Out West with our Bush Chaplains: We travelled to Western Australia recently to welcome our new Bush Chaplain, Pastor Lindsay Ginn, and were joined by Rev John Dihm and Rev Mitch Fialkowski. In this feature, we introduce you to Lindsay and share highlights of our conversations with our two other WA Bush Chaplains, including how COVID-19 is affecting their remote communities.

Goldfields welcomes our new Bush Chaplain

At the end of February this year, Pastor Lindsay Ginn joined our team of Bush Chaplains. Based in Kalgoorlie, he hopes to use his love of music to bring people together.

Music has been part of Lindsay’s life since age seven. He knows the piano, melodica, guitar and the guitalele (which we learned was a hybrid guitar-ukulele). Lindsay loves the country life too, having travelled through Outback Australia with his music.

But in his travels, Lindsay noticed how people in remote Australia were struggling. He saw that they did not have the same access to resources as those in the city, And so, his interest in working with smaller towns, churches and country folk grew.

When the opportunity came for him to move to Western Australia’s Kalgoorlie, he farewelled life in Mt Isa, Queensland to pursue his passion for connecting communities through his music.

Bringing music back

Lindsay told us that in smaller communities, music is often neglected in the school curriculum, with up to 60 per cent having no music whatsoever. He recently discovered one school in his Remote Area, where instruments were still in their boxes from two years ago – never been touched!

“I’ve taught music for many years, and I love writing songs to play in public spaces,” Lindsay said. “In the country, music is sadly left out of many schools, but I’m here to offer lessons with the hope of getting to know students, their parents and then the wider community.”

One school has expressed an interest in having a music program, but was also concerned about COVID-19 infiltrating their community. As a small gesture, Lindsay brought the school some essentials: a pack of toilet paper, a box of tissues and a bottle of hand sanitiser. They were delighted!

“In these days of fear and uncertainty, let us remain strong and continue to give people hope.”

This article is adapted from the May 2020 edition of Frontier News.