“Did you say you are going to church today on Sabbath? On Saturday? Can I come?” asked Vivienne Sahanna. “Sure,” said Millie Brand, who was visiting Vivienne’s house in Belmont, Perth, from the Kimberley. Millie had come there because her son Elton Hobbs’ partner was Vivienne’s granddaughter Arianne Fuller. So that Sabbath they all went to Karla Bidjar Aboriginal Church in Perth.
Vivienne Sahanna (nee Corbett) is a Binjareb Aboriginal lady who grew up in Pinjarra. (Binjareb is one of the 14 groups making up the Noongar nation in the southwest of Western Australia.) She was one of 10 children and trained as a nurse and a midwife. She worked in Perth as well as in the Bidyadanga and Broome communities in the Kimberley.
Vivienne’s sister Lorne (deceased) had become an Adventist as a young person and attended Carmel Missionary College for one year. After that she went to work at Karalundi for a short time as cook. Vivienne and Lorne had been very close as sisters. Marriage and work occupied Vivienne and she never joined the Church as a young person but she didn’t forget about the “Sabbath church” that Lorne had attended.
Vivienne has read her Bible through 27 times. When she watched Pastor Doug Batchelor’s evangelistic DVDs and Pastor Don Fehlberg’s evangelistic DVDs it all made sense to her. She had only one question—when could she be baptised? Despite her mobility issues—and being 88 years old—she was determined.
Vivienne also had met up with the late Meena Seeber a number of times over the years—the first time when she was about 16 years old. Meena was a faithful Aboriginal Adventist, and her husband, Mick, who had just turned 90, was invited to come to Vivienne’s baptism at Maida Vale church. He was eager to come and support this friend of his late wife. Accompanying Mick were three of his daughters—Joanne, Trudi and Sheralee—along with his grandson Damien Eacott. Vivienne had come to her baptism without any of her family members to support her but when she met Mick and his daughters she felt she really did have family in attendance!
When she arrived home after her baptism she eagerly announced to her son: “Now I am a Seventh-day Adventist.”
Pastor Don Fehlberg is a retired Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Ministries remote area pastor who is still very active in ministry. He writes from Perth, WA.
