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When All You Can Do Is Pray: An Interview with Mrs. Joy Young
154 Plays2 months ago
I am so excited to share today’s interview with you. It’s my first interview with a woman who is not one of our writers. It is SO ENCOURAGING.
Mrs. Joy Young is a 96-year-old woman who served as a nurse and missionary to Aboriginal people in the Western Desert, Wyndham, and Kununurra with her husband and three children. At one point, Mrs. Young was the only medical professional for a thousand kilometers in the Warburton Ranges in the Western Desert!
I had to pester Mrs. Young to share with me, as she was convinced she had nothing to say! The result was a delightfully funny and encouraging interview. If you’re stuck in a hard place or don’t know what to do with your life, Mrs. Young encourages us towards prayer and trusting in God in every situation, no matter how big or small.
In today’s episode, we explore:
- Growing up in Melbourne knowing about God but not knowing or trusting in Jesus until she heard a returned soldier speak about what Jesus accomplished on the cross.
- Initially training as a nurse and planning to head to West Africa as a missionary, but ultimately learned that God did not want her to go to West Africa. Instead she waited, married and had three daughters. When her oldest was six years old, she and her husband were convicted that God wanted them to share the gospel with Aboriginal people in Western Australia, so they sold everything they owned and went to the Western Desert.
- Mrs. Young’s experiences of seeing people healed and the Lord provide for her and her family in miraculous ways whilst serving in the Western Desert, Wyndham and Kununurra for more than thirty years.
- How she has remained joyful in her later years and endured the loss of her beloved husband.
You can check out the show notes for everything mentioned in the episode.
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If you want to send us compliments or constructive suggestions, get in touch at rebecca@storiesidtellyouatdinner.com.au.
If you love the podcast, writing a review on Apple Podcasts or leaving a five star review Spotify helps other women find us. Thank you!
Music: Come Back by Ketsa. Licensed under a Creative Commons License Non-Commercial, No-Derivatives 4.0 International License.
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Transcript
Introducing the Podcast and Guest
00:00:00
Speaker
I said, nothing is so too small and nothing is too great for God to help you with. Music
00:00:10
Speaker
This is the After Dinner Mint, a podcast of stories i'll tell you at dinner. Think of the mint as the stories you tell after you've been kicked out of the restaurant, holding your mint, standing in the street, telling more honest stories with your friends than you did at the table.
00:00:25
Speaker
It's not a sermon. It's not advice. It's not a tough help. We're processing what we're learning about faith and life, honestly, in community, to encourage you to do that with your God and your community.
00:00:43
Speaker
Welcome to After Dinner Mint.
Joy's Early Life and Faith Journey
00:00:45
Speaker
I'm your host, Bec, and today I'm here with Mrs Joy Young. And could you please tell us how old are you?
00:00:59
Speaker
I'll show you my thought birth certificate if you like, but I am 96. That's amazing. So could you tell us where where were you born and where did you grow up?
00:01:13
Speaker
I was born in in Victoria. I grew up on a farm. My father didn't have any sons, so he had three daughters and I had to be the son. So I did all the horse riding and everything that had to be done like that.
00:01:26
Speaker
Wow. Yes. That's amazing. That was in my teens, yes. Yeah. And how how did you become a Christian? Well, when I was in my teens, I went down to Melbourne to a youth a camp.
00:01:41
Speaker
There was a great big auditorium and hundreds of people there, and they had come to hear returned soldier who had been injured in the war. He spoke and he told how he came to know God and how God had saved his life.
00:01:58
Speaker
And he went on to say how Jesus died on the cross and and bled and died to save us from the penalty of sin. And what were we doing for God in thanks for that?
00:02:12
Speaker
So then i afterwards it i felt constrained to pray and ask God what he wanted me to do. m and so that's that's when ah i became a Christian because God put his spirit within my heart and and gave me a desire to live for him. Wow.
00:02:34
Speaker
And like how did that change your perspective on your life and your future? Well, before I was just living for myself, I loved horse riding. I used to get on the horse and gallop for all was worth, and my father told me not to gallop.
00:02:49
Speaker
And I'd say, okay. But when I got below the pine plantation, I'd say, okay, Bonnie, let's go. ah dad boy And i used to I was even lifting up the slip rails and teaching the horse to jump. And so I was enjoying these jumpies the other end of the other side of the pine plantation. My parents couldn't even see it.
00:03:08
Speaker
I look back now and think that if I'd fallen off and oh I could have died, nobody would have known. But God must have had his hand on me and kept me safe. But they were wonderful days. But I did exactly as ah I ah pleased. And when I became a Christian, I realised now God was in control of my life and now I need to seek his will for what he wanted me to do.
00:03:30
Speaker
wow So... At that point, like did you do any career training around that time?
Becoming a Missionary Nurse
00:03:37
Speaker
I decided to go and train to be a nurse and train to be a a missionary nurse and I carved out my life again like I did. And thought, oh, I'd like to i'll go over to Africa and I'll be a missionary nurse and nurse the people over there in the other missions.
00:03:53
Speaker
But God had a different plan. Yeah. like What made you decide to be a missionary nurse? The fact that God had done so much for me on the cross and I felt as though I needed to do something in my life to thank him and let him use me to do what he wanted me to do.
00:04:10
Speaker
Yes. That man's message really made an impact, were you right? It did too. It affected me. It really affected me. and I was never the same afterwards. My life then belonged to God and he directed my life from there on.
00:04:24
Speaker
Were you a Christian, like, or did you know about Jesus before that? like Yes, I did. I'd been to Sunday school in Presbyterian church when I was young, but it meant nothing much to me. but But I didn't know scripture, and my mother was a lovely Christian. She used to pray for me every night.
00:04:41
Speaker
And we used to be taken to church and church meant nothing to me. It was as dry as could be. and i never got anything out of going to church in those days. Yeah. No, no. And I often look back to think of what that church missed out on was being personally interested in people. But it meant nothing to me. And it wasn't until I had that contact when I went away that time that it changed my life.
00:05:05
Speaker
So you're training. You're training to be a nurse. you're thinking you're going to go to Africa. And then yeahs what happened? Yes, that's what I was doing. And I was training and I did my level best and learnt as much as I could. And I was i was sent to the operating theatre for three months, intense training.
00:05:22
Speaker
And I didn't know then why I had to be there for three months. But i realised that afterwards, later on in life, that I needed that theatre training. Anyway, that that was nursing. Yeah, the surgical, yeah. Yes.
00:05:37
Speaker
So that was my nursing stage. And so
00:05:43
Speaker
because I know where you ended up, but, like, how did you know what God's will was or what direction to go? like because you obviously didn't end up going to Africa. No, I didn't go to Africa. And i ah met a young man and our friendship developed. And when our friendship developed and became deeper, I realized that, well, now, where's my plans going?
00:06:04
Speaker
i want to go to Africa. Yeah. But I really sought the Lord then and asked him what I was to do. And he showed me that that was my will, not his. And he still wanted me to be a missionary, but not now. So we married.
00:06:19
Speaker
Yeah. And did your your husband, did he want did he wanted to do mission work? What was he doing when you met him? He'd been through a Bible college and he was training to be a missionary himself. No Yes. And I didn't you know didn't know that earlier on, but he brought us together and we married. and So the the plan i had to go to Africa just fell by the way and I just had to wait God's time and what he wanted me to do.
00:06:47
Speaker
How long did you wait? It was hard to wait, yeah. But I had three little children and they filled one's life up. there ah So, because I know Val, but who were your children and what were they? three children. had three girls, Val, Rosemary and Marilyn. Marilyn was a baby and she was a baby when God constrained us that he wanted us to go into full-time work.
00:07:12
Speaker
She was six months old. Oh, wow. So how did you know you were like, okay, now's the time going to go on a full-time mission? can't explain that really except that there's a deep inner assurance that this is the will of God. And we were both so sure, my husband and I were both so sure this is what God wanted us to And we sold up everything we had and set off.
00:07:42
Speaker
Oh, wow. With our three little children and left from Melbourne to go across to the west. So you'd never been, you weren't even in Western Australia at that point. You were still in Melbourne.
00:07:53
Speaker
Pardon? So you weren't even in Western Australia. No, we were in Melbourne. Wow. ah we were Victorians. Wow. So did you go with a mission agency? or Yes, I did. We went to a mission and because we felt God led us there. And we had a verse in Scripture that said, you did not choose me.
00:08:15
Speaker
I chose you and that you might go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit may remain. So we had the assurance that this was the will of God. He'd chosen us.
00:08:26
Speaker
So we set off. In the old time train, it was a steam train, and it changed three times going from there to Kalgoorlie. And we slept three nights and two days, two nights, three nights, two nights two three days and two nights,
00:08:43
Speaker
ah In the train with our three little children, the baby and all. Wow. And how old was Val at that point? If your youngest was six months, how old was Val? Val was ah six, I think. about Yeah, Val was six.
00:08:57
Speaker
Rosemary, three. And then there was the baby, six months. i was three Three years apart, the three of them. Wow, that's like almost my kids now. And that was hard going in the train because I couldn't feed her. I'd fed the two the first two children but I couldn't feed her and I could never work out and I still can't work out why God didn't allow me to feed her and I had to keep asking the attendant in the train for a thermos of boiling water for a mix-up milk mixture all the way across the west.
00:09:27
Speaker
Oh, wow. So where did you end up? We had three changes of of trains because of the gauge. Then we had these three. I can remember standing and in the railway line with these three children and all our cases around us and I had baby basket there and another basket full of nappies and everything.
00:09:48
Speaker
And we had to change three times going until we got to Kalgoorlie and then we had to change to go to another train that went further north. took a whole day to go north, getting hotter as we went.
00:10:00
Speaker
Oh, man.
Challenges and Miracles in the Desert
00:10:01
Speaker
And so where did you end up? Well, when we got to the northern Leonora, the mission truck was there waiting for us.
00:10:11
Speaker
And so then we had to go go by we mission truck. Three days we slept in the mission truck. took three days to go over all the sand hills. There was no road. There was just a track. we had to go through all those sand hills until we finally got to the western desert where we were as sent to. as They were waiting for us.
00:10:31
Speaker
Oh, my gosh. So is that Windham or was that? No, that was the Western Desert. The Western Desert. Out of Warburton Ranges. And they had a hospital there that they were sending me to. And that's what the mission wanted. They were waiting for a nurse to apply. And when my husband and I applied, oh, she's a nurse. Oh, we'll send her there. Send them there. Oh, wow.
00:10:53
Speaker
And so I was sent to the hospital. I never knew until I got to the hospital. that the nearest doctor was just on 1,000 kilometres away. That's insane.
00:11:05
Speaker
Yeah. And it just hit me and I thought, oh, is is this? I'm supposed to act in place of a doctor now, you know. And there was 500 Aboriginal people there in camp and they were very primitive ones that had come from the Northern Territory and away out in isolation.
00:11:24
Speaker
And they had a lot of spear fights, so I had an awful lot of casualties in the hospital. oh wow And I had no nurse to help out, no one to help. You were the sole nurse? Yes.
00:11:36
Speaker
Nurse, doctor, everything. Oh man, that would have been terrifying. That's where I proved God's help. i needed more than my own. I couldn't do it on my own.
00:11:49
Speaker
how How did he help you?
00:11:53
Speaker
well ah In each case, I experienced different things, you know. So there was one really big spear fight and one man was very, very seriously injured.
00:12:11
Speaker
Another Aboriginal who was so angry with him, he uprooted a huge fence post and held it in the air and then brought it down, bang, on top of his head. And, course, he crashed to the ground.
00:12:25
Speaker
probably a fractured skull, goodness knows. But they brought him in and just landed him on me in the hospital and away they went for the next casualty. And I was standing beside the bed of this patient and had my hand on his pulse and I said, Lord, what do I do here?
00:12:44
Speaker
Just what do I do here? And it came to my mind a scripture that i knew in past life and it said, call unto me and I will answer you and show you great things.
00:12:58
Speaker
And that was a real answer that's found in Jeremiah 33.3. and And he did. He showed me great things in that. And so I said, well, please, please don't let this man die.
00:13:12
Speaker
yeah Please don't let him die. He was unconscious. He didn't know thing. But I kept making observation on and on and on and yeah every now and then, and he's still in a coma, still in a coma, still in a coma. And one night I went in there at midnight and the bed was empty.
00:13:34
Speaker
And I thought, now what's happening? Have they come and taken him away? Have they people come and taken him away? And a man in the bed opposite said, and he was another patient, and he said,
00:13:45
Speaker
Our sister, even got up and walked, walked out. And I said, well, he couldn't walk. He was too sick. And he said, no, he walked out. And he said he was walking to the seven mile camp. That means he was going to walk seven miles to get the man who'd got him.
00:14:03
Speaker
And then I said, well, he won't get far. It's midnight. And I couldn't hear about it because it was midnight. So in early in the morning, and I was in the dispensary and a man came from from the Seven Mile camp for some mixture from the dispensary.
00:14:18
Speaker
And I said to oh, did that man get there last night? And he said, yeah, he got there. And I said, how is he? Oh, yeah, all right, he said. So he'd walked seven miles over stone and spinifex and landhills and everything, cross-country over the sandhills to get to the Seven Mile, not on a road.
00:14:39
Speaker
But he he did it from midnight on and he got there. He got there still at night. so and And this is where I felt that God must have intervened.
00:14:53
Speaker
Yeah. And I thought, is this what he said? I'll show you great things. Is this one of the great things he's shown me? Mm-hmm.
00:15:04
Speaker
the impossible thing that happened. It took me back to thanking God for for his help. But then then i i just could not work out how he could walk seven miles. And then I remembered in Scripture, want to ask me a question?
00:15:23
Speaker
I do, but tell me what I remembered in Scripture. In the Scripture it says, when Jesus was here on earth, he saw a man who was lame, And he'd been lame for 38 years.
00:15:36
Speaker
And he looked at him and he said, get up and walk. And the man got up and walked. First time for 38 years. And I thought, the scripture also says that God is the same yesterday, today and forever. Has God said to this man in his mind, get up and walk?
00:15:56
Speaker
It's a modern hospital, ah modern day, and 2,000 years after Jesus was here, but God is still the same. Did he make that man walk? And I thought of another scripture that says yeah he is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.
00:16:18
Speaker
And I realised that I only asked for him him not to die. i didn't ask for him to to walk. I asked for him not to die, and this was above all that asked or thought after what the Scripture said.
00:16:35
Speaker
Yes, and the other thing that you told me when we spoke before was that actually there was a lot of conflict going on as well with the man who'd been injured, like there was going to be payback if he died? He was going out there for to get the man who got him, and he got out there. I don't know what happened after that. I never heard it, but I saw him a few few weeks later,
00:16:56
Speaker
I asked him, and he couldn't speak any English. I had to speak his language. and I asked him how his head was, and he said his head was real good now, and he walked off with a smile. He was perfectly all right.
00:17:09
Speaker
And that was something that God did for me. that You asked me earlier, how did I know that God helped me? That's how he helped me. There's no other answer as far as I was concerned.
Expanding Mission Work to Fitzroy
00:17:22
Speaker
was that God did help me and he gave me the words of Scripture into my mind, words that I had known through Scripture years ago, you know, I'd known all that. Yes, and he showed you, like, I did this. Yes. Yeah, I'm with you. Yes. Wow.
00:17:38
Speaker
And, like, out of interest, like, because I've read Karen Smoker's book or Karen Master's book about her parents' life. So they were in, like, Hall's Creek. But what other things...
00:17:51
Speaker
did you do on the mission like? Well, this was out in the Western Desert and I had many other experiences like that in the hospital, of different ones that came in and I'd proved the inability that I could do and God brought the answers to me in amazing ways. I can't tell you them all now, but each each experience I had, I had assurance that God was there, you know, and he showed me what what to do.
00:18:18
Speaker
Yeah. So while you worked in the hospital there, what did your husband do while you worked on the he was working in another area at the same mission amongst all the young men.
00:18:29
Speaker
was working amongst them. He was working amongst the white young men and then I was working in the hospital. We were living together. Yeah. We had two different jobs.
00:18:40
Speaker
Yeah. and was he was he teaching the Bible or what was he doing? He was. was taking meetings and and... taking scripture readings and prayer meetings and all sorts of things and then driving the truck and all sorts of things. yeah Because Val told me a really beautiful story about how they used to drive out to like all the pastoralists and all the farmers and teach, they were teaching the Bible story. but No, that was further up in the north later on when we moved.
00:19:14
Speaker
This is the Western Debt. After we would be there on, to three years, we were sent to the north to open up a work in the north. And that was the Fitzroy area that Cowen's definitely, it was up in that area and he opened up a work way out over the ranges and across the river, crossings and everything else.
00:19:35
Speaker
And he'd be away for three weeks, sitting with little groups of people, teaching the word of God to them. And meanwhile he's out there, I'm carrying on a working wind them and they,
00:19:47
Speaker
All the work, Christian work, the church services and the Sunday school and really instructing in the school. and yeah Were you the only missionaries at Wyndham?
00:20:00
Speaker
Yeah. So you were you're running the school for the Aboriginal kids in Wyndham, but you were also running church services? Yes. ah us yeah we we My husband built a church. There was no church.
00:20:16
Speaker
And that's another story in itself. He got a barge and he went across to Sunday Island, 80 miles out to sea, at the barge. And there was a school there. The children had been at school. And all the people had left Sunday Island. They'd all left the island and gone back to the mainland. And the school was just sitting not being used. So he pulled that down. He got some help, had some helpers to help him.
00:20:39
Speaker
pull that down and Kerem Smoker's father was one of the ones who helped him. They pulled that down, brought it over and brought it a thousand miles up through the kilimp from the Kimberleys and what to Wyndham and dumped it all off on the yard and my husband built a church out it.
00:20:55
Speaker
What? He is not a builder. Again. God came in on that and helped him. yes That church is still standing 60 years later. Right.
00:21:06
Speaker
hi which So it's Wyndham, what church is it? Wyndham. And after two years after that, he built another church out of Kununara just before the border of the Northern Territory.
00:21:17
Speaker
And that's still standing 60 years later. No way. So you went from Western Deserts to Wyndham and then you went up to Kununara? That's a different, yeah, a different work altogether.
00:21:30
Speaker
i the desert The deserts were really, real c primitive people. yeah How long were you in the Western Deserts for? About three years. And then how long were you in Wyndham? 30 years, I think.
00:21:44
Speaker
Really? Wyndham, all the Kimberleys. My husband was field leader of the whole of the Kimberleys. i mean Yeah. Wow.
00:21:56
Speaker
That's a whole new world. Don't let me into that.
00:22:01
Speaker
I'm still in the desert. Yes, okay. Yeah. So at any rate, there in the desert, I just proved the Lord. That's how I proved the Lord, was in situations that were too hard for me.
00:22:14
Speaker
And I called upon the Lord and he answered me and he showed me, you know, what he he could do with me if I was a poor Lord, you know, if I allowed him to use me. Yeah. You're the only person and you're a thousand kilometres from any other medical professional.
00:22:33
Speaker
Yes. Yeah. Oh, my goodness. Yes. they They were critical days. My goodness. And they were life and death, you know. My patience was between life and death.
00:22:49
Speaker
And I felt as though ah I was the only thing that was going to save their life if they were going to have to live. But I wasn't able to do it until God showed me how and he helped me. help so He showed me what to do.
00:23:02
Speaker
And so... yeah Isn't that amazing? There's a lot of stories in the desert there that ah you know I've proved God helped me with. was a little baby was sick once and I saved his life and was was a woman who was once and her life was just about going and saved her life. you know I mean, these these are different stories, separate stories, but that one story is of that man who walked home.
00:23:30
Speaker
That's amazing. Yeah, so... You can't can't pack wool into one. No, no, and that that is amazing because I remember even saying there would have been so much conflict and so many other people killed had he had died. Yeah.
00:23:46
Speaker
Yes, there would have been complications if they'd died. But God didn't allow them to die. and he just showed me what to do. yeah it It's just wonderful, you know, when you think of how god how great God is that he just provided He provided everything that you needed. Even here and down here, and i I still prove him in in and all sorts of ways, and know even in living in life. And I feel he gives me strength one day at a time.
00:24:14
Speaker
I'm 96, but ah I know the Lord's keeping me going for a purpose. So I just keep pressing on until he calls me home. here yeah How did you come to be in Wyndham?
00:24:29
Speaker
Well... There was this need in Wyndham of outreach. People way in the out, they'd never ever heard about the Lord. And so the mission sent us there. When we got there, there was no house to live in. So my husband and I, with our three little kids, lived under a barb tree for nearly 12 months, waiting for a house.
Living Under a Boab Tree
00:24:49
Speaker
we We put our name down for a house, but there was three-year waiting list. And so we lived under a barb tree for nearly a year. And I ah cooked on an open fire. all that time and we had no walls around us and no roof over us. Oh my gosh. And went through the hot season and it went through the wet season.
00:25:07
Speaker
You know, God is with us there and I had tremendous answers in in some situations while under that boa tree. So, you know, that's a whole story in itself, you know, that i can relate, but it takes too long. But then anyway. Can you tell me one? But, um you know, I i mean, ah the Lord is ah so wonderful and and he follows wherever we are, you know.
00:25:31
Speaker
Down here in in the situations that we're living in, he's still the same God and he's he loves us so much that he does want to help us. As we trust him, he does help us through these situations. Yeah.
00:25:46
Speaker
I said, nothing is so too small and nothing is too great for God to help you with. I laughed the other day. I'm making these sewing these dresses, making them for this old lady that that was in the care place.
00:26:02
Speaker
And I had to thread the needle, the machine needle. And so I've got the piece of cotton there and my hands are not too good. ah You know, they lost their feeling a bit. And I'm trying to put this in. i say, Lord, just just help this cotton to get through that hole.
00:26:18
Speaker
i just need your help. And the cotton went through the hole. now Now that, and and I said, thank you, Lord. And I went on with my sewing and I thought afterwards, nothing is too small and nothing is too great for God to meet us in.
00:26:35
Speaker
And so he met me in great things up there and he helped me. A lot of people would laugh at that, but that is true. I could not go on sewing. I could not make that dress until that needle had the cotton in it. so And, I mean, I'm tempted to think that often.
00:26:53
Speaker
Yes. Little things in the It's too little. It's too little to pray, you know, like, yeah yeah i can deal with it myself. I don't want to bother him. I know, and we say, God is so busy holding the moon and the sun in place and all the stars, and I expect him to to think of just me.
00:27:10
Speaker
Is this too much to ask for him? But nothing is too great and nothing is too small for God to answer. And he names all the stars. He's got them all named, all the stars. And you think of how many myriad stars there are. You think of the Milky Way. And all those stars have got names. And that's in the Psalms, and I read it not long ago. He names all stars.
00:27:30
Speaker
So these little things that we have, we think are too small to ask God, but he wants us to ask him. And when we ask him, it shows that we trust him, you know.
00:27:41
Speaker
Yes, so the more it's... It's like that growing dependence and trust yes on him. And when we trust him in those little things, it takes us through life and we end trusting him for the then the greater things as we come into them in life.
00:27:58
Speaker
But he's teaching us all the time. I'm still learning them, God, now.
00:28:04
Speaker
I love that. I love just that image of like throughout your daily life, it's there's nothing it sounds like there's nothing, no area of your life that's not not something that you would pray about or something that you wouldn't surrender to him.
00:28:18
Speaker
No, he's just, he's interested in all we're interested in and and he can use us in the smallest ways to help somebody. Isn't that funny? We don't want little ways. We don't want little things. We want to be good.
00:28:34
Speaker
He understands our personalities and everything else. I don't know how he doesn't get impatient with us, but he doesn't seem to.
00:28:45
Speaker
Yeah. You want us finish up now? no No, I'm thinking about Wyndham.
00:28:54
Speaker
Well, I'll tell you about Under the Bargdree and that's it. And my husband was out walking, visiting people all around with them. And this his car needed a new motor in it. And he'd sent to Perth for it. And we had to wait three months in those days for a ship to come up the coast to bring it.
00:29:13
Speaker
So he said, well, i can't sit down all this time. I'll go walking. So he went walking to to to visit people. And we had, under the barb tree, we had no lights. We had no ablution block. We had no water.
00:29:27
Speaker
Oh, wow. know, there was a little... Where did you get water from? Corrugated tin iron, toilet a away up on a hill over further away, and that's the one we had to use. The cricketers used to use it.
00:29:40
Speaker
So that was the only ablution block I think was. But the water situation, my husband had a 44-gallon drum and he used to roll it right across the marsh and up a hill and there was a house away over there and he asked that...
00:29:54
Speaker
that man who offended, could we fill it up with water? And he said yes. So we filled it he filled up the 44 gallon rum with water, put the bung in and then he wailed it back down the hill and right across the marsh and right to where our camp was and that was our water.
00:30:11
Speaker
and He had two of those. lying down beside the tree. And he used to take that for, get the water, and that our water situation. Well, we'd run out of water, and he was away visiting people, and he'd been walking all the morning, and and it was extensively hot.
00:30:26
Speaker
Oh, it was over 100 degrees Fahrenheit all night. You know, it never, never cooled off. We were right in the Gulf. We were in the Cambridge Gulf. That's where we were.
00:30:38
Speaker
And I thought, look, just, i've got a school kids clothes here that I've got to wash because there was schools about, I don't know, i about five kilometres of both ways. I used to walk to school.
00:30:52
Speaker
But I had this pile of clothes and his clothes and my clothes and, of course, in the hot climates, you go through a lot of them. And I thought, oh, if only it had rained. Oh, if only it had rained.
00:31:05
Speaker
And then I suddenly thought, I looked up in Timothy, in the Bible, and it said, Elijah was a man with like passions as us.
00:31:18
Speaker
He was like us. And he prayed way back the hundreds of years ago that the rain would stop because the people were being very wicked and God said that he was going to punish them and not get in the rain. So he prayed that there would be no rain, there was no rain. And three years later he prayed and the rain came.
00:31:38
Speaker
and I read this and I recorded that and I thought, well, Elijah's God's my God? Why can't I ask him? and I got down on my knees under the boab tree and I said, Lord, please, please send us some rain.
00:31:53
Speaker
I can't wash the kids' clothes. I had that much water left in a little jug and that was just enough for a mouthful each for us to drink. and And I said, Elijah, when he prayed for rain, he looked for a cloud and he couldn't see a cloud and he had to pray seven times and then a cloud the size of a man's hand appeared over the sky. he says, oh, there's going to be rain.
00:32:21
Speaker
just as the size of the man's head. And so I'm thinking, Elijah's God's my God. Lord, please send us rain. And I'm looking around there and I'm not a cloud in the sky. It's the middle of July and up there there was no rain from April from april until September. That was the dry season. And in those days there was no rain for those months.
00:32:44
Speaker
The rain only came from September right through to to April. So there were two seasons, the dry season, which there was no rain in it. And I didn't know that. hadn't been there that long.
00:32:57
Speaker
But I asked him for rain and I couldn't see a cloud in the sky. Just clear blue skies, which is what it always was at that time of the that ah I said, oh, I can't keep watching for clouds.
00:33:10
Speaker
I've got to go and cook some lunch for my husband. when he gets home, he's going to need nourishment. So I get my pot and put it over the fire and I'm um stirring this, cooking this veggie, I don't know, stew or something for his lunch and he walked in and he said, it's good must be going to rain, there's clouds everywhere.
00:33:33
Speaker
And I said, oh, playot And he says, yes. And I said, oh, true. And he said, yeah. He says, we want to do something about catching the the rain when it comes. And he grabbed the 44-gallon drum. said We had a little tarp about bit over a metre long. And he'd put two stakes in the ground, four stakes. And he had that there for shade.
00:33:56
Speaker
So he put a drum under this corner and one under that corner. and directed it to Jane, just finished doing that and down came the rain and it came in bucket loads. I have never before and I have never since seen rain like that.
00:34:12
Speaker
It was like bucket loads. It just absolutely poured but it only lasted for 15 minutes. Why didn't they keep going on? Only 15 minutes. But in that 15 minutes, we had two 44-gallon drums full.
00:34:30
Speaker
We've got 100 gallons of water. And I thought here was me expecting to do my washing with raindrops. You know, I never thought until afterwards. I only asked the Lord for the send rain so I could wash my the kids' clothes. And I never really never thought I could never wash them with raindrops.
00:34:51
Speaker
He did abundantly more than you could ask, Laura. Yes, he sent rain, but he also got my husband the wisdom to to put these drums there to catch it, you know.
00:35:02
Speaker
Yes. So he thought of the practical side of it. And I never, I never, ah I was a student. So at Lansbury, down came the rain. And I never told him that I'd prayed and asked for that rain.
00:35:15
Speaker
I don't think I told him for about three years. I just couldn't because I felt as though he'd think I was taking the credit for it or something, you see, because I had prayed for it.
00:35:27
Speaker
And I didn't want that to happen, so I never told him. God answered my prayer. He sent the rain. We got the water. we got fat But that was that was a miracle that happened. And I went down the street. We went down. and It was a shop. It's very far over the hill.
00:35:44
Speaker
We went there. We've got our mail there and our bread there. And the people are all saying, can't get over it. Never see it in all these years. It's never rained in the middle of July.
00:35:55
Speaker
It's always clouds. No clouds. No clouds until September. What happened? And it came down in bucket loads. But it didn't last for long. And I'm there thinking, know the answer, but I couldn't tell them.
00:36:10
Speaker
that That is God knowing where we were. And I thought, well, God knew that we were little family underneath that boab tree and nobody knew where we were. i mean, and no church supported us.
00:36:26
Speaker
Nobody sent any money. the the The mission forgot where they'd sent us, so they never supported. And we had no support. God kept us going. How did he survive with no support?
00:36:38
Speaker
Yeah. and to he He knew. and I'm sitting there saying, nobody knows where we are The world doesn't know where we are. We're stuck here under this tree.
00:36:50
Speaker
And then God came in and gave it us abundance of rain. He's faithful. And he is faithful. He's faithful even to the end, you know. He knows our need. And I'm...
00:37:03
Speaker
It made me realise that God knew we were under that boab tree.
00:37:11
Speaker
We our name down for a house on the three year waiting list. Miracle! God provided us with a house that we never knew going to get.
00:37:23
Speaker
My husband got hepatitis. He'd been doing hospital visitation. and two men come off a boat and they had Hepatitis and he didn't know and the doctors hadn't had yet examined them.
00:37:34
Speaker
And a few days later got really sick and I thought, what's wrong with him? He's never ill. And he collapsed, he got out got up in the morning and collapsed. And I thought, well, there's something them wrong with him. So we took him to the doctor the doctor said, you've got Hepatitis.
00:37:50
Speaker
And because he had Hepatitis, they had to let the Shinoa know The doctors had to let the shire know because this was their village, their district, and they didn't want the hepatitis to spread through the whole district. Yeah.
00:38:03
Speaker
So they had, the doctors always doctor ah notified the shire, and then the shire notified the police because the police had to go around and find out where this hepatitis was.
00:38:16
Speaker
And so we got back up in the morning and He was a policeman in front of a do air knows all but our tree, a policeman there. And he said, are you, Mervie Young?
00:38:30
Speaker
And I said, yes, he is. And he said, well, where do you live?
Unexpected Housing and Divine Intervention
00:38:37
Speaker
We said, here. He said, here. And he said, let's see, all the tide had come in, come across the marsh, and then he was around he said,
00:38:47
Speaker
a couple of yards from where we were and the big creek that was behind us, only a few yards away, that flooded and it came up to the back. And we we were literally surrounded with water.
00:39:00
Speaker
We were living in the middle of a swamp. And the policeman had to come through, drive his car through water to get to us. And he said, but where do you live? And we said, here. And he said he said, would you like a house?
00:39:16
Speaker
I mean, I couldn't believe what he was saying. And he said, well, there's been six brand new houses. They've all been applied for and they've been waiting for them for three years. But one person, his wife won't come up from Perth because of the heat.
00:39:32
Speaker
So the house had to be handed back in. And then the word came through that we'll give it to the next person who was most needful. And he says, I think you are the most needful.
00:39:44
Speaker
And he said, you've just got to give me 30 pounds, pounds then, give me 30 pounds and I can hand you the key.
00:39:56
Speaker
and And my husband said to him, um can we think about it? Can you come back tomorrow morning and we'll give you the answer?
00:40:07
Speaker
Yeah, think he's right. Is he queer? you know Oh, well, okay, I'll come back tomorrow morning. And meantime, Val went down the shop and collected the mail and brought it back. And that evening we opened the mail and there was a letter there addressed to us and it had 30 pounds in it.
00:40:29
Speaker
It had no name. We didn't know who it was, but there was 30 pounds in that envelope. And we just said, well, thank you, Lord. And next morning the policeman came and he said, well, if you decided have the house? And Merv said, yeah, we've decided we'll have the house. And here you are. he surprised harry And he handed him the key and we moved into the house that afternoon.
00:40:53
Speaker
We didn't have to wait three years for it. We'd waited 12 months. Everyone else had. That is wild. See, that's another miracle.
00:41:05
Speaker
that you can't tell everybody, but that was God personally interested in us and he knew our need. And Merv had hepatitis and he couldn't hardly walk. And we just drove out of there and into a new house and we had nothing in the house.
00:41:20
Speaker
There was no furniture and we didn't have any furniture. yes But we were in underneath a roof and we had running water. Oh, oh oh my goodness. stood in front of the soup and I ran the water and I thanked the Lord for running water.
00:41:35
Speaker
And the people next door, Vidi and Jack next door, they were just so wonderful. They said, you need a bed. We brought you our bed. Mr Young needs to lie down in bed. And he gave us they gave us their bed and we just dropped into bed.
00:41:52
Speaker
And we had toilet and shower and running water all under the one roof. Wow. And that's Wyndham. That's the Kimberley. That's one of the Kimberley.
00:42:05
Speaker
One of the Kimberley miracles. You said, what about Wynnum area? Yeah. Well, that's only one of them anyway. That's it. I'm grateful for that. That's a great story. ah why I won't take up any more your time. Did he get better from the hepatitis?
00:42:21
Speaker
Yes, he did. He soon got better. He got better and the rest of us got it as well because it's contagious. Which hepatitis was it? like him Gosh. Val says,
00:42:34
Speaker
It's I'm not going to get hepatitis. I'm just not going to get hepatitis. I'm going to school. I am not going to get hepatitis. And she didn't. But Rose really got it.
00:42:46
Speaker
Marilyn got it. I got it. Val didn't get it. That's well, if that just summarises.
00:42:58
Speaker
She's very good. But anyway, you got over to her.
00:43:02
Speaker
So how did you end up in Kununurra? Did you go up and live in Kununurra for a while or was that just a once-off mention? Well, that was 60 miles out from Wyndham and Merv built another church out there for the people out there and he used to carry on a work out there for three days a week and I carried on the work in Wyndham.
00:43:26
Speaker
Oh, wow. So he would drive up to Kununurra and work for three days and then drive back. Yeah. That's it.
00:43:36
Speaker
I won't keep you any longer. One more question. um How would you say all of these experiences, like it helped you face life now without me?
00:43:49
Speaker
Because he's the same God as he was then.
Reflection on Enduring Faith
00:43:53
Speaker
And God says, I will never leave you nor forsake you. And he hasn't left me. I didn't think I could live without Merv because we were so much in the life of all our lives. We did everything together and thought together and made decisions together and everything.
00:44:07
Speaker
But when he left, I thought, I don't think I can live without him now. in God came in ivan and he became my helper and he's helped me in 10 years now since he's gone and he's helped me in all those 10 years.
00:44:24
Speaker
And I've proved his strength is sufficient. When he wants to take me home, I'm ready to go But he's left me here for 96 years.
00:44:37
Speaker
So, yeah. And then that's, I just prove his help. I just think, well, I wake up in the morning and say, thank you, Lord, you've given me a good night's sleep. And I'm up here. I'm still breathing.
00:44:50
Speaker
I can still see. can still hear. And I can still talk. So get up and I start the day off and I thank the Lord. Well, he's been with me all night.
00:45:01
Speaker
And, Lord, this day is yours. Just clean this channel of mine so that it's fit for your Holy Spirit to work through and take care of my steps and help my mouth to speak only what you want to speak.
00:45:18
Speaker
Lord, I honour you with my thinking. my speech and what I do, that your Holy Spirit might have so complete control even of what I do today, just this one day. And every day is the same. You know, every day he's there.
00:45:37
Speaker
Yes, it's like, what yeah, oh this is what I need from you just today this one day. Yeah. But just doing that every day. And what's tomorrow going to bring? Well, when tomorrow ma I get up in the morning, well, that day is his to show me what he wants. That's that. that Yeah.
00:45:57
Speaker
I've got all sorts of them appointments on the on the calendar. My appointment was with you today. Yes.
00:46:09
Speaker
Yes. Yes. yeah So for our last one, what what encouragement could you offer to women who are Do I what? What encouragement could you offer to women who are, you know, trying to follow Jesus, trying to work out what he would have them do Just trust one day at a time. Yeah.
00:46:30
Speaker
Put your trust in God. He fails not. in never fails. I mean, we're we're so weak in our thinking, but we just need to put our trust in him and step out each day knowing that we're in the hand of God.
00:46:47
Speaker
And it it does take suppression away.
00:46:51
Speaker
gives us assurance that we're not alone. He's with us. That's beautiful. I love, thank you. I love that that picture of just, it sounds like every day you've done that, just, oh, God, I'm going to trust you with everything, where I go, my money, my family, my husband, even down to like the tiniest things of like the thread and the needle.
00:47:17
Speaker
Yeah, because you can look I shouldn't have told you that. That's great. No, but I think it's so beautiful because you can look back on how have you remained so steadfast for an entire life. But I think it sounds like it's that. It's that slow. Yeah, it's just that that intimacy with God, I think, you know.
00:47:34
Speaker
Yeah. And the realisation that he is with us and he's aware of everything that we do and we are not alone, you know. even though there are hard patches, and they will come for us all. And it's no good saying once you're a Christian, it's easy going because God's with you. It's not that way. We're in the world. We're not of the world.
00:47:54
Speaker
We're in the world and hard patches come. And they come often through family as well. know, you have heartaches that come through family as well and you've got to overcome this, you know trust the Lord to undertake whatever the situation is. And then committed to him instead of worrying.
00:48:12
Speaker
I was sort of worrying so much about some of my family, that my grandchildren that I was worried about. in the decisions they were making were all the wrong. And I was worrying about And then God came to me through his word that said, be anxious for nothing, but by everything, by prayer and supplication, let your requests be made down unto God.
00:48:36
Speaker
And then the peace of God will keep your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. That's a wonderful verse. And that's in Philippians 4. And so i then said, well, right, oh Lord, I'm handing my grandchildren over to you.
00:48:51
Speaker
I i can't can't do any good. I can sit here and worry and worry and worry. But that's not helping them and it's making me sick as well. So I had to hand my worry over, you know, be anxious for nothing.
00:49:05
Speaker
So I handed all my anxieties over to him. And that's only me just recently that I've i've done that. And ah the peace of God did come into my heart. And I could, you know, go through the day then and go to bed at night and,
00:49:19
Speaker
Even though they're not doing the right thing, I can i can't change them. They're all adults, you know, and you you can't run their life for them or make decisions for them.
00:49:31
Speaker
And you can see them going into these pitfalls, but there's nothing you can do about it. So that's at that time I've learned I've just got to trust the Lord. Where I cannot see, I've just to trust the Lord. in And then he gives me peace in the heart.
00:49:47
Speaker
Yeah. So that helps me. I donated that one. i was like, I'm very talented at worrying. I said, needed that one because I'm very talented at worrying. So thank you.
00:49:59
Speaker
Yeah, but it is true, you know. And ah ah and that there's a verse in Scripture that says, may the joy of the Lord fill your heart. And I thought, Lord, just fill me with happiness.
00:50:10
Speaker
I want to be happy for you, you know, so that my joy might be full. He doesn't only want to give us some joy, but he wants to give us a whole lot of happiness, you know.
00:50:21
Speaker
And so, you know, he helps me to be happy. yeah And I hope i said I'm happy right to my chance. Yeah.
Living with Joy and Trust
00:50:30
Speaker
That's probably the through line of your whole, like all of the things that happened in like the Western deserts and in like Wyndham and in here is that you're like, Lord, I pray that you, you know, that he doesn't die. And Lord, I pray that you give me water and Lord, you know, just make me not to worry. And yet he's kind of filled your cup to overflowing.
00:50:51
Speaker
That's right. You know, I'm going to protect you from all of this conflict that's going to happen if this man dies. I'm going to protect you, you know, not only give you rainwater for your laundry, but I'm going to overflow these 44-calendrons. That's like I'm not only going to take your worry, but I'm going to make you overflow with joy.
00:51:08
Speaker
That's right. Yeah. it all It all boils down to that. And that it fills us with his joy. And his joy is different to what the world does. i mean, his happiness is is just something that's wonderful.
00:51:20
Speaker
Yeah, and not linked to your circumstances. hissin Yeah. that's That is amazing. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for sharing that. i ah That has been delightful.
00:51:37
Speaker
That's it from us, friends. We hope you enjoyed today's episode. And if you did, you can sign up to our free weekly newsletter called Stories
Conclusion and Invitation to Subscribe
00:51:46
Speaker
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00:51:59
Speaker
If you'd like that, the link is in the show notes. Thanks for listening, guys. bye