With an increasingly multicultural population booming in the Australian outback, Bush Church Aid (BCA) is launching a new appeal and gearing up to take the gospel to all the nations. Particularly those in our own backyard.

For many migrants and international workers, multicultural churches provide a spiritual home in Australia, and BCA is already working to support those churches.

Open, Evangelical, Anglican

Tich Mukoki, and his wife Maka, originally hail from Zimbabwe in southern Africa, but journeyed first to New Zealand, and then the small town of Newman in Western Australia, as part of Mr Mukoki’s work as an engineer with mining and petroleum company BHP Billiton. For him, finding a church like BCA-supported Newman Anglican Church was extremely important for his spiritual well-being.

“We all come from different countries, and finding a spiritual home, one way or the other, is something that you require, and being as remote as we are, funding is an issue,” says Mr Mukoki. “BCA, as far as I know, chip in big time to make the church tick in Newman. They provide funds, they help pay the wages for the pastor, and all that goes a long way. Surely, if you come into a new place and you find there’s no church, then you would feel you’re in a dry valley. But if you find a church you can go to, that’s very very significant.”

One of the main things Mr Mukoki finds appealing about his church of nearly two years is the openess it has towards other cultures and other modes of worship from different countries.

“We’re in the Anglican church, but the church doesn’t necessarily follow the mainline culture,” he says. “We all come from different churches, I’m not Anglican originally, I’m more pentecostal myself. About three quarters of the church are not originally Anglican, but we’ve come together. There is the flexibility to worship in the way you feel comfortable and not feeling restrained or very legalistic. If you want to clap hands, you can clap hands.

“I think that’s one big thing, and it doesn’t put hurdles in the way. We are Anglican, but we are also open and evangelical and multicultural. It helps to understand where other people have come from.”

Reasons and Challenges

The National Director of BCA, Revd Dr Mark Short, says that the story of the Mukoki’s is one that is becoming increasingly common in modern rural Australia, and says there are several reasons for the significant multicultural presence in the outback.

“There’s been a variety of factors as work,” says Dr Short. “Firstly, there’s been growth in the mining industry. By nature, the mining workforce tends to be an international workforce, a mobile workforce, and people shift from project to project... So it’s not unusual to find people in mining towns from Africa, from Papua New Guinea, anywhere there happens to be a mining industry.

“There’s also in the last five to ten years been a significant number of refugees settling here. Prior to starting with BCA I ministered in Wagga, and we had several hundred refugees from the Sudan, Burundi, and other places settle there during that time.

“Another factor has been the importance of seasonal workers, in places where there is a significant horticultural presence. In places like the Riverina, you’ll have significant numbers of people from the the South Sea Islands come to work there. Alongside that, of course, you have areas that have always been multicultural.”

Some of the challenges, including distance and resources, are common to all of BCA’s ministries. However, there are particular challenges in reaching the multicultural outback.

“If you think about the provision of English as a Second Language (ESL), they tend to be more accessible in major capital cities, or even larger regional centres,” says Dr Short. ”A couple of our field staff have said how valuable it would be to have someone experienced in ESL ministry. Maybe people could go as an ESL nomad spending time in our difference centres, helping those churches think about ESL as a way of outreach.

“There’s also the fact that, in the city, the numbers of people from a particular cultural background will always be larger, so that means they’ll often be able to group together, and find resources in their own language. In rural and regional areas, you’ll have smaller numbers from a number of different groups , that don’t have the resources to achieve that critical mass. But it also create an opportunity in that you’re less likely to have a number of ethnic specific congregations, and are more likely to see an ethnically diverse congregation develop.”

Gathered Out Of Every Nation

This is the case in Newman Anglican Church. The church recently held a multicultural night where the 17 different cultures that make up the church were brought to the fore, allowing people to learn from and engage with each other’s cultural backgrounds.

BCA’s new appeal, ‘Reaching Australia, Reaching the World’, is designed to both raise money for ministry teams serving such multicultural congregations, but also to raise awareness about the particular kinds of ministry roles needed in this changing cultural mix.

“We’re hoping that the appeal will allow us to develop some creative partnerships,” says Dr Short. “For example, we’re already aware of Chinese speaking churches in Sydney that are conducting an outreach to Chinese speaking people in the Riverina. We’re hoping that passion might be replicated elsewhere.”

For Mr Mukoki, this kind of ministry has already been a personal boon for him.

“As someone who’s benefiting at the end of BCA’s helping hand, it’s just an encouragement that all they’re doing and all their funding is going a long way to nurturing people's spiritual lives, and to keep those who are already born again in the faith. It doesn’t take long to slip away in a new country if you can’t find a church to encourage each other in,” he says.

“Regardless of how many people there are, and how many people might go to church, where one or two are, Christ is in the middle, so its a big job BCA is doing.”

The appeal will be launched at the Mandarin and Cantonese services of St George’s Hurstville on the 7th April 2013. Further information can be found at www.bushchurchaid.com.au