Mission Report No 6
Monday 25th April 2022
Visited Serena Lawrence and family who have recently moved in to Cairns from New Zealand today. Our arrival was perfectly timed - she was on the phone to a Telstra tech trying to sort out her internet connection in her new house. I listened in on the conversation for a while and realised that I might be able to help, so I asked her if she would mind me helping. I managed to get everything working well within a relatively short period of time. Fortunately the Telstra tech was very good. Sister Lawrence, and I think especially her kids, were very thankful to have the internet connected again.
There were some major problems that I wasn't able to help with unfortunately, like a car alarm that wouldn't stop going off and a garage door that was stuck halfway, but I've at least been able to get in touch with the Elders Quorum Presidency and hopefully there is someone there who can help her out.
Update: Brother Gardner and some of his sons went to visit Sister Lawrence, after I let him know what was happening there. He looked at the garage door and wondered how best to fix it. He is not a tradesman, he's an English teacher, but a stroke of brilliance came in to his mind as he realized that a car jack could be used to bend the metal brackets back in to shape, which would enable the roller door to run up and down on the tracks smoothly. A flash of inspiration from a loving Heavenly Father who is involved in the details of our lives I think.
Thursday 28th April 2022
Gardening at the Davies with the young missionaries. The Davies are a wonderful old couple who have served faithfully in the Church for many years. It's now their turn the receive service. Brother Davies is about 92 and getting a bit unsteady on his feet. He tripped over recently and has been a bit shaken by that and is still sporting two "shiners". The young Elders did some of the heavy work in the garden, Margot did some weeding and I had the job with the whipper snipper to go around the edges of the garden and the paths to snip everything back neatly. The Davies were very appreciative.
I had my second kitesurf session since being in Cairns at lunchtime at Yorkey's Knob today. It was barely windy enough to stay "upwind" using my 12m kite and surfboard. I have a foil and foil-board almost ready to use here now, just waiting for the front wing to arrive. It will definitely be used a lot in the lighter wind that we tend to get a lot of here in Cairns.
Friday
I spent the morning baking bread and "Resurrection Rolls" (hot cross buns without the cross) today, hoping to drop the bread in to a family who we hope will really appreciate it later today.
Went to take the bread to the family we wanted to give it to, who are in temporary accommodation and they've moved!
Saturday 30 April 2022
Flat inspection with the young Elders. That was fun. We love our two young Elders serving with us here in Cairns and part of our duties is to check on their flat and car every six weeks to make sure it's all being maintained properly.
Dropped yesterdays baking in to a TI family who really appreciated it. What's a TI family? That's a family from Thursday Island, one of the main islands in the Torres Strait group of islands. Being from Victoria, I'm pretty sure I've never met anyone from the Torres Strait Islands but there are lots of them here in Cairns and especially coming to Church. All lovely people, involved in all levels of leadership in the District.
Sunday 1st May
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| That's me with Jan Akkerman! |
Born back in 1942, Bro Akkerman joined the Church as an 18 year old and migrated to Australia via Africa. He was very active in the Church in Melbourne in the 70-80's and many of you reading this will remember him from Footscray Ward. I think Jan has lived up here with his family for about 20 years or so. He doesn't get out much these days but he was very happy to receive a visit from fellow Church members after a long period of very little contact.
I feel that we can often be guilty of being so busy "running programs" in the Church that we can forget one of our key responsibilities - ministering to the poor and needy, which includes the poor in spirit and those in need of love.
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