Our mission partnership with Brett & Justine Wiltshire began 14 years ago in 2006. CityLife has had a fruitful partnership with their ministry, Australian Aboriginal Outreach Ministries (AAOM), in reaching out to Indigenous Australians in some of the most remote areas of our country. We’ve journeyed with them as a they pastored the church in Halls Creek and helped transform the local community. In 2014, they were appointed as the National Directors of AAOM and travelled all around the country to provide much needed training and support for AAOM pastors
In late 2020, Brett advised us that he and Justine would be leaving the AAOM to take up the Senior Pastor position at Sun City Christian Centre, Geraldton WA. We are very excited to see what God has in store for both Brett & Justine in this new season after 20 years of fruitfulness in Indigenous ministry.
As a church community, we contributed to their personal support as well as to numerous projects over the years. One of the longest running projects has been the construction of a Church Planting Trainee’s Accommodation in Halls Creek that also serves as emergency housing. Not only did we contribute funds to its construction, CityLife members also travelled to Halls Creek to help with the outfitting and finishing of the accommodation. Special mention to Brian & Isobell Pither, Glenn Danaher and the Indigenous Support Committee who made great contributions to its completion.
We’ve been blessed to have passionate supporters of Indigenous Ministry in our congregation, beginning with the Brehaut family who led the support efforts from the very early days and then Brian & Isobell Pither who were passed the baton in 2015. Many CityLife short term teams went to Halls Creek over the past 14 years; mainly led by the Brehauts and Pithers.
Our Kids Ministry has also been an active supporter of Indigenous ministry. Many years ago one of our Kids Pastors, Judith Wong, caught a vision to provide a Children’s Ministry program in Halls Creek during their Annual Conference that became an ongoing annual team from CityLife. These teams allowed Brett & Justine to fully focus on the adults while the children had a program tailored just for them.
We thank God for the privilege we’ve had as a church community to be involved in Indigenous ministry with Brett & Justine. We are also grateful to Brett & Justine for allowing us to journey with them and for their friendship. We have greatly benefited from their wisdom and inspiration over the years as they’ve shared their experiences and insights with us as a church community during our annual World Impact Week. We wish them the very best in this new season of life and ministry.
As a church, we value Indigenous ministry and are continuing to explore the road ahead with AAOM.
