CMS Co-Mission Partner Miriam Numamurdirdi serve as a teacher at Nungalinya College. Miriam also works alongside CMS missionaries Derek and Rosemary Snibson as volunteer chaplains at Darwin hospitals. Here, Miriam shares her journey to becoming a chaplain, and how God is at work among Nungalinya chaplaincy students.

Miriam’s journey to chaplaincy

Miriam first began working at Nungalinya College in 2018 as a cleaner. But God had other plans for her.

“Kate Beer (former CMS missionary) wanted me to go and work with her in the Diocese of the Northern Territory. We visited and helped communities together,” she shared.

Not long after this, Derek and Rosemary asked if Miriam could help them with hospital chaplaincy. For three days a week, she continued working in the Diocese office, and for the other two days, she visited in the hospitals.

After James and Miriam finished their chaplaincy training at Nungalinya College, the late Rev Dr Michelle Cook asked if Miriam could help her teach the course.

Miriam looks back on teaching with Michelle with great fondness, saying:

“She made things easy for the students, and they learnt quick.”

Hospital chaplaincy

In the chaplaincy course, students learn about the basics of the Bible, as well as how to care for people in school and hospital settings. A key part of the course is practical experience in Darwin hospitals.

The chaplaincy student group is a mix of students from different communities, languages and church denominations. During their hospital experience, students will find out who their patients are and which community they come from. They will then pray for patients in their shared language.

Miriam spoke about the impact of hospital chaplaincy during one of the missionary sessions at CMS NSW & ACT Summer School:

“Sick people need medicine and prayer. They need the Word, because some of them don’t know the Lord. Derek, Rosemary and I pray for people in Kriol. Patients often stay in hospital for months and even years and are missing their families. They ask, ‘Derek and Rosemary, can you pray for me? I’m worried about my family.’”

She shared the encouraging story of one man, who they had been praying with for a long time:

“We’ve been praying for one patient for a long time. Recently, we saw him and he said he was ready to be discharged, and his family were waiting for him. God is so powerful! There’s so many ways he can help.”

Making a difference

The chaplain trainees at Nungalinya are making a big difference not just in hospitals, but in Aboriginal communities as well.

Reverend Darryn Farrell from Minyerri shared his thankfulness for the chaplains:

“I have watched what the chaplains do—they do good work.”

At the 2024 Katherine Christian Convention—an annual conference that brings together Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal believers from a wide area of the Northern Territory—Darryn was overjoyed to see his nephews, who had recently left prison, being cared for by the chaplains.

Miriam shared:

“They [Darryn’s nephews] were looking for prayer. Amos [fellow Nungalinya chaplaincy teacher] and I were at the Katherine Christian Convention with our students, and we were all able to pray for them.”

Praise God for his work through the chaplaincy teachers and students at Nungalinya College, who are caring for people and making Christ known in hospitals and communities.

PRAY

Pray that God might continue to raise up more Aboriginal chaplains in the Northern Territory, and provide more opportunities for chaplaincy students to grow and be equipped in this ministry.