ROYAL AUSTRALIAN AIR FORCE BASE DARWIN, Australia -- Seven service members from Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 212 made a visit to the Christian Outreach Center in Winneli, Australia, Aug. 13.The Marines, who were deployed here in support of Southern Frontier 2003, helped Australian construction workers build a new staff accommodations facility for the center."The outreach center is an independent church-based organization that acts as a safe haven for abused women and children. It also provides a place for pregnant woman, homeless and sick people to come and receive care," said VMFA-212 Chaplain Donald Troast. "When I heard of all the good things that the center was doing, I wanted to help them out in any way that I could."Throughout the day the Marines worked side by side with Australian construction workers sanding and painting the exterior wall, scraping rust off foundation poles and digging trenches for plumbing around the building."It was nonstop work all day, but it felt good to give something back to our host country, and working with the Australians was an adventure," said Staff Sgt. Carrie Green, VMFA-212 administration chief. "We had to scrape all of the rust off of the ceiling foundation poles and then apply oil to them so that they would not rust again. Working that high up with the sun beating down on us really wears you down, but we got a lot accomplished and had a good time."The work that the Marines accomplished proved to be beneficial because the building will now open earlier than expected, and the center will be able to accommodate more people in need."The Marines did about two weeks of work in one day, which drastically pushes up our completion date," said Merv Westbrook, Christian Outreach Center working minister. "The work that they did helped us out a lot because we are completely self-funded, and our workers are all here on a volunteer basis. To have somebody from a different country come out here and help us is just phenomenal, and we are very appreciative of everything that they did," he added.