CHAPTER 26

Canberra Ñ Melba

On 20 January 1981 we arrived at 18 Alpen Street, Melba ACT, coming straight from Lake Conjola, our favourite holiday camping ground. There was a notice on the door to phone Doug or Jean Morgan, who would have the key. The house looked friendly and welcoming, with our furniture already arranged as we would have done it. It was a wonderful surprise. Soon we discovered, though, that about one third of our things were still missing. They had been left at Albion Park, because the removalist couldn't fit them all into his van. The Morgan family invited our whole family for dinner that night. It was such a warm welcome, we were quite overcome. It meant a great deal to us.

The church had a Parish Centre in Chinner Crescent, Melba. This had been the minister's residence, but our predecessor stayed at his own home. When the church knew that we were coming, they had asked us, whether we wanted to live there or in another house. We left the decision to them, for it depended whether they wanted to keep a Parish Centre or not.

They decided to buy a new house, especially for us, and when they showed us the house in Alpen Street, we were very happy indeed with their choice. It had a lovely view and was sunny and friendly. It had only three bedrooms, but next to the lounge was another room which could be converted either into another bedroom or as the study. At first I had it as my study, later I moved the study to the Parish Centre. Mark discovered a room under the house, entrance from the garage, which had a floor, but no window, only vents. He adopted this as his room, put up some of out Timor cloths as room dividers, and with his bed and some shelves it made a nice little den for him.

After our first service in Melba I had another pleasant surprise, when a young couple came to see me, saying: "We'll do it?"

"Do what?" I asked, somewhat puzzled. "The news sheet, of course. You asked for someone to do it, well, we'll do it."

I had asked in the news sheet for a volunteer to do it on a weekly basis, but when someone actually came forward, I was stumped. I had so often asked for help for this or that in the past, but no one ever volunteered. Was this going to be the pattern here? Actually, it was. It turned out that this church had a lot of talent and people were willing to take over jobs

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