This afternoon we visited some incredible places, learning about some wonderful ministries to the people in the Outback- both aboriginals and whites.
First we went to the Alice Springs headquarters( and museum ) of the Royal Flying Doctors Society. It was started by John Flynn in 1928. He had a vision to provide emergency care, care for pregnant women, and general care for the health and welfare of the thousands of Aboriginal peoples in the Outback. Flynn was a Presbyterian pastor in Alice Springs.
I would imagine this started out as a Christian outreach - it was presented as a not for profit type program run with money from the government as well as donations.
The work has grown and now they have centers all around the country to reach the tribes in the 2 territories and 6 states in Australia. They now fly modern planes well equipped to save lives and get people to hospitals when there are emergencies.
They had a series of well done, informative holigrams that shared the history and several examples of what's happening. Alice Springs is a small town with 28,000 people. Ten percent are Aboriginals. They have put themselves on the map with the work they are doing.
I'd like to read more about it when we get home. Was quite impressive.
Next we went to the headquarters of the School of the Air. John Flynn was also a part of getting this started back in 1951. It is a distance learning program to families who live in remote areas of the Outback where there are no schools. When they first started they used radio to broadcast the classes and mailed all the materials out to the students. It worked quite well like that for 50 years.
Now they have grown and have other centers in regions around the country. They have online classes with teachers the children can see and interact with in real time. It is amazing. Each center works independently- partly due to the great distances.
The center in Alice Springs has 134 students in their school. The families come to Alice Springs for a weekend of fun, learning, and interaction three times a year.
From humble beginnings, they have grown to be a great assist to families who live, work and minister in hard places.
The third place we visited was an old telegraph relay station from the 1800's. It was a self guided tour with no one on sight to really answer questions or show you around.
It was interesting to Andy and I because we snorkeled right next to Telegraph Island in the Strait of Hermus when we were in Oman on a visa run from Dubai in December. We learned about the telegraph line Britain developed from India to Great Britain in the mid 1800's.
Now, here we are in Australia seeing a relay station for a telegraph line from southern Australia to Indonesia. Small world.
We saw some dingos here on the property. Fun encounter to see them in the wild.
This is the historic marker on the property. You could walk around and see the house, the relay station and other buildings on the site. It was quite remote back in the day.
I have more pictures on my camera - just cannot take the time to transfer them right now.
We saw these 2 little kangaroos as we came into the site. Again was fun to see them in their natural setting. We left them alone and just tried to get pictures from the bus. A fun encounter nonetheless.
We had fun going out to lunch with Dick and Pam as well as Bruce and Julie - two 30 year Naval officers we are getting to know on this trip. Always fun to relive our military days with others who served.
This sign was just inside Sporty's where we ate great tasting and generous portions of food.
Saw this Wall Drug style sign in downtown Alice Springs. Love the reference to Chicago!
Late in the afternoon we headed to the airport to fly off to Cairns in Queensland in the northeast corner of the country.
Hurricane Debbie is on the move headed for the east coast of Australia. We get very little news so I don't have many details. It will hit land south of us.
Was an educational day. We enjoyed our time in the Outback! Our hearts and minds are full to overflowing with all we are seeing and doing. Just Amazing!
No comments:
Post a Comment