I was driving North through the  Pilbara on the Great Northern Highway accompanied by huge road trains with cargoes of machinery for the mines, the size of houses. To be honest I found the drive through the red dirt and bush to be monotonous and boring, and was looking for a place to park up the campervan for the night, fed up of dusty , uncivilised caravan sites which made even the bush seem attractive.

And then I saw trees up ahead, and a sign ‘Karalundi’, about 50 K’s north of Meekatharra, which led me to a green oasis in the red dirt and bush!

What was this miracle with palm trees and green lawns, clean facilities and a kitchen, with a very welcoming young lady? Apparently, it used to be a 7th Day Adventist mission, but Christian Missions fell out of favour as political correctness began to arrive, and it has to be admitted that some were patronising because they regarded aboriginals as benighted, in need of rescuing from their pagan, uneducated and uncivilised ways.

But I learned that this mission had a vision to advance  the education and conditions of the aboriginal children they served, by giving them the skills and abilities that would enable them to gain jobs and make progress in society. They also hoped that teaching Christian ways would benefit their charges by improving their lifestyle.

In the end, the challenges were too much. The farm, which was an important part of the mission, providing food, training and jobs, could never make enough to be self-supporting, mainly because of the hot, dry climate. Funding was scarce from the church, and bad choices were made, so that , in the end, the church sold up, feeling their efforts  to teach the children a better way of life were not appreciated and had failed in the face of political correctness –  the criticism of church missions in general.

For many years the farm gradually reverted to bush, and the buildings stood idle, but those kids who were educated there, were growing up, and low and behold, as they became parents, they wanted their children to enjoy an education like the one  they had, complete with the Bible and the Seventh Day Sabbath! So much for the political correctness which overcame missions!

These aboriginal parents, whose lives were so much better because of the mission, got together, bought the property, reintroduced the school, and asked the Seventh Day Adventist Church for guidance and help!   By the way I’m not a member!

Today it is a flourishing school, the environment has recovered its beauty, and is financially supported by the caravan site they have included, which is  quite  understandably popular.

Aboriginal children are once again having an education which includes the true Creator and His Laws, simply because  their parents recognised how valuable that had been to them in making their lives successful.

This has to show the politically correct ‘know it alls’ how the government should be working with aboriginal people to advance their inclusion in society; in fact it is an example of how it will be worldwide in the coming Kingdom of God, as all races learn the way of God, which produces harmony, prosperity, and happiness!

Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
but his delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and night.

He is like a tree
planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.                   Psalm 1:1-3