In our weekly round-up, Eternity looks at what some of our Australian missionaries are up to each week. 

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Richard and Pinuccia Wilson serving with European Christian Mission in Trent, Italy

Richard says, “even though I’m a born and bred Australian, I have ended up in Italy where I have been living since September 1992. To be precise, in the town of Trent, in the far north of the country – home of snow, a Council, lots of mountains and apples. Here I work for the European Christian Mission at the Chiesa Evangelica di Trento (Evangelical Church of Trent). One of the main reasons for coming to Trent was to talk with students at the University of Trent about Jesus. However I finished that ministry in 2003. Since I have been in Italy, I also developed a ministry using the computer, for example distributing the Bible electronically and creating Internet sites.”

This past week, Richard’s church in Trent ran an outreach event. Last week Richard described what was to happen: “Coming up this week is the second part of the church’s outreach to the neighbourhood, with a public meeting on Friday afternoon with a larger evangelistic emphasis, to which the local residents were invited during the open day last week. At the same time Pinuccia will be running a meeting for the local children – not just baby sitting so the adults can go to the other meeting, but with a message for them as well. Pray that many from the local area will come.”

Richard also blogged about exchanging emails with an Italian young woman who has been impacted by his ministry using the web to distribute the Bible: “In the last week I have been exchanging e-mails with an Italian girl living at Munich, answering some of her questions and encouraging her to visit an international church there, which she said she will do.” (Click here to read more of Richard’s blog and the young woman’s comment to him).

Philip and Judy Sinden working at St George’s Church in Singapore with CMS

St George’s Church is an international evangelical Anglican church close to the heart of the city of Singapore. The church has extensive mission involvement within South East Asia.

Philip is Vicar of St George’s Church. He and Judy are engaged in evangelism, discipling, pastoral care and training church members for mission and ministry.
Philip also serves as Dean of Laos.

Last week they wrote, “Pray for forthcoming events at St George’s, as the busy Christmas season approaches – a Nativity Play (November 25), Jazz Carols (December 8), Nine Lessons and Carols (December 9), and Christmas services. Pray too for our forthcoming Church Weekend Away, in Malaysia (Nov 30- Dec 2), for the 250 church members attending, for Paul Woods as he teaches on Colossians, and for our children’s and youth programmes.”

Missionaries from the past – ABC documentary on the Croker Island exodus

This week, using footage from the CMS archives, the ABC aired the first part of a documentary. The synopsis of the documentary is as follows:

“1942, Croker Island, Arafura Sea. As the Japanese bomb Australia’s north, 95 Aboriginal children and their missionary carers make a remarkable journey to safety across the Australian continent. This ‘little’ party sets off on a journey that takes them from Croker Island through Arnhem Land to a Methodist farm at Otford on the edge of Sydney. They travel for 44 days covering 3,000 miles by foot, boat, canoe, truck and train. This is their story, in their own words: a truly heroic and untold journey.

1941, all white women and children are evacuated from Darwin. Japanese invasion is imminent. On a tiny Methodist mission on Croker Island in the Arafura Sea, the Superintendent and three Cottage mothers are responsible for 95 Aboriginal children allocated to their care by the government. The missionary women are given the option of evacuating but how could they abandon these children who have been placed in their care? However food supplies are running dangerously low and no help comes through the long wet season. February 1942, a message by pedal radio; Darwin has been bombed, the missionaries will now have to move the children off the island themselves.”

To watch the documentary online, click here.

We know some missionaries work in sensitive countries and we’re setting things up so that they’re not compromised. Got a missionary we should know about? Email us here and we’ll follow them up.

Header image: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1170737