I was excited to see a pair of green Pygmy geese :
And ESPECIALLY to see an emerald dove - this doesn't to it justice
I came home in time to get to church. There was a small group present: about 5 Aboriginal women, and a few white families. It was great to be part of it. The gathering was led by an old lady. A couple of people talked about a Bible passage, and we spent a lot of time praying for a very sick lady - turns out it's the unconscious lady we sent to Darwin on Saturday. She's the daughter of the pastor (he wasn't there).
It's good to pray, and even to ask for healing. But how does God answer that? However the focus of the prayer was for the presence of God to be with the family at this difficult time - I can identify with this, and it seems to make sense of how I understand God. God is with us in the ups and downs - and certainly for so many people, there aren't many ups in life.
The other aspect of course is our own personal responsibility for our health. Lifestyle issues. Management of chronic conditions. How does God fit into that? And how hard for Aboriginal people, introduced to western diseases, infections and the consequences, and of course unhealthy food. There are THREE takeaway shops here. And someone said that the people don't naturally think that there's choices to be made. "Why would they sell us food that is bad for us?" Good question, yes, a really good question!
I've had lunch at the home of the registrars; his mum is here, and his dad coming soon - the dad worked with Geoff (my brother-in-law) in Brisbane! Small world. The mum said I don't look like Linda, but she changed her mind...
Walk last night, round to the far point visible from the veranda. A long way with quite a lot of rock scrambling, and an eye out for crocs.
Galiwin'ku is on the distant point
There's a mango tree in the garden! It's flowering more & more each day. I didn't realise what it was, when I was here for the week before going to Nhulunbuy
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