Set my people free Salvation Army Indigenous Ministries Consultant LLOYD HOLLINGSWORTH discusses the intervention, God and justice
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arlier this year, I was in the Northern Territory visiting The Salvation Army’s corps and programs and meeting my Indigenous brothers and sisters. As I travelled through Darwin, Katherine and Alice Springs the common talking point was the Federal Government’s intervention into Aboriginal communities, the quarantining of welfare payments and the enforced policing of shopping. The message from Indigenous Australians was very clear: “It’s not on.” Our Indigenous people are calling for liberation. In Alice Springs, I met assistant Corps Officer Lieutenant Amanda Vaarzon-Morel, who has been touched by God to help us. Her heart is open to reconciliation with our people and to the outpouring of the spirit of God on the nation. In her role as corps officer and court chaplain Lieut Vaarzon-Morel has access to several of the “town camps”, informal living places for Aboriginal people with varying standards of housing. She took me on a tour of these places and I cried out to God. I wouldn’t even allow my dogs to live in one of these town camps, let alone women and children. I called a prayer meeting that night. It was an open-house event attended by white and Indigenous Australians. We prayed knowing that it is going to take God’s intervention to abolish the government intervention. While we were praying I broke down before the Lord. I echoed Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, saying “Not my will, Lord, but yours”. The Lord said to me: “This is my heart; these are my people. Go to them.” It was the fulfilment of a dream and prophecy God had given me in October 2009, before I started working in my current role. I lay prostrate in prayer, groaning and crying out to God. The experience has changed me forever.
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The message to the church? Please, cry out to God. May the chains be broken from the lives of our Indigenous peoples – they must be set free. Our people are more downtrodden than others I’ve met and worshipped with overseas. I am familiar with most of the Aboriginal communities in Queensland, but there is nothing like the level of despair and disadvantage I have seen in the Northern Territory. Yet, in the midst of their pain and sorrow, there is an undying spirit. In their oppression, many still love Jesus with all of their hearts. God has heard their cry. I believe he is going to give a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit. They are the people and the sheep of his pasture. I believe the women I prayed with are going to take God with them out into the camps and release his love and salvation among their people. In the Walpari camp, south of Alice Springs, I was blessed by how they received me. I went to serve them, to lift them up and bless them in their ministry. This is what God calls The Salvation Army to do. Yet in the midst of their faithfulness, they are so beaten down and broken. Many people in these townships and camps find it hard to imagine a different reality. I am amazed at how they survive; I would go crazy in one day. Yet by God’s grace, they survive.
They may have a roof, but no electricity. No running water. No heating or cooling. It is a disgrace. The word from my people is that they wait. They wait and they want the intervention lifted off their backs. They have been stripped of their dignity. They go to a supermarket, grown adults, citizens of this nation, and are governed by a green card. Choice is no longer permitted. The way they are controlled is the government saying: “We know what is best; we know better than you. We’ll tell you what to do and where to go.” The majority of our national Indigenous leaders are calling for the end of the intervention. Our people in Darwin and Palmerston originally supported it. They now recognise that it is a bad thing for them. They didn’t realise that at the start. The people are saying: “Please, come talk to us first; sit down, we’ll talk to you.” Flying from Darwin to Canberra, I was praying, asking God how the churches can become involved or more involved. The Lord said to me: “The church in this country has to take ownership of this injustice. To the extent to which it does so, God will honour the church.” The church will be empowered by the Holy Spirit, to the extent to which she takes up this challenge. The Bride of Christ must prepare for the Bridegroom. This entails true reconciliation happening between us, with us, all of us together in unity, love, respect and honour. I believe this will bring the manifest presence of Christ among us, his people. This article has been used with permission from On Fire magazine
Lloyd Hollingsworth is Territorial Indigenous Ministries Consultant for the Australia Southern Territory.