T
welve young people have followed a Sydney Anglican church leader back to his first parish in North West Australia.
The Rev Neil Ellis was joined by 12 young people from St Mark's, Oakhurst as he returned to St George's, Bluff Point for a short-term mission trip earlier this month.
Mr Ellis spent three years ministering at Bluff Point with Bush Church Aid from 1996 to 1998 including one year as curate-in-charge. Bluff Point is located on the north side of the rural township of Geraldton in the Diocese of North West Australia.
The nine-day mission trip was the first time Mr Ellis had returned to Bluff Point for ministry since he left in 1998.
"It was strange being back, like going back to my past. Some of the people who were there when I was there had left but it was encouraging to see that people I had known who were on the fringe back then are now central to the ministry there," Mr Ellis says.
There are still two services at the church, as when Mr Ellis left, but he says the church has advanced in other ways.
"St George's is getting a youth ministry off the ground in partnership with the Holy Cross Cathedral in Geraldton. The two churches have a good relationship."
The Rev Graeme Middlewick, who has been rector of St George's since February last year, has been promoting evangelism to the community.
"He is actively encouraging the church members into the Evangelism Explosion program and getting them on board for church growth."
New perspective for youth
Oakhurst student minister and youth worker Daniel Mitchell says the mission trip was helpful in a number of ways.
"It was a chance to see our faith expressed in a different place. Lots of the young people have become Christians at Oakhurst or grown up there so it was good for them to experience a Christian unity beyond our church," he says.
"It was also great that our young guys could be an encouragement to the older Christian people in Bluff Point and that they could be an encouragement to us."
Mr Ellis says team members engaged in forms of ministry they had never tried before.
"It was an opportunity to engage our young people in ministry, stretch them, see them grown and have them rely on God in a context totally foreign to them."
"They grew in their confidence and ability to talk about the gospel. Some see themselves going back to that sort of rural context to see what they can bring to other churches."
Mr Ellis says there is now talk amongst the young people of doing a similar mission trip annually.
