"But First I Need to Listen." - Phill Matthew's reports on his visit to Broken Hill -Part 1

As I took off into the outback of NSW, like many I had the van on the back but it was not a holiday.

I was going to make contact with people who live in the same state as us but there is a difference. In Broken Hill you have a SA prefix on your phone and you’re a half an hour behind the rest of the state all the time. This is a challenge in many parts of life but they, like most things they do, just get on with it.

I met up with the Coordinator of the Far West Legal service that looks at lots of legal issue, domestic violence and community problems across the many towns and camps in this area of the state. This is a connection point to journey with some of the groups as they are looking for a holistic approach. I’m now on the mailing list and can follow the programs and projects and become involved at an event the next time I am in town. They’re going to put on a gathering so I can meet other workers from different parts of the area and other services. I will seek ways the church can support their work in some way but first I need to listen.

The next day I talked with local minister, Will Pearson. He took me to a spot just off the tourist trail to a creek bed where he’d done a wedding and a baptism for the same family. There had been music and choir on the day but even with none of that, as I stepped down into the red dirt I felt the Holy Spirit surround  me.

     I could hear the silences of the inland spirits. I could see colours and shapes that had me spinning.

The camera was taking in the beauty as I was worshipping the living God. 

At the same time talking and listening, in a way that was as living water to us both, the empty creek flowed over us.  In my head the song “Deep Stillness” played.

The night before I found a spot on the road heading out to the sculptures as the sun set I pulled into a bare patch of red dirt and lent against the bull bar listening to a CD Celtic Thunder as the sun set. Amazing Grace came on and a couple pulled in alongside. I stepped around to turn down my music but they asked me not too. We talked and took photos of this awesome sun set. They had seen the sign on the door of the car and needed to talk. At the end they told me they are leaders in a Melbourne based Baptist church. 

                               Life offers up opportunities. It is up to us what we do with them.

 Acknowledgements :- Text - Phill Matthews, Sunsets -God