News
August 31st, 2008
If I’m going to be totally honest, I have to tell you that 10 kids changed my perception of teenagers. Ok, we work with them all time, but these teens were different. The spark inside of them was so genuine and pure, it was impossible to miss.
A school group from Melbourne, southern Australia, came to [...]
July 1st, 2008
Two weeks back all the Reef to Outback staff had the opportunity to go camping for 3 days. We closed up shop here in Townsville and all headed out to Bluewater which is about 30 minutes north. It was a really refreshing time for all of our staff. There wasn’t much planned except to hang [...]
June 3rd, 2008
Check out our newest newsletter. If your on our mailing list you’ll get this in the mail in the next few weeks. If you want to be on our mailinglist, click the pink star on the top right of this page.
Download May/June Newsletter
May 24th, 2008
Bam sits on a stool, surrounded by the twelve of us and smiles brightly. She stops only to talk and jumps from her seat frequently to keep us hydrated. More Coke? She asks. Her job is to make sure we are comfortable. Satisfied. Well taken care of. For the moment, we are her customers. [...]
February 11th, 2008
Check out the new Reef to Outback iNews made by Josiah Ritner who is on our communications team.
January 31st, 2008
Ken Mulligan, our director here at Reef to Outback, was recently awarded ‘Citizen of the Year’ award. The city recognized him and his work over the past 15 years in Townsville. It was really amazing to see the mayor of Townsville, Tony Mooney, publicly recognize us as an organization. I’m not sure if he is [...]
January 12th, 2008
Stable on the Strand just finished about three weeks ago. I put together a short video to give you an idea of how it looked this year. Stable on the Strand is a week long event during Christmas that’s held at our local beach. Almost every church in Townsville gets involved to tell the public [...]
December 29th, 2007
I lay in bed as I write this while Nick, my husband, performs what is becoming a weekly ritual called “find the smell.” A few weeks back, we smelled something atrocious coming from what we thought was our old, dingy couches. After days of looking, we found the remains of a poor gecko, caught [...]
November 21st, 2007
My friend Stephen came over the other day to roast some coffee. He started buying green coffee beans over the internet and has been roasting them in two popcorn machines. Check out the video I made (sorry about the poor audio quality. I didn’t realize how loud the popcorn machines were):
November 15th, 2007
Here’s some pics of our garden. We’ve already pulled out two tomatoes! The herbs are going strong too and I’ve been using them in some of our pastas.
November 14th, 2007
We are now the proud owners of a 1994 Mazda 121 Bubble - with orange detailed stripes (and very cold A.C.)! It’s a four-door manual MACHINE and we are so excited to have it! We finalized everything this morning and have already taken it out for a joy ride to stretch her legs. The main [...]
November 9th, 2007
Check out our latest video news here at Reef to Outback.
October 20th, 2007
We made it back to Townsville OK and we’re quickly settling in to our new place. We already have a garden planted and full tomatoes from the provious people living here. We start work on Monday. Sara will be going back into the music ministry and I’ll be working in communications. One of my first [...]
September 23rd, 2007
Just wanted to let everyone know that our visas were granted last week. This means that we’ll finally be able to return to Australia! I’ll be leaving October 12th and Sara the 14th. Thanks for all your prayers and support, we’ve been waiting for this a long time.
Sara will be returning to the music ministry [...]
September 7th, 2007
Sara and I visited ‘Lower Fort Garry’ last week in Winnipeg. It’s an old fur trading post used in the 1800’s. They’ve kept many of the historic buildings intact. Check out more photos on my flickr page.
August 17th, 2007
Check out our newest newsletter . You’ll need adobe acrobat reader 5.0 or higher to view this.
Download Newsletter - (900KB)
July 16th, 2007
I’ve put up some photos of our wedding on our flickr site. Check them out here.
July 8th, 2007
Here’s another update from the road. I put this together at 3am while we were driving from Denver to LA. Enjoy!
June 27th, 2007
What’s th first thing most people do once they’re married? Go on tour with a band, right?
Sara and I were married just over a week ago and that’s exactly where we are, in North Carolina. We’re on tour with Sara’s band from Australia, Five Star Streets. Don’t worry we are having a honeymoon but not [...]
May 29th, 2007
So we’ve had a few questions about the wedding especially from people coming from Canada. So I thought I’d write a short FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) to clear things up. Here we go:
What’s the best way to get out to Shelter Island from Manhattan?
The easiest way is to take the bus. Visit the Hampton [...]
April 25th, 2007
This weekend Sara and I went to New Jersey and met our friend Cliff there. Cliff and I have been friends since we did our DTS together in 2004. I was great to see him as it had been almost two years since last seeing him. We stayed at his families house for a few [...]
March 31st, 2007
Sara here.
So, I have this thing where I don’t think that Nick can ever surprise me because I am always searching for clues. Every little thing he says, I analyze into a trick that’s being played.
Well, he told me he was going camping last weekend with his friends Peter and Sebastian. I fully believed him. [...]
March 17th, 2007
This is probably one of the best video podcasts I’ve seen in a while. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. They get experts in these fields to come in and talk. They have everyone from Richard Dawkins (one of the worlds most outspoken athiest) to Rick Warren (pastor of a church of 20,000 and author [...]
February 12th, 2007
RTO (Reef to Outback) is going back to its roots. That means that more of our outreaches will focus on people in isolated communities in northern Australia. To get up there we needed something that could handle the terrain. There aren’t many roads so that’s why we recently purchased ‘The Oka’ (pronounced aa-ka). The April [...]
February 6th, 2007
Sara and I don’t get paid for what we do. We work in a missions organization which requires us to raise our own support. Why, you might ask, have I started off this article so abruptly. Well it’s because I need to write this article to ask for your help financially. There’s really no other [...]
January 15th, 2007
Before Sara and I came home in December we made a little tour of the YWAM (Youth With A Mission) Base here in Townsville. We hope this will give you a little better idea of where we work. Enjoy!
January 4th, 2007
Welcome to the new site. As many of you know Sara and I will be getting married so I figured I’d make a site that better represents the both of us. Over the next few weeks the site will go through some small changes and some new content will be added. Let me know your [...]
November 27th, 2006
Our communications department have been working on this video for a while and now it’s finally done. Check it out:
November 3rd, 2006
For those of you who I haven’t contacted yet, last week Sara and I got engaged. How you might ask? Well read on.
It started tuesday of last week. Sara received a note from me simply asking her on a date that evening. It didn’t say where, but she figured it out quickly. We headed [...]
October 2nd, 2006
It twas my birthday on Friday and a surprise it was! I was pretty much the only one uninformed about what Fridays events held. Everyone here on base was well aware of what Sara had planned for me. The day started with breakfast at Sara’s house then off to work we went. She created a [...]
September 25th, 2006
The last few weeks I’ve had one fairly major job up here in communications, redesigning the Reef to Outback web page. I’ve been designing the site while Sam from the IT department has been coding it. We’re hoping this new site will be a little easier to navigate. It’s cool to see also how God [...]
September 18th, 2006
Many of you have probably received this in the mail already. Here is a PDF version of my latest newsletter. If you did not receive this in the mail it probably means you’re not on my mailing list. You can sign up by clicking here.
You’ll need Adobe Acrobat to view this newsletter.
Download - 396KB
August 28th, 2006
Days off are important. Everyone needs at least one full day off a week. If you don’t have at least one day off a week you’re working too hard. Sara and I usually hang out on Sundays and we always seem to make some kind of mini adventure for ourselves. Yesterday we went down to [...]
August 24th, 2006
Over the past six weeks we’ve seen thousands of people give their lives to the Lord. Impact World tour is finally here and tonight will be the last night with ‘Island Breeze.’ I’ve been filming every night and it’s been absolutely incredible to see people literally running forward to the front when the speaker asks [...]
August 7th, 2006
This is a PDF version of the Reef to Outback newsletter we just sent out. I’m also going to send this in the mail but if you want to read it now you can download it.
You’ll need Adobe Acrobat to read this.
Download RTO (Reef to Outback) Newsletter
August 7th, 2006
This is a PDF version of the RTO (Reef to Outback) Newsletter we just sent out. I’m also going to send this in the mail but if you want to read it now you can download it.
You’ll need Adobe Acrobat to read this.
Download RTO Newsletter
July 19th, 2006
We are finally seeing Impact World Tour (IWT) coming through North Queensland. It’s been two year in the making but it’s finally here. The teams started to arrive last week and headed off to Mt. Isa on Sunday. The tour will be happening there in the next few days. It will come here to Townsville [...]
June 28th, 2006
YWAM (Youth With A Mission) is made up completely of volunteers. Everyone from its founder, Loren Cunningham, to myself are required to raise their own support. Over the past few months I’ve really been challenged in the whole area of finances. I knew in my head that God could provide for my needs but I [...]
June 15th, 2006
A few months back I sent out a newsletter in the mail. If you didn’t recieve that newsletter it means I don’t have your address. I’ve now figured out a convenient way for you to add yourself to my mailing list. Just fill in your details below, click submit and that’s it. You’ll also recieve [...]
June 13th, 2006
You may have remebered when I posted a ‘Reel’ a few months back. It’s basically a montage of all the work I’ve done for the past while. I’ve made a new one that is much the same as the old one but includes a few more clips of things I’ve been working on in After [...]
June 8th, 2006
The past few weeks we’ve been focusing on video in the School of Digital Communications (SDC (School of Digital Communications)). We’ve had Jordan Dodson from New Zealand as our guest speaker for the last two weeks. He’s been covering everything from compressing video to the film industry. Last week the students were working in pairs [...]
June 3rd, 2006
Last night the School of Music in Mission (SOMM (School of Music in Missions)) graduated. They have been working hard since January to use their musical talents to glorify God and further the gospel. As many of you may know there is someone I love who was on the SOMM and graduated last night. Sara [...]
May 31st, 2006
I found this article in our local newspaper the other day and it gave me a good laugh. I think most of you who are not from a warm weather climate will appreciate it. Click HERE to view the article.
May 18th, 2006
You met Justin Claypool last week. Now you can see the other seven students who are currently doing the School of Digital Communications here at Reef to Outback. For those of you who don’t know I’m currently staffing the school with Josiah Ritner. Things have been going quite well and we are now moving into [...]
May 11th, 2006
To give you a better idea of what the students on the 2006 SDC (School of Digital Communications) are learning I’ve put together a short video. We’ve covered three programs so far, all to do with print media. This video features Justin Claypool speaking on cross cultural week.
See the Video (you must have Qucktime 7 [...]
May 10th, 2006
Here’s my latest newsletter in electronic form. Some of you may have received this newsletter in the mail. If you didn’t and would like to be on my mailing list please contact me.
You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.0 or higher to view this document.
Click Here to Download (368KB)
May 1st, 2006
Here’s a small sample of what the 2006 SDC (School of Digital Communications) students have been making on the school. We are now in our fourth week. This week they’ll be designing print ads for IWT in Singapore, East Timor, Fiji, and Australia.
Click here to see the projects.
April 20th, 2006
That’s right! For this whole week I was known as ‘Rabbi’ or ‘Teacher’ to the students of the School of Digital Communications. I’m currently staffing the SDC (School of Digital Communications) which also involves teaching for several programs. This week I taught the students Adobe Illustrator. It is basically an art program for drawing in [...]
April 9th, 2006
Tomorrow marks the official start of the School of Digital Communications. I did this school last year and have been working in the communications department since. This year I’ll be staffing the school with Josiah Ritner. We are quite busy trying to get everything together but we’re both confident that this will be a great [...]
March 24th, 2006
As many of you may have already heard cyclone Larry hit the coast of Australia on Monday (March 20). It was a category 5 with winds gusting to 290KM/h. The good news is that Townsville was spared and was only hit by the bottom edge of the cyclone. The bad news is that that town [...]
March 15th, 2006
After 36 hours and several hours worth of delays I made my way back to Townsville, Australia last week. I was greeted by some small changes and some work to do. The real fun came on Saturday night though. As many of you know we held a cafe every Friday where people from the surrounding [...]
February 10th, 2006
Well I suppose everyone talks a little funny depending on their accent, but I can really notice it now that I’m home. If you ask many Canadians about their accent you’ll generally get the reply, what accent? I guess it’s just one of the small things I notice now since being away for the last [...]
February 1st, 2006
Many of you know that I work in the communications department at Reef to Outback, but are still unsure of what I actually do. I put together a short ‘reel’ of my work. This is just the video work that I’ve been doing. It’s quick so keep those eyes sharp! For all the geeks out [...]
January 23rd, 2006
“I got Starbucks!”
This is usually the routine response when a staff member recives a package from home and contains the addictive, yet delicious drink we know as coffee. Starbucks seems to be a real staff favourite around here. Since we got our espresso machine several months back for the Friday Night Cafe, the quality of [...]
January 17th, 2006
“Mom look at this note from my school!”
My mom examined the note, then shot a questioning glare at me.
“Nice try, but you have school tomorrow no matter what that note says.”
It was the end of summer holidays and I figured I could get away with typing up a note on the computer that stated, in [...]
January 9th, 2006
If you’ve been around computer nerds long enough you’ll understand that there is an age old debate that gets passed between the two that will never find a resolution. To some the debate is merely one of preference, to others it’s an argument about a way of life. It has caused division between designers and [...]
December 12th, 2005
After one and a half months of waiting my new iMac finally arrived. I can’t say I was all to impressed with Mac and their painfully slow shipping. Having my new computer is definately a huge blessing.
As many of you know I was using a three year old iBook before. It got the job done, [...]
November 8th, 2005
What can be done in 395 days?
This may seem like a long time to some, but 395 days ago I was saying goodbye to my parents at the Winnipeg airport. It’s sad that I haven’t seen anyone from home since, though hopefully this will change early in the new year.
I’m planning to come home around [...]
October 18th, 2005
As many of you know I’ve been waiting for the right timing to buy a new computer. I am curently using the laptop that RTO (Reef to Outback) has given to me, but it is quite outdated. I was really praying about what would be best for me to buy, a desktop or laptop. A [...]
October 9th, 2005
“What are you doing this weekend?”
“I’m going to church on Sunday.”
“Which Church?”
“Church on Sunday!”
Yeah this may sound like the beginnings of an Abbott and Costello skit, but the church’s name, oddly enough, is actually called ‘Church on Sunday.’ Mike Murray, one of my friends here at RTO (Reef to Outback), has been attedning there regularily [...]
September 25th, 2005
Like I always say, there’s never a shortage of things to do here at Reef to Outback. Once again this Saturday we had the chance to help out in the community.
Pioneers Luncheon is a lunch put on, by town council, for everyone over 70 years old in Townsville. It was held at the local convention [...]
September 21st, 2005
For those of you that have been following and have read about my ups and downs in regards to the Stable on the Strand video that I’ve been making you can now finally watch it! If you know nothing about Stable on the Strand you can visit their website at: www.stableonthestrand.com.au or you can read [...]
September 12th, 2005
For the past 2 months now some of us here at Reef to Outback have been holding a church service just up the street under the big ol’ tree. It’s a place were many aboriginals of the area congregate. The first Sunday we attracted one person. Over the past few months though we’ve seen 10 [...]
September 5th, 2005
Last Wednesday marked the launch for Stable on the Strand which meant the premiere of our promotional video which we’ve tirelessly been working on for the past few weeks. Of course with everything being last minute we found ourselves exporting the movie 30 minutes before the night started. Along with many other technical difficulties it [...]
August 29th, 2005
“I need someone for the 8:00pm to 1:00am shift on Saturday. Anyone interested?”
I raised my hand only because of the fact that I knew Taikoz was preforming that night, and though I’d never heard of them I figured it was going to be a great performance.
It was an amazing show in an equally spectacular setting. [...]
August 22nd, 2005
Townsville has been a busy place over the past few weekends. Cultural Fest was a fairly big event that we were able to help out at. It was held down at The Strand, and had many cultures represented. I can’t say it was the best cultural fest I’ve been to but it was a lot [...]
August 17th, 2005
‘I think my hands are numb’ I muttered to myself as I packed away my tent to head back to Townsville.
Camping this time around was quite cold. I’m forever grateful to my North Face sleeping bag rated to -7C. Yes I’m sure all of the Canadians and Americans reading this will laugh but that’s [...]
August 8th, 2005
As many of you may know Reef to Outback is really into camping. This time around all of the staff and the entire DTS is going at the same time. That means we’re going to have over 100 people out camping. I’ll be gone until Sunday.
This is the first time in many years that the [...]
August 4th, 2005
Christmas may only happen once a year, but the preparation for it has already begun.
Here in Townsville an annual event is held down at the beach (called ‘The Strand’) during the week leading up to Christmas called ‘Stable on the Strand‘ (SOTS). It’s a huge event where 70 churches within Townsville work together to portray [...]
August 3rd, 2005
Check out my newsletter for August by clicking here.
August 1st, 2005
Click here to view Nick’s Newsletter for May 2005. You’ll need Adobe Acrobat 5.0 or later.
July 26th, 2005
This video was made by myself and John Melvin for our final project on SDC. The topic of the video is on something we call the ‘fear of man’.
July 24th, 2005
This is a short commercial that I made during my SDC. It was made using Adobe Premiere and had to portray a character of God.
July 23rd, 2005
The ‘Great Commission’ is one of the last commands that Jesus gave His disciples. This is the basis of my video that I made during SDC.
About Us
Sara and I (Nick) have been married since June 2007. We volunteer with an organization called YWAM (Youth With A Mission). YWAM has close to 1000 bases around the world. One of those bases is Reef to Outback in Townsville, Australia which is where we are located. Nick currently works in the communications department and Sara works with the music ministry. We believe that we will be in Australia for a few more years to continue volunteering. Neither of us receive a salary from RTO (Reef to Outback) or YWAM for what we do. We must raise all of our own support through church, friends, family, and anyone else who is genuinely interested in helping us (if you’d like to help us please visit our ‘Support‘ section).
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Weather
- Townsville QLD
- Temperature: 21°C
- Humidity: 88.4%
- Wind: SSW at 13 km/h
Our Friends
- Ang’s Myspace Page
- Bill Hutchison
- Luke’s Myspace Page
- Nick’s Myspace Page
- Nick’s Youtube Page
- Our Flickr Photos
- Peter Cabrera’s Myspace Page
- Reef to Outback
- RTO Flickr Page
- Sara’s Myspace Page
- Stephen Bryde
- Webcam