Life Changing Glen Echo Camp

You may have recently come across this story below, (either in the SU News or the Appeal letter) from Jason Bresanello, Co-Team Leader of Glen Echo holiday camp. But if you haven’t yet read it, I do encourage you to, as it just reinforces how important the work of SU and its volunteers really are and what difference the programs do make.

 

One of SU’s popular summer camps had its debut at the recent autumn holidays. Sleepy, beautiful Albany was inundated with 33 excited campers and 14 leaders for the new Autumn Glen Echo 2009. The campers at Autumn Glen Echo went on an epic six-day journey in some of the most amazing weather. Each day was packed, and saw the campers night paddling, hiking up Bluff Knoll, playing wide games, swimming at some spectacular beaches and most importantly growing closer to God.

Here’s the story of just one girl, who we will call Lisa, who described Autumn Glen Echo as “the best camp ever!”

Lisa is in year eight and lives with her ninth foster parents. Her Dad committed suicide and her Mum, due to drug problems, couldn’t support Lisa and her sister. Camp didn’t start well for Lisa. She was swearing at leaders, writing profanities all over her legs, getting into conflicts with other campers and was on her way to being sent home.

Each morning would commence with singing, praying and learning about God, and over that period we saw barriers start to break down. Lisa became so determined and enthusiastic about our activities, and she was the first girl to hike down Bluff Knoll even after falling and rolling her ankle. She had moments of madness but generally was such a sweet girl.

After camp I spoke to Lisa’s foster Dad. Lisa told him that it was the best camp she had ever been on and wanted to go again. She told him that she doesn’t know if she totally believes in God, but now she believes there is something out there. Her Dad said to me, “What church do you go to? Because if you can have that much positive influence on Lisa I’m prepared to bring my whole family along.”

This was one story, one child, one experience, one touch of God. There were many other stories that my leaders were a part of because of the way they continue to devote everything they have to these children. It was an incredible experience, and the stories show how one camp can truly change a young person’s life.

Great news from SUPA Clubs

Here is an update from one of the new SUPA Clubs. It runs at Edney Road Primary School, with volunteers from Maida Vale Baptist Church. The church also runs a mentoring program through SU at the same school… Exciting news!

“SUPA Club is going well. We had two girls on the first day and last Tuesday (three weeks later) we had 31 kids, a mixture from church kids and mostly non-church kids. they really enjoy what we are doing which is really simple – usually a Bible story with a craft. They have lunch with us so we have them for 40 minutes. Each week we are handing out more permission slips and the kids are coming to the music room to collect them and are keen to invite their friends. I have talked to the Principal because we originally talked about only having 15 kids, but she is happy with the way it is growing and she is supporting it. From SUPA club kids are also connecting with Maida Vale and are coming to Coolkids on Thursday afternoon which is great. Isla is coming out to see us next term.” Robyn Douglas, Maida Vale BC

Risking our kids

Spent the last fortnight on leave, which was a great time for renewal and refreshment but while on my break I watched a documentary called “Risking our Kids” on ABC1. You can check it out here. The documentary focused on the work of Fiona Stanley and her belief that our children and young people are in the midst on a crisis.

Amongst our affluence our children will more than likely live shorter lives than we will. Childhood rates of diabetes, respiratory disease, obesity and behavioural disorders are on the increase, one in four children suffer from mental health issues. Fiona states that “Behind the statistics that I talk about are the tragedies of kids who aren’t going to make it”. One of the key concerns expressed is that this tragedy is being quietly ignored by people and the government, flying under the radar both in terms of funding and strategic intent in planning for the future.

There is some sobering information in the documentary. There is also good news that pro-active involvement with children and young people can make a massive difference in young peoples lives. It was this good news that has me keen to see Christians and the church engage this issue with vigor and passion.

A massive challenge

One of the biggest challenges facing ministry leaders is

The Evangelist…

After I had preached on Sunday morning a man swaggered up to me. He looked mid forties, stocky and like his nose had been broken more times than he could remember. I was talking to a member of the church and he joined our conversation.

“So, does anybody do any witnessin aroun here?” he asked.

It felt like a loaded question. I don’t think either of us knew quite what to say…

“I guess it depends on what you mean by that” I said. I sensed that he meant standing on street corners and preaching, or stopping people in the mall.

“Well I mean going out in the street and talking to people about Jesus. There’s a whole world out there of needy people who aren’t gonna come in here and without Jesus they’re goin to hell.”

He was clearly edgy and wasn’t feeling like we were receiving his question real well. The fact that I had lampooned the wacko street preacher during my message may not have helped either.

He talked for a little bit and told us his story. He had been sent to prison several years ago for violent crime. He had lived a violent life and was a street fighter. But during a stint in solitary confinement he had met God in a ‘damascus road’ type of way.

He then started sharing his faith in prison and just before he got out he was leading a Bible study of over 200 men in the prison. His approach to evangelism was much like his approach to other things in life – no holds barred and no prisoners – pardon the pun.

After a short conversation where my friend spoke of the church’s craft group, and kids ministries I could see him glaze over and zone out. This wasn’t what he wanted to hear.

He had come looking for a church that would support him in his own evangelistic work, post prison and that would also be a church that would welcome his new converts. He hadn’t found one anywhere.

He drifted off from the conversation clearly frustrated. I was frustrated too.

Partly because I had encountered someone with raw passion and it had exposed me as having gone soft in some ways. I was frustrated because I knew what he was on about – there simply aren’t too many churches where people like him are welcome and where he would be understood and encouraged and where his friends would be accepted. He is a strong character with lots of opinions and he would be a handful. His friends would change the tone of the average middle class church.

As he drifted off I sensed God saying ‘go and have lunch with him’. I think it was partly so I could learn more about evangelism from someone who was naturally gifted and partly so I could encourage him not to give up on the church. In his zeal he was convinced that anyone who wasn’t doing evangelism like him was not serious about God and he had little room for those with any fear.

I have shared this frustration over the years and at times have been guilty of projecting my own passions and gifting onto others. Maybe I could help him see the value in sticking with others and helping them develop.

I caught him as he was walking down the street to his beaten up white ford meteor. I invited him out and he took me up on it.

We had a great time together and I found myself driving home inspired by this left field Jimmy Swaggart fan who wept over people who didn’t know Jesus and who went from half way house to half way house until someone would listen. He had clearly had such a life changing encounter with God that nothing was going to stop him or slow him.

I was rebuked for my lampooning of the street preacher and reminded that the kingdom of God is very very diverse. As he treads the streets of Fremantle he will connect with people who would never give me the time of day.

I pray he finds a community of people who will welcome him and his friends and who will support him in his passion for helping the broken and messed up follow Jesus.

I pray the evangelist won’t get tamed.

This is what it takes

A picture paints a thousand words. This picture shows the web of relationships that were required for SU to see a new Family Festival launch at Carnavon this last school holidays.

Athena SU’s Family Festivals Coordinator and Team Leader of the Carnavon program writes;

A great team worked very hard to deliver a quality program….. The personal contact with local participants was also good, as well as with community groups. We had a visit from a local councillor. The feedback was that they were impressed with the way the program ran and the measures in place to care for the kids.

I share this picture with you because it captures for me how people networking is so important in volunteer based programs

Find me an Evangelist

One of the groups that SU work closely with here in Western Australia is OAC. OAC’s great strength is equipping people for evangelism and developing evangelists. For those of you wondering what an evangelist and evangelism is let me give my short explanation.

Evangelism is helping people understand who Jesus is and allowing them the opportunity to decide if they are interested in following Jesus and joining the “kingdom” that Jesus invites people to become a part of. An evangelist is someone who is particularly skilled and gifted at evangelism. The word evangelism can be a dangerous one to put forward. For example if I put the prefix tele before the word evangelism it creates a word and concept that makes me feel unlike using the word evangelist at all.

But I do want to use the word evangelism/evangelist because I believe that introducing people to Jesus can be empowering. Jesus makes unique claims and I am always excited to see people engaging Jesus whatever their response (some call him crazy, some call him great, others even call him God!). Good evangelism allows people to make their own response to Jesus and not a predetermined or manipulated response.

A number of SU programs provide people with the opportunity to be introduced to Jesus. This is where our partnership with OAC and in particular Geoff Westlake the State Director of OAC has been fantastic. If SU programs are not led by people who can introduce people to Jesus in appropriate ways then these programs fall far short of their potential to be both exciting and life affirming. And programs that do not have something special about them are just not worth the effort of running.

Transform 08

On Saturday the 9^thof August about 130 Scripture Union volunteers and others keen to increase their ministry skills gathered for the Transform 08 training event. Brian Harris, principal of Vose Seminary, was one of our keynote speakers and he spoke on “relationships that transform”. Through looking at significant relationships in the bible and also from his own experience he displayed the power that relationships have in transforming people and situations. This engaging and challenging talk can now be downloaded from the SU webpage. Brian Harris Transform 08 (7.2mb audio) Four elective sessions were the backbone of the day’s training. Topics covered included the areas of sharing your faith, managing risk, leadership, understanding the world of children and teenagers and using the bible on programs. All of the electives were well received. Peter Barney, the second keynote speaker, talked about Christians being there for young people when they ask the question “What am I going to be when I grow up?” and he wasn’t talking about career advice.

Transform 08 had a great energy and enthusiasm about it however during the AGM held on the day it was sobering to hear of the large number of young people turned away from SU programs because we simply do not have the team leaders to run programs to meet the demand.

Plans are already underway for Transform 09 so keep the middle of your year free.

The last sacred cow

Let me start my post by declaring that I am a sports nut, have always been one and the Olympics are paradise for me. I’ll be trying to watch as much as possible over the next few weeks. In the lead up to the Olympics more and more people are posting articles related to this event. Jarrod McKenna who is a staff member at SU posted an article here on this photo.

It is an interesting article that has attracted very interesting comments. What has surprised me is the idea that the Olympics are a special event that are off limits to politics and other agendas. Many comments about Jarrod’s article are not related to whether the photo represents a symbolic action that heightens race tensions or makes a kingdom like statement against repression. They are comments that say, “don’t care what they are doing, just not at the Olympics please.”

Not only are the sports events off limit, our athletes are held up as a shining example to us of what we want to be. Anything that challenges this perception is dealt with very quickly. I know that if my child puts a poster of a rock star on their wall, I may need to explain to them that this person does not have a lifestyle that is to be admired. If my child has a sports star poster on their wall, who goes astray, I can rest assured the sports “industry” will call them to account or failing that quickly have them “demonised”.

Athletes who keep their private lives free of controversy are held up as our heroes to be admired and supported. My observation is that success in sport requires some pretty self focused choices. One athlete who is held up as a hero of the heroes has even moved state away from his new wife and isolates themselves from others. I know in contrast to this SU is keen to make sure that people who give up their time to volunteer do not do so at the neglect of relationship with family and friends. In fact sometimes I think people are too quick to make this claim when it comes to volunteering time in mission.

So is sport the last sacred cow?

What Compels You?

In 2 Cor 5 Paul writes that “It is Christ’s love that compels us” to be his ambassadors of reconciliation. It seems that Paul is suggesting that mission and evangelism ought to be a response to our own experience of the love of God.

I couldn’t agree more, but I also know its not always the way. Here is a new book that we shouldn’t need to read, but in reality we all probably need to get a hold of

Its entitled Compelled By Love and looks at our motivation for mission rather than our strategy.

I actually think the core of our problems in mission and evangelism are much less to do with technique and much more to do with motivation.

Its way too easy to be compelled by an achievement orientation or to evangelism from duty and guilt. To act from love is freeing and beautiful, but I would suggest is also somewhat foreign (sadly).

Maybe its more difficult for those of with a task oriented bent, because I know that most of the women I know see this as so obvious that it seems ludicrous to write a book about it.

If you want to explore mission compelled by love then this looks like an excellent book. And fwiw I am preaching on that passage of scripture at North Beach Baptist church on Aug 31st in the evening.