Newsletter Vol. 2, No. 7
Firstly it is good to report that Judy’s health is good. It seems that she has adjusted at last to Newman.
Sitting writing this to you, it is obvious to us that many things about our life in Newman have changed. Not only is the weather much hotter and we struggle to cope, but the focus has also changed in our work for God. It seems to us that it is now supporting a couple of young families that have come to town for work. It is so hard for the wives as they adjust to life in Newman without any support with their children from extended family, there is a feeling of isolation and entrapment.
It has been said by one of the young mum’s that it is 24 hours a day with the children with no chance of a break. It takes time to build relationships to a point where you will trust leaving your children with them and if your husband is working long hours and you have a young family where is the time and energy to build those relationships.
The changeover in Ministry for the church is well under way with Brian having had conversation with the Archbishop in Perth during the recent school holidays and will be working as Assistant Priest in Maddington [with Ray Arthur]. Prayer is needed for their accommodation as it is hard to find houses close to Maddington.
Matthew Johnson has accepted the call to Newman and will arrive late January 2006 with his wife, Naomi and 2 young children (2 & 4yrs). The church will only be without a minister for a matter of weeks which is great. Please pray that all will go well with their plans to move here and that Naomi will cope with the change, heat, and the fact that she too will need to get used to not having family support close by.
I find it easier to write in diary form so here we go it is another month since our last Newsletter and life again has been busy but as was said before different.
13th Tuesday we had tea with Ric and Narrissa, a couple from church that we have wanted to spend more time with.
14th Wednesday saw us having lunch at Capricorn Roadhouse which is 15kms south of town. It has become a bit of a routine to go about every 2 weeks and as a result of this we have become friendly with a couple who work there. We also see them in Woolworths and have a chat.
Woolworths is the social center of town as everyone needs to go there to buy food. We usually have to queue at the checkout as staff is scarce; this is exasperating when people from mine camps and properties out of town come in to stock up. It is possible for these people to spend $3000 and have many trolleys full of all kinds of needs.
The rest of the week involved the usual activities
17th Saturday was Lunch at the van with Ric, Narrissa (yes, the couple from Tuesday night) & Margaret. We had no idea how the afternoon was to unfold. It was hot so we moved from the annexe to the shade of our neighbour’s bus inviting them to join us for coffee, then Rebecca turned up with her 4 children and as it is with young children it became busy as Judy endeavored to entertain them. Next to arrive were the Maude’s from Broome with their daughter who were on there way to the Clergy Conference in Perth and to top it off the car seat cover couple came (this is a couple we had met previously when they were in town selling their wares) and also stayed for coffee. What a wonderful afternoon of fellowship, we had with such a variety of people. God’s hand was there as usual as David the seat cover man who doesn’t attend church met Michael Maude and connected that they knew each other from younger days at a church camp.
[An interest point; we have traveling sales people come into town for a few days to a week selling all kinds of items. This is good as it give us some variety of goods to buy in town.]
18th Sunday again it was time with Ric and Narrissa as they took us it to the bush, to Poonda pool. This required relying on our GPS and driving through bush which opened up into a lovely waterhole where we had afternoon tea. On leaving the pool at 4.30pm we remembered we had to feed the animals at the Lions park, needless to say we were late.
19th Monday the weather is heating it was time to swim. Today’s swim was in the caravan pool.
20th Tuesday was a swim at Rebecca’s place; this meant entertaining 3 of her children in the pool. Ian makes a great dolphin for them to cling to as he dives. Judy was able to entice the youngest, a boy into the water and have fun with him as his confidence grew. Lions meeting that night, we had a casserole evening as we said goodbye to the manager of Woolworths who has been of great assistance to Lions and the work they do.
21st Wednesday it was a swim in the council pool which is lovely for swimming lengths. At Lions the previous night we had been asked to house care for people who were going on holidays for 2 ½ weeks. This means you water plants, feed animals and just keep an eye on their house. Well again God’s hand was obviously in the midst of this occasion. [I say this as we sometimes are not aware of God hand so vividly in things that happen in life]. Jacinta, the lady of the house was not home from work so we spoke with Scott. Scott had a story that I won’t go into at this time except to say that God through lifeline had pulled him up from the depths to where he is today, yet he still seems not to have made a commitment. After much conversation we left 1 ½ hours later with the arrangement made for Judy to read a bible story to the two children [age 7 & 5years] the next night, again she used 2 ways to live for kids. They seemed very interested with the boy asking some very good questions. e.g. How do you know God made the world? They do have a bible in the house but it is an adult’s NIV and the bible story book the little girl showed Judy was of Catholic saints. We left with Judy committed to making sure the children have a Bible and book of bible stories. The other incredible part of this story is that we had only just met them but they were very happy for Joan Vale, who was coming over from Sydney for a holiday in Newman, to live in their air-conditioned house with a pool. It is amazing how God provided for Joan as when we went to cancel her booking at the park they hadn’t made one and accommodation is hard to get in the park.
22nd Thursday we escaped to the bush for the day, driving to Weeli Wolli Pool where Judy took some great photos. Hmm, Judy and her photos she has taken 3269 to date, isn’t it good she has a digital camera. She also has them all filed on her computer in folders as per event, and yes she has backed them up after an early scare. We missed bible study that night as we felt the reading of the bible story with the kids more important.
23rd Friday it was home all day.
24th Saturday we caught up with friends made through Lions for dinner. Dinner is always a good opportunity to talk at a deeper level.
25th Sunday people from church came for lunch and we fed the animals again at night, this time we were not late. We are now looking after 2 houses, our caravan and 3 cats as people go away for the school holidays.
26th Monday whilst Judy was at craft Ian mowed the rectory lawns and tidying up the yard by chopping down more dead bushes
27th Tuesday we were called on to assist with a children’s group that was visiting the Lions Animal Park. They had a great time as Colin sheared the 3 sheep we have at the park. Judy had her 1st time of catching and carrying a Kangaroo. It was quite hilarious until George showed her how to carry the Kangaroo.
28th Wednesday our car was in for service. We went for lunch with 2 of the young mums and their children spoken of earlier in this newsletter.
29th Joan arrived in Newman on a plane that was 1 hour late. It is an experience to go to Newman airport when a plane is due as it is a hive of activity with the fly in fly out miners. They’ve actually had to put on a bigger plane from Perth. Of course we took her to Capricorn Roadhouse for tea.
30th Friday looking at the local sites with Joan.
1st October Saturday we took Joan to Karijini for the day. It was a huge day, very long as we looked at all the gorges.
2nd Sunday it was Shobai’s turn to come for a visit, she is the eldest of Rebecca and Reg’s 4 children.
3rd Monday at craft, Kelita reminded Judy that it was her turn to come for a visit. As Judy was leaving with Kelita, Josiah the 2nd youngest stood at the door pleading to come also. It would be his turn on Tuesday to come with us when we feed the animals.
5th Wednesday we took Sharon, her 3 children and Joan on a day adventures around Newman.
It started at Mt Newman, a morning tea at Silent Gorge where Judy and the children climbed the rocks and took lots of photos in various poses. It was then off to Ophthalmia Dam for lunch and finally Round Hill South of town. It was a very hot day and thus was good to be in the air-conditioned car. The children were so good we treated them to an ice block at Capricorn Roadhouse before returning home.
6th Thursday was to be a quiet day but instead it started with an SOS call from Rebecca, so she and the 4 children came over. We left the children with Ian whilst Rebecca, Joan and Judy went to the shops for some girl time. Ian coped very well with them finishing with the distraction of an ice block when the kids got bored. On our return we had a barbeque lunch of “Cheerio’s” (cocktail franks). Rebecca bought a bag ice for our drinks which ended up being used for a lot of fun as the children tried to see how much ice they could stuff down Judy’s back. We all ended up very wet but a good time was had by all. In fact the children slept for 2 hours upon their return home.
6pm was the opening of the refurbished Tourist Centre. It was quite a classy occasion for Newman.
7th Friday was time to take Joan out for some more adventure – and adventure we had. Ian wanted to see Giles Point and the old Airstrip so Judy plotted our course with a map, but as is the case out here there has been so much exploration for ore, that there are roads going everywhere. After many attempts to find the right road and ending up in the road that disappeared, we found a bull dozer driver doing rehab work for the mine. He set us straight and we had late lunch at the old airport.
We then decided to return to Newman along what on the map looked like a major dirt road. Well it wasn’t and after driving for some time on an ever deteriorating dirt track we came to the end and could not find where the track went so turned around in a dry creek bed returning the way we came finishing our journey on the main highway, arriving in town at 6pm.
Next Friday is the Night Markets at the church. We have heard of the night markets since our arrival in Newman so today Sunday 9th was the start. After church we cleared out the back of the church and brought all the many boxes from the shed into the church building. We then started sorting the clothes into groups. This apparently carries on for the week with Friday being the emptying of the 2nd shed of household items into the car park and selling begins at 4.30pm.
Saturday is open day for the mine. Sunday afternoon is Kelita’s 5th birthday party, busy weekend.
Monday it will be 4 weeks until we leave Newman and start our journey home. We have a wedding to attend in Perth for Janette and Scruff, our mining friends, and then it will be all roads lead east. We will return in time to attend our daughter in law Lea’s, brother Dave and Sarah’s wedding on the 3rd December.
I will try to make time to write once more before we leave but if I don’t, thank you to all who have kept in touch also keeping us up with events in the East.
Judy & Ian
“Neals on Wheels”
BCA Co-workers Newman
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