Pilgrimage: Dubbo to Bourke - Day 2

The travellers met some lions today. The first wheeled himself out of a small museum in an electric wheelchair. Austin gently corrected me when I said he was stuck in the contraption. He told me he refused to think the stroke had invalidated him. This big-hearted man lovingly told us the stories of the young men of the Bush Brotherhood who had ridden bikes, driven T-model Fords through swamps and sand dunes shepherding the people on lonely READ MORE...

The travellers met some lions today. The first wheeled himself out of a small museum in an electric wheelchair. Austin gently corrected me when I said he was stuck in the contraption. He told me he refused to think the stroke had invalidated him. This big-hearted man loving told us the stories of the young men of the Bush Brotherhood who had ridden bikes, driven T-model Fords through swaps and sand dunes shepherding the people on lonely roads and isolated stations in the Far West for over 100 years. As we left their former headquarters in the grounds of the Anglican Church in Dubbo, he quietly handed me a hand made wooden cross on a leather thong as a thank you for our visit. More than a noble gesture - it symbolised a hopeful spirit.

Then the real deal - some kings of the jungle padded up and posed regally on in the rain at Taronga Western Plains Zoo. One pilgrim said admiringly of the Bongo (a striped antelope) ‘Doesn't the Creator do wonderful things? Why can’t people see that ?” Why indeed!

Lion-hearted John Flynn and Alfred Traegar stepped out the past at the Royal Flying Doctor Visitor Experience. We saw that the men and women they inspired had cast long shadows across the wilderness of Australia with their air ambulances, medical kits and pedal wireless. Who wouldn't be elevated by their wide vision and tenacious faith in pursuing answers to the needs of the Inland?
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Enter Murawari man Peter Gibbs - a strapping figure who as a child roamed the remote country Back o’ Bourke, as young man prowled football fields in Sydney and as an adult walked confidently through the halls of power in Canberra and Sydney. He had had his heart broken by the death of his sister in police custody, fought demons of violence, alcoholism and suicide. He told us following in the footsteps of the bave-hearted Jesus had not only turned his life around, it had given him the courage to develop a training scheme that was answering some of the deep needs of his people. We had met another lion.