Trigger Warning: This post contains descriptions of domestic violence. Please read with care.
For Halls Creek mother of five and domestic violence survivor Dilly Butters, her jaja’s (maternal grandmother’s) Bible is her most precious possession. It was her lifeline in the depths of depression and anxiety, even saving her from spiritual torment as a troubled teenager.
Dilly’s jaja (grandmother) who planted the seed in them.
“When I was all alone in Derby, I had no one. I felt completely alone, but I had a Bible there, and it was that Bible that saved me,” she says. “Because the Bible is the living word of God.”
Her reverence for the Bible persists because she’s experienced its transformative power firsthand. Despite her painful past, or perhaps because of it, Dilly, a Wamajarri and Kija woman, now pours her life into helping others through the word.
At 15, Dilly ran from home in Halls Creek, travelling 540 km alone to her aunty’s house in Derby. There she had a terrifying spiritual experience, tempting her to end her life. Amidst that darkness, she felt a calm presence leading her to pick up her jaja’s Bible. As she read, a voice whispered the words “you’re alright just read” and the Holy Spirit peace of God came over her. “No one could ever convince me that God was not real,” she recalls. “This warfare that we’re doing and fighting every day, it’s very real and very serious.”
That moment changed her. “I stopped smoking. Cold turkey. I just went, ‘Not doing that.’ That experience really woke me up.” But the journey ahead was tough. “I tried to go back to church again, but I was feeling a bit lost…they didn’t really have anything for young people, not much welcoming.”
At 18, Dilly entered a violent relationship that lasted over a decade. Her connection with God remained, though often in the margins. “I would go strong with the Lord and then fall back,” she says. “My partner…was constantly beating me. That never stopped. He’d knock me out unconscious a lot of times. I remember crying, ‘Lord, please let me wake up.’”
Despite her suffering, she never stopped believing. “Even when I was drinking…I always prayed every night… I still carried my Bible everywhere with me. That same Bible my mum gave me when I was 15.”
When her mother had a stroke in front of her and passed, she hit rock bottom. “That was the lowest of the lowest places I’ve been in my life.” In the face of the trauma, grief and anxiety that ensued, Dilly continued to cling to God and his word.
Eventually, she fled the abusive relationship. “I ended up leaving him. I ran away. Left my house, my car. I took my three kids and ran. It was hard.” Then she met Aldo, a Jaru man. Though their relationship wasn’t abusive, it brought fresh challenges.
In her heartache and pain, she finally called out to God. “I went crying: ‘Lord, I’m sorry I keep running away and trying to do this on my own.’ It was like a pattern from at that young age…I would run away and just be on my own.” She says, “I just felt always unworthy. Just really unworthy of anything…I don’t deserve anything. I wasn’t just running on my own. I had five kids and homeless. I couldn’t leave them.” As she prayed, she felt the Lord say “Come to me. You don’t have to do anything; I still love you.”
That prayer led her and Aldo into a tiny Aboriginal church. “There were only three people there—a blind Aboriginal pastor and his wife, and a white New Zealander.”
What happened next changed everything. “My husband shook the pastor’s hand and…the Holy Spirit flowed from his hand into his body. He cried, happy, but cried. I was like, ‘Yep, that’s the Holy Spirit. I know that feeling.’”
That day, Aldo gave his life to God. “He stopped smoking cigarettes, stopped drinking alcohol, stopped having all his friends over. He surrendered, got on his knees.”
Seven years on, Dilly and Aldo are an example in their community. “They look at him like a good, strong Christian man because we’ve changed our life through God,” she says. “All we did was go on our knees and serve the Lord. We opened our heart up… and he changed everything for us.”
Today, Dilly partners with Bible Society Australia (BSA) to bring print and audio Bibles to her community.
“If they have a Bible and they have the Word with them, it’s the Word that heals,” she says. “I’ve seen people pray for deliverance and nothing happen. But once you go there and you bring the word of God and use Scripture, the Lord moves.”
For her, Bible literacy is not only a source of hope and power but also a protection against spiritual manipulation. “I’ve seen people take the Scripture and twist it so badly. It just made absolutely no sense. But these people were so brainwashed by them. That they believe everything that they said to them,” she shares.
She encourages people to test everything through Scripture, “I always say to people, read the Word for yourself. It’s only the Word that saves us…It’s only the Lord and the Lord is the Word.” She tells them, “don’t even listen to me. Go take this here, Bible, and read it.”
Literacy is a struggle in Halls Creek and surrounding remote communities. But Dilly’s children are learning to read with their Bible. “My son, he is 11 years old. He couldn’t read. He was struggling. I said, you’re gonna read one word, then one sentence a day…we are gonna just be patient and in your own time. And he learned how to read it, just from the Lord, showing him.” Her 10-year-old daughter is just as hungry for God’s word. “She’s like, ‘Mum, when are we gonna do reading?’” Dilly encourages their personal pursuit of God, saying, “I probably won’t say everything right all the time. Please just read, promise, you know, read.”
For the elderly, vision-impaired and spiritually oppressed people in her community, Dilly shares the BSA audio Bibles.
“There’s one blind old woman here and she’s been asking me for the audio Bible. I [also] give the audio Bibles for the ones that we go and pray for after the Lord delivers them from spiritual torment. I just like to put that over them and let that play. And it just helps them to bring peace,” she shares. “A lot of people over here, they don’t know how to read. But [the audio Bible] was a really good idea.”
Outreach fellowship gathering
Outreach fellowship gathering
She helps to run a fortnightly gathering to support local women. “Because [domestic violence] is normalised… we had no voice. Dilly explains, “Our value was whatever others said it was. And these are insecure men that they don’t even know their own value. We were always taught, it was like our fault.” She emphasises that she “just feel(s) like it’s not true. God’s got a plan for each and every single one of us… and they all have value.”
“My husband always helps with all the men. And [the gathering] is to help our woman be strong. A lot of them are single women. And they got no one…no support. I don’t know, I just like to help. Because all the stuff I’ve been through, I just understand their pain and struggles.”
“God had shown me a way out. I believe he didn’t show up for me, but to share it.”
Dilly’s Aunty with some local kids. Her husband Aldo is in the back of the photo with some of the boys.
Dilly and her aunty give Bibles to anyone who asks and cook meals for children in the park sometimes. “There’s a high crime rate up here. A lot of these kids are lost. They have no home. So we cook food for them and…share the word.” Aldo comes and sits with the boys, “he’ll read a little Word with them there.”
Every fortnight, women gather to “have a yarn around the fire…with the Bible or around the table inside…and have a little bit of a food after it.” And for new church members “we have those Bibles ready for them because they don’t have access to a shop here.” The free Bibles really help… We always make sure to tell them it’s God the one that’s making this happen, not us. A very important thing we live by is not to take any glory, but that’s for God alone,” she shares.
“It does get very heavy. I won’t lie. Even when we doing work for the Lord. The spiritual attacks are, oh, 10 times harder. But we know we got God…It’s a good hard, you know? Everything’s hard in life. It’s finding the right hard that’s worth it, and this is worth it. Definitely worth it.”
Dilly and one of her daughters cooking Johnny cake for the countrymen who came along to fellowship on a recent Sunday night.
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