At the end of June, around 30 ladies from Central Australia journeyed to Ti Tree, 200km north of Alice Springs, for our annual Women’s Aboriginal Languages Bible Study Camp. The Languages represented included Anmatyerr, Arrarnta, English, Luritja, Pitjantjatjara, and Warlpiri. Our camp is supported each year by Finke River Mission (FRM) as well as by Lutheran Women of Australia. Some people organised their own transport; others travelled on a bus kindly driven by Pastor Neville Doecke, the FRM support worker at Hermannsburg. His wife Heather, who conducts the Mission Block choir in Alice, joined us too. Ti Tree School very kindly allowed us to use their facilities, which were fantastic.
Helen Lockwood, study leader, from Adelaide
We looked at Jesus’ family tree from Matthew 1. Then we studied some of the stories about Jesus’ ancestors who were in this family tree. We looked at each story in English, then read it and talked about it in Language groups. The thoughts from the groups were then collected and shared with the whole group.
We learned that Jesus came from the family of Abraham and David – which means that Jesus was a Jew. This was important to Jewish Christians in the first churches. But we also saw that non-Jews, like Rahab and Ruth, were part of Jesus’ family too. Jesus came for all people, including each one of us.
For the story of Moses, we acted out the bravery of the midwives, the rescue of Moses through the quick thinking of his mother and sister and the compassion of Pharaoh’s daughter. God often uses surprising people to care for his people, and for us.
Acting some of the stories out was a lot of fun!
Second from left is Suanne Tikoft who organises these camps
Suanne Tikoft, camp coordinator, from Alice Springs
Worship was important. We sang often, shared devotions and prayed together. Some ladies were keen to create posters to share the stories and ideas we learned with each other, and to take back to home congregations and families.
On Sunday morning Pastor Neville Doecke led a Holy Communion service at Ti Tree Six Mile, that was well attended by local people. The beanies and baptism bears donated by Lutheran ladies from other parts of Australia were very popular. Thank you so much!
Back at camp we worked together to prepare healthy meals and eat them as a group. We all washed our own dishes.
And then of course we cleaned up, before heading home.
And what did we think of the camp?
Lena Driffen, from Alice Springs
Camp was good. I liked the singing and the Bible Study. When we travelled to Ti Tree on the bus we were singing on the way. We sang a lot during the camp too. The old ladies from Ti Tree all wanted hymn books to keep.
At the camp we ladies helped one another. I was helping in the kitchen making morning tea. We all washed our own dishes and looked after the old people.
I met my two cousins Sharon and Denise for the first time. On Sunday afternoon we went to the cemetery to see their father’s grave.
Bianca Forrester, from Alice Springs
I liked the camp. It was good. I liked that everybody got together to learn about the Bible. It was good how they did the singing and stuff and how they did a prayer at the beginning and end. I hope that next time there will be more young women. Before I didn’t know them, but now they say “hello” to me. I reckon it was fun and I had a good time. I’ve been teaching my daughter to sing one of the songs.
Hilda Bert, from Utju (Areyonga)
I had a good weekend at Ti Tree on the women’s camp. It’s good having lots of ladies from other communities and getting to know them. I learnt a lot about the Old Testament and the family tree of Jesus. I already knew the story of Abram and his families from my studies at Nungalinya College. Now I know where the family of Jesus comes from and I want to learn more stories from the Old and New Testaments. I was so happy at the camp.
From us all, sincere thanks to Helen Lockwood, Pastor Neville, FRM, Ti Tree School, and our other helpers. And a special shout-out to Lutheran Women for faithfully supporting our ministry in Central Australia over the years. God bless you all!
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