The rainbow never sets

but unfortunately this didn't work out, due to internal conflict. Eventually the congregation and the Sinulinggas came under the administration of the Uniting Church.

One day an Indonesian young man came to the office looking very distressed. He told me that he had arrived in Australia on a visitor's visa, which had expired months ago, and he was now on the run from the Immigration Department. He hadn't told anybody, as he feared he would be deported, but he felt confident enough to tell me all about it. He had wanted to study in Australia, but ran out of money. Willem was then working illegally. His boss knew that he was an illegal migrant and so exploited him to the hilt. He received only just enough money to live on, but had to work hard for long hours without ever receiving any overtime payment. He was really in a fix, as he couldn't even tell his friends at church for fear of being reported to the authorities. He had reached the end of his tether, both physically and emotionally. Could I help him?

I listened carefully to him for a long time, but what could I do? I felt so sorry for him. Whatever possible action came to my mind had to be discarded again as he was an illegal migrant without any rights. A terrible position to be in. At least I offered him to see me each Wednesday if he liked. He came regularly for a few weeks to pour out his heart. Then I heard an announcement over the news, that the minister of Immigration had issued an amnesty for all illegal migrants in Australia. At our next interview Willem was beaming. He had already heard the news, but was sceptical. Could he trust the authorities? Or was it a ruse to catch people like him? I was able to reassure him that this was a genuine amnesty, and helped him to make the appropriate applications. In no time he received a resident permit, and with that a new lease of life.

The next meeting of the IAMG was in Sydney from 23 to 28 July 1978 with seven participants from each council. I did all the preparations and organisation for it. Justice Robert McGarvie from Melbourne was our keynote speaker on Justice in Australia, and Dr. Simatupang brought to us the Indonesian perspective. This meeting helped to consolidate our work together, but no new initiatives were taken.

From 17 to 21 March 1980 the fourth IAMG meeting took place in Jakarta, with nine participants from each council of churches.

The fifth and final IAMG meeting was held at Morpeth near Newcastle from 19 to 24 October 1981, which I organised again, with the help of Martin Chittleborough from the ACC. Dick Wootton spoke to us on the effects of Trans National Companies (TNC) on both Australia and Indonesia. It was acknowledged that in some instances the TNC's had grown to such an extent, that they have become more powerful than sovereign states. Apart from the benefit they brought to countries, there were also many negative sides. The churches had the prophetic role to warn governments and people of these and they had to stress that people take priority over profits.

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