. TV is coming sometime in the future. We rely mostly on radio to get our news and we trade DVD’s around the campus for free-time entertainment. All the staff and their families live here on Campus as of last week. Before, most of the families lived in Darwin while their fathers worked the weekdays and flew back for the weekend. There are children everywhere and it feels like a community now. We have a great swimming hole on campus that helps to relieve the heat of the day. There are a couple small waterfalls and a rope to swing off into the water. Linda and I have been doing a lot of walking in our free time. It is beautiful Australian bush with varieties of beautiful parrots and other birds. We often see wild horses and wallabies and hope we don’t run into a water buffalo or a Dingo which are plentiful as well.
Please keep us in your prayers as we continue as a team to advance the front lines. Thanks!
The past couple of weeks have been very busy for us. Our weeks have started out with me (Bill) driving to a community called Milikapiti to pick up students for the week. Milikapiti is about a one hour very dusty drive from the College here at Pickertaramoor. Once in Milikapiti, I go to the local shop and find a couple of students. At that point we drive around and pick up more students making sure everyone has their bags for the week. This process can last an hour and I’m always glad to be on our way back to Pickertaramoor. They then go home at 1:00 pm for the weekend on Friday. Tiwi College is definitely on the front lines here as we work to bring hope for the future to the Tiwi people. The challenges are numerous but we are slowly seeing the work develop.
The past two weeks with the boys have been challenging at times but we are seeing substantial progress. We are seeing the boys fall into more of a routine in the house with very little acting out.
Early this week we had the media with us from an Australian news show called “4 Corners”. 4 Corners is very similar to 20/20 or 60 minutes and is a well regarded show that has been airing in Australia for around 50 years! It was definitely a stressful day for Linda and me as they spent a good part of the day filming activities in the house including dinner time and lights out as we tucked the boys into bed. They also did quite a bit of interviewing with some of the students. The reporters told us it’s going to be a positive report on what Tiwi College is doing. It should air in 3 or 4 weeks. I think it will be streaming on the Internet also so we will pass on the link when it becomes available.
Next Tuesday we are in for another media circus when a government minister visits. We understand that this lady visiting (along with a group of dignitaries) is number three in charge in the Australian government. They are actually coming to our house to dedicate the school using our house as “dedication central” with a gathering in our living room. Our house here is the “show house” per say being it’s the newest and probably the nicest. We will be glad when the show is over!!!
We miss everybody back home but we are truly glad to be here during the pioneering stage of the school. It is difficult, often stressful work but the joys along the way are irreplaceable! We don’t have TV here yet but we are supposed to get a phone and Internet connection in the house by the end of May. TV is coming sometime in the future. We rely mostly on radio to get our news and we trade DVD’s around the campus for free-time entertainment. All the staff and their families live here on Campus as of last week. Before, most of the families lived in Darwin while their fathers worked the weekdays and flew back for the weekend. There are children everywhere and it feels like a community now. We have a great swimming hole on campus that helps to relieve the heat of the day. There are a couple small waterfalls and a rope to swing off into the water. Linda and I have been doing a lot of walking in our free time. It is beautiful Australian bush with varieties of beautiful parrots and other birds. We often see wild horses and wallabies and hope we don’t run into a water buffalo or a Dingo which are plentiful as well.
Please keep us in your prayers as we continue as a team to advance the front lines. Thanks!
Monday, May 5, 2008
Photo's
The wet season is only a memory now but what a wet season it was! Literally everyone on campus was effected in one way or another by the heavy rain fall this season. The dry season will run to sometime in November.
A photo of our boys last Thursday as we went on a walk after dinner. We came across some old equipment that used to be used here when Pickertaramoor was a logging camp.
The latest addition to one of the wild horse herds here on the groundsThe Dry Season Is Here At Pickertaramoor
The Dry Season is in full swing and so is the construction here at Tiwi College. The landing strip often has airplanes buzzing in and out with workers. The trucks are coming in from the barge landing with materials. The dirt roads out from the College are now in good condition and the luxury to travel around the island is available once again. This is an amazing project and enormous in proportion! The College campus will soon boast a 400 meter running track, a rugby oval, 6 large Family group homes for the students, many staff homes and buildings, several school buildings, a school for staff children among other things. This is only phase 1 of 4!! Truly an awesome project in a very remote area! What a privledge it is to serve here!
The week with the boys has been a tough one indeed. We had 9 boys at one point and finished up with 8 by the end of the week. Linda and I both broke up fights. 2 boys were suspended and we had one new arrival later in the week. There is not a school building completed yet so the boys school has been in our Family Group home’s common room. It’s been difficult especially for the teachers this week. The boys would often go into their rooms not wanting to come out for class. Some would change out of their school uniform and say they wanted to go home. This sort of structure here at the College is all new for these boys. At one point during the school day on Thursday, Linda advised me to come and help the teachers. As I walked out the back door, there was a teacher using a large piece of cardboard for a shield deflecting rocks that were being thrown at him by a student. At one point the student actually threw a circular stone saw blade he found in a pile of construction rubbish. It was quite an interesting scene especially being this is a very short 12 year old student! I walked up behind him and by the time I reached him he was sitting down on the ground. I then sat on the ground next to him and asked him "what was going on" to start a conversation. I was a bit nervous with this being he had an arsenal of weapons on his lap which included a wood saw with the handle broke off, a metal pipe and another circular stone saw blade. After we talked a few minutes he put his weapons off to the side, asked to wash his face because of the tears and rejoined the group. He will need to work some during his free time next week to pay for 4 chairs he broke during the rampage.
Believe it or not, the boys are coming along well compared to last term. Sure, this week was a little bit of a blip, but we see better things for the coming week. We are convinced that a positive learning culture will continue to develop here on campus as the staff here continue to work as a team to teach and train the students in every day living skills and education. We also know that real peace and true lasting change only comes from a relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus said, "I have come that you may have life and have it more abundantly". Please continue to pray for our boys as they continue on here at Tiwi College.
The week with the boys has been a tough one indeed. We had 9 boys at one point and finished up with 8 by the end of the week. Linda and I both broke up fights. 2 boys were suspended and we had one new arrival later in the week. There is not a school building completed yet so the boys school has been in our Family Group home’s common room. It’s been difficult especially for the teachers this week. The boys would often go into their rooms not wanting to come out for class. Some would change out of their school uniform and say they wanted to go home. This sort of structure here at the College is all new for these boys. At one point during the school day on Thursday, Linda advised me to come and help the teachers. As I walked out the back door, there was a teacher using a large piece of cardboard for a shield deflecting rocks that were being thrown at him by a student. At one point the student actually threw a circular stone saw blade he found in a pile of construction rubbish. It was quite an interesting scene especially being this is a very short 12 year old student! I walked up behind him and by the time I reached him he was sitting down on the ground. I then sat on the ground next to him and asked him "what was going on" to start a conversation. I was a bit nervous with this being he had an arsenal of weapons on his lap which included a wood saw with the handle broke off, a metal pipe and another circular stone saw blade. After we talked a few minutes he put his weapons off to the side, asked to wash his face because of the tears and rejoined the group. He will need to work some during his free time next week to pay for 4 chairs he broke during the rampage.
Believe it or not, the boys are coming along well compared to last term. Sure, this week was a little bit of a blip, but we see better things for the coming week. We are convinced that a positive learning culture will continue to develop here on campus as the staff here continue to work as a team to teach and train the students in every day living skills and education. We also know that real peace and true lasting change only comes from a relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus said, "I have come that you may have life and have it more abundantly". Please continue to pray for our boys as they continue on here at Tiwi College.
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