Greetings from Derby, Western Australia!!!Here we are amongst the Boab trees, red dust and clear blue skies and mid-30s temperatures of the dry season.What an exciting journey it has been!From packing up and leaving our home in Sale, to celebrating Caleb’s first birthday and then spending three weeks driving to the opposite corner of Australia the last two months are difficult to describe in just a few paragraphs.
Firstly, our heartfelt thanks to all of you who have been praying for us and supporting us through this significant transition.God has provided for us through many people and we thank God for you and for the way he has worked through you. We humbly ask that you continue to pray that we will faithfully carry out his work here in the West Kimberley.
Travelling trivia
Distance travelled from Sale to Derby: 7460km
Average speed of travel with the caravan: 80km/hour
Longest day of travel: 715km from Nullarbor to Balladonia
Most scenic caravan park : Denham (near Monkey Mia) with its ocean view
Worst weather: East of Perth driving into gale force blustery winds and rain storms
Best Meal: Home cooked Ruby Snapper with fresh salad indgredients from the plantations of Canarvon
A note from Yong
Travelling with a caravan is new to me in many ways.Before, I couldn’t understand “the grey nomads”, but now I can understand why some people travel for two years or more.One thing I really like about living in the caravan is the simple lifestyle.We did not need a lot of things to live a normal life.We were very thankful for uneventful journey.There were few little issues but they became praise points.The caravan door lock broke at an early stage of our journey and we were 3000km from Perth were we could get the spare part. At Balladonia, I was doing my morning inspection of the vehicle and discovered that one of the rear tyres had deep cut in the wall. I thanked God for finding the cut before we drove away.I wondered what might have happen if we drove away with our heavily loaded ute (pickup truck) towing a fully loaded caravan!I was very excited that God was with us in this trip!A very special thing happen on the road:I saw Caleb’s first steps as he walked toward me!It was really a time of blessing to see many parts of Australia and create beautiful memories as family.Whenever we stayed at the caravan parks, Vicki impressed a lot of old guys with her skills in backing the caravan. The ladies cheered her on for doing excellent job reversing and parking the caravan in tight spaces!!!This is one of advantages of marrying a country girl!!!
I started flying and working with kids a week after we arrived in Derby.I was quite nervous about doing the Student Focus program.Running games and giving a talk was quite an overwhelming task.However, it was really good to have a lot of support from my co-workers and encouragement from them.Things I like about this ministry is that I work with very passionate people and beautiful kids who need to know Christ.A lot of kids are very shy like me so both the kids and I will take a while to get to know each other.I am trying to remember their names and call their names, but some are quite hard to pronounce.I am hoping to remember all the kids’ names by end of third term… A few weeks ago, students from a Christian college in Perth came to One Arm Point and camped there for five days and worked with aboriginal kids.I went there when they arrived and helped them with setting up their camp and I got to know them.I was very excited to hear from a teacher that four of the kids accepted Christ through the camp! As for me, it was really good experience camping by the beautiful beach and being attacked by ant(s).
Vicki’s parents are staying with us and helping us with settling into our new place in Derby.They drove from Victoria to Derby in ten days with our car and trailer.At this moment we are renting DerbyBaptistChurch’s manse and part of the arrangement is that we do some house maintenance for them.I am very thankful for Graeme’s help (Vicki’s dad) working around house.Actually, he does most of the jobs and I am just assisting.It is really good to be working with Graeme and learning things.We put a sagging house ceiling back up, filled holes in the wall, painted inside etc.Vicki’s mum and dad have been great blessing for us in settling in!Caleb loves to play with grandma and she is Caleb’s best friend!
A walk with Vicki
We’d been up since 6am on that long-awaited day when we arrived in Derby and we were about 50km from town when we saw it.The dark clouds loomed ahead and as we got closer and closer I became more and more nervous.It wasn’t a tropical cyclone, or even a thunderstorm.It was a bushfire and to me it looked reasonably big!Having images of Victoria’s black Saturday fresh in my mind, I wasn’t terribly keen to continue driving, even though the thought of finally arriving in Derby (after 7400km of travel) was pulling me strongly.In our state of concern we searched through the radio stations listening out for potentially useful information – but nothing remotely helpful came across the airwaves. When we could actually see the flames approaching the roadside near us, I wanted to turn back but Yong (probably wisely) pointed out that if I keep slowing down we might get stuck and I’d better get moving ahead.Later we found out it was just a common fuel reduction burn and my panic was not warranted.I have a lot to learn about life in the Kimberley!
Fortunately, I have a lot of people around me who can impart some Kimberley wisdom.We have been so warmly welcomed by the awesome Kingdom Aviation team and the BaptistChurch (one of our supporting churches). During a particularly busy time for them, the church prepared the manse for us to live in and has blessed us and cared for us in so many ways.As well as the church folk, I’m also getting to know a lot of the mums in town through a mum’s group and a play group.I can already go down the street and meet three or four people I know!At playgroup I’m looking forward to getting to know the Aboriginal lady and her grandson, the mum with a disabled child, the Indian lady and her son and hopefully many more.
Being part of the mum’s group has opened up opportunity to co-lead some evening sessions with materials from Growing Families Australia.I’ll share more about that next time, but in the mean time please pray as a friend from church and I prepare for this ministry next term.
Caleb’s world
For more than three weeks Caleb spent the majority of his time in either the car or the caravan.Caleb really enjoyed his time in the caravan as we travelled and he even took his first steps there!In the car it was so peaceful while he slept, and during his time awake it was a constant triathlon of feeding him, passing him a steady stream of toys and then entertaining him with songs, books and silly games.
Since arriving, Caleb has enjoyed being able to (clumsily) run around, having space and freedom and no longer spending so many hours in the car.He enjoys playing with rocks, sand and a bucket of pegs; tasting them all too!As part of the playgroup, Caleb got to dress up as a little crocodile and we proudly rode on the float in a street parade at the Boab Festival.We were meant to wave and throw lollies to the onlookers, but Caleb was more intent on removing his crocodile hat and munching his cracker.To see some photos from the parade and other pictures of our travel and settling into Derby, go to
We live in Derby WA and working with Kingdom Aviation Ministry. We fly to remote aborigines communities and working with kids in the school to share the messages of true hope in Jesus Christ!
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