How frustrating it must be if you want to read the Bible but can’t do it. Not because it isn’t in a language you can understand, but because you can’t read.

Not too many years ago, this was the experience of Terrence Lennon, an Indigenous man from the Wirangu and Mirning tribes, who – in just under a month – will finish a Diploma of Ministry at Youthworks College.

“I’ve learned so much,” he says. “I’ve learned to study about God, but I’ve learned how important it is to keep our faith. Someone said you can learn about God, but you need to have a relationship with him. That’s so important. You can do your assignments but not read your Bible! 

“To me it’s about learning to read the word and understanding it well. First thing in the morning I’ll read my Bible for the sake of it – if I open up the word randomly, I’ll read the Psalms – then later on, I read to learn.”

Originally from Ceduna, a remote South Australian town dubbed the “gateway to the Nullarbor”, Mr Lennon had a range of health problems in childhood that resulted in patchy school attendance and ongoing reading difficulties. He also lost his mum in his mid-teens, and his father a few years later.

“I didn’t finish high school,” he recalls. “I had two weeks left, and I felt like I’d learned nothing throughout my high school years. They told me how much I had to get done, and I thought, ‘I’m way behind – I can’t even read – and they want me to graduate Year 12? And they’re coming to me and talking about university? I can’t go to university!’”

Mr Lennon eventually began working as a labourer but was smoking and drinking a good deal and his health was suffering so, at 21, he chose a complete change – jumping in his beaten-up old car to start a new life in Adelaide. 

Within a couple of weeks, a cousin invited him to the Aboriginal Berean Community Church in Port Adelaide

“I always knew who Christ was, but I didn’t go to youth groups... I wanted to hang out with the ‘bad’ kids, who were also my neighbours and members of my family,” he says. “But he invited me, and I respect him, so I said, ‘I’ll come’.”

His cousin’s family were members of the church, and Mr Lennon remembers being convicted by the sermon of Pastor Donald Hayward, but didn’t go forward at the altar call. “I was too worried about what they were going to think of me,” he admits. “Most Indigenous kids are very easily shamed, and I was that little kid.”

However, he kept visiting the church, and on a visit to Ceduna a couple of years later, he attended a gospel event run by a group of visiting Aboriginal and Fijian Christians. He doesn’t remember the passage preached or the content of the sermon. All he remembers is the centrality of Jesus, and this time everything fell into place. He gave his life to Christ then and there.

“It was so amazing – all the pain, the suffering, just left me,” he says.

“I’ve never felt joy like that. I was truly happy, and it was a different kind of happiness I’d never felt before.”

New life, new start

Addictions and some severe health episodes were still stumbling blocks, but with God’s help Mr Lennon persevered, was able to turn his back on the smokes and alcohol and began volunteering at his Port Adelaide church.

What he describes as his “literacy journey” started at about the same time, which involved elements of a university preparatory program that focused on English and academic literacy, plus a year spent at an Aboriginal college slogging away to master the building blocks of the written language. 

“In the past, I’d always learned by memory,” he says. “I learned how to pray by listening to other people and thinking, ‘Oh, that’s how you pronounce that word!’. I loved the Old Testament stories, but other people knew what to read – I just learned about the stories. I did get frustrated a lot! [After I became a Christian] I really had a sense of urgency to do it, and I never let go of it until I learned how to read.”

The desire to study theology also grew over time, and while Sydney was never on Mr Lennon’s radar, God had a different plan, bringing a ministry member of his church who had worked with Bush Church Aid across the path of the director of Evangelism and New Churches, the Rev Phil Wheeler.

After Mr Wheeler and his wife flew to Adelaide to meet and get to know Mr Lennon, an MTS placement was set up at Living Water Church in Redfern, followed by study at Youthworks College. 

“I prayed for years about where and when [to study], and the only reason I made the decision to come here was because of the peace in my heart,” Mr Lennon says. “When the doors opened for me, I saw it as an opportunity from God.”

God’s provision at college

Youthworks College principal the Rev Mike Dicker says Mr Lennon “slotted in” to college life right from the outset.

“We weren’t sure how he would feel about being in Sydney and studying with lots of people of different backgrounds, but he’s been very open and giving of himself and generous towards others... And from a guy who really only learned to read and write a few years ago to now being able to read and write and complete assessments is just brilliant. It’s been one of the most encouraging stories of our college life.

“He did a preaching unit with us over the summer because that was something he really wanted to work on. We feel confident about his ability to read the word and preach it faithfully and he’s got those pastoral skills of interacting with people as well.”

Mr Dicker adds that God has provided every step of the way – from bringing another student to the college who specialised in working with Indigenous people and became Mr Lennon’s tutor, to a gift from All Saints’, Petersham to assist with his education that turned out to be the exact amount needed.

“Talk about God’s provision!” he says. “We’re hoping he’ll be the first of many... that other Indigenous young people will be able to see that Terrence did it and that maybe it’s possible for them to do it as well.”

“I’ve got to show them Christ” 

Outside college, Mr Lennon has preached a few times at Living Water Church, leads services and singing and runs a young adults Bible study. He is also well known to the Indigenous youth of Redfern and Glebe, having slowly earned their trust and respect. 

“Working with Indigenous kids, I go where they are and take them in a bus to the beach or somewhere like that, feed them, then give a five-minute Bible talk,” he says. “It’s a learning process... if you come in with the mentality of bringing them into a Bible study, you’ll lose them. They’re so used to the street life. Most of them don’t even live with their parents.

“They’re kids, but that’s souls that I’m looking after, and I’ve got to take that seriously. I’ve got to be careful with what I teach and how I approach them with the gospel. If we don’t get to them, the world will get to them, and the enemy is part of the world, with alcohol, drugs – all that. I’ve gotten to love these kids and I want to share the gospel with them.”

Although Mr Lennon has grown in learning and ministry during his time in Sydney, his heart has always remained in Adelaide, where a job at his old church is waiting for him.

“My main focus is discipling, and we need to do it correctly and rightly with the word of God,” he says. “If you don’t get discipled, you’re going to be unteachable. That’s my main goal, but if my pastor says, ‘I want you to preach for the next couple of weeks’, I’ll do that. And if he says, ‘I need you to go to Murray Bridge [30 minutes’ drive away] and do some work for a couple of days, I’ll do that.”

“I believe that I’ve got to show them Christ – that Christ is real, and that he is someone they can believe in and rely on.

“When I was growing up in a small town, you stuck with your own people and there was a bitter divide between a lot of Aboriginal and white people. But the Bible can help us because everything else is stripped away so that Jesus can come into our lives.”