When Coffee Happens

I had a significant coffee incident the other Saturday night. I was on my way to Launceston taking Jackson home after a youth meeting. We decided to stop off in Campbell town for a coffee as I had to drive home back to Hobart after dropping him off. So we ordered our drinks, took them back to car and started down the road. I went to take my first sip when the lid pops off and the cup crushes in my hand. the coffee went all down the front of me. I find it funny in life how one person can find something so crappy and frustrating yet that same thing for some else is hilarious. Jackson was laughing so hard he also most wet himself. I had to stop the car pull over and wring out my clothes. Fortunately Jackson had his school sports shorts in the car, (these felt 3 size's too small) and a bonds t shirt that had shrunk in the drier. So with my stomach hanging out in all it's glory I continued the trip to launceston. (With much laughter continuing from the passenger seat).

I dropped Jackson at his house and just as he got to the front door yelled back to me. Oh by the I had several other things you could have worn but I thought these would be funniest. So looking like someone about to hop into a Mardi gras parade I drove the 2 hours home.

So some 2 Sermon illustrations, many mocking TXT messages from youth, and story about this on a my space later. I have dealt with it.

I discovered that during this whole time my character was looked at. Jackson was impressed I didn't swear. People were impressed I didn't get angry. Others are impressed with how well I've taken the coffee gags and comments.

We're always watched as youth leaders!

I'm just glad I passed this test.

Simon.

Simon's Thoughts

I've just had one of those time periods in my life where you just wish you weren't you. We had to stand down one of our workers for a serious issue in a high school, I have had to take out a restraining order out on one of our girls who has, to say the least, an unhealthy attachment towards me. I lost a $1200.00 kayak, my BBQ got wrecked, and I got a Cricket ball to the ribs. All in one week.

I asked myself why? why me? But I remembered the words of a person who died of cancer recently, She said why not me, maybe someone else has been spared this pain.

So I say thank you Lord (through gritted teeth.) That I have the strength to endure.

Simon.

Stories

This week I was having one of those weeks where I found myself thinking “am I having any impact at all here” (I have these from time to time). On Wednesday I was pleasantly surprised by multiple visits from some young people – in fact, in the youth department we had about 10 young adults that I had been involved in leading in some way over the last few years.

I was really encouraged to look around and think of the stories involved in all of their lives; stories that I have been privileged to be involved in.

God was especially good to me on Wednesday.

Darrell

Connections07

Well we had a great time at connections over 80 youth went to it from Tassie. An all time record and a living stress fest for us leaders.

It was for me a great thing to see our youth, some who had never been further than 1 hour from their home before be at such an awesome big event. Most thought it was better than Hillsong or Planet Shakers that we go to each year.

I loved the way we had some first time attenders with us, youth who have never been to church before. All thought it was great. Some have attended church since then!

I learned that once again community it would seem was what all of them craved and it happened for all of them in some way. They certainly went feral at the Saturday night youth rally, we then made a mistake and gave them all a Krispy cream donut which took their hyperness to a new level.

I just want to apologise to all those who got a "peg" on ya. Our youth distributed over 300 peg on random people during the weekend. One on the commissioner was the high light and one on the boom camera during the youth rally was cool. also. On the other hand the stewardess girls on the plane on the way home came under a lot of grief.

I hope this event was as good for your youth as it was for ours.

For me personally I couldn't have done a smarter thing than fly to Fiji for a holiday afterwards.

Blessings

Simon.

A Thought on Jonah

I think about the story of Jonah quite a bit....

Jonah is to present to the people of Nineveh a word from the Lord, "Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned" but then the people repent so God changes His mind. Jonah, being a very Godly person (in fact a prophet was possibly the Godliest of all people) then gets angry because God has compassion on them.

Imagine if, at the time of judgement, God changes his mind and says "Everyone's in?"

I don't think it will happen judging on what I read in the Bible but God is God and He can do what he wants, right?

Darrell

Stu's Thoughts

Last night was the farewell of our divisional Leaders, Lieut-Colonel Jocelyn Knapp and Major Cilla Bone. The usual stuff happened as does at these type of events, speeches, public embarassment, pranks, a combined band and the Commissioners. What I found encouraging was a number of young people who came to bid farewell to our leaders.

The youth speech provided by Bendigo local Matthew Tatti (who by some miracle is just young enough to still be considered a youth). During the speech he mentioned how our Divisional leaders were "two old ladies, who like gardening and playing solitare and happen to do some church stuff." Admist the roars of laughter from the congregation there were also two massive beaming smiles from Jocelyn and Cilla. This is important to our youth and sums up how the young people of Northern Victoria view our divisional leaders for the last four years. They are approachable, engaging and our youth know that they care.

A couple of months ago I held my 27th birthday party. Among the many young people, family and friends that were in attendance were Jocelyn and Cilla. One of my favourite memories of that night is of Cilla sitting cross-legged on the floor, telling wild stories and listening to the ravings of a hyper-active 20 year old. I must say admire that, it reminds me of the hope I have for the church: a space where age isn't a barrier and we take the time to listen to each other. I long for the church in which our focus isn't on demographics and how we reach specific age groups, but is instead on the reality that every young person needs an adult who is irrationally commited to them. This is how we will see young people grow up with faith and in their faith.

So as the last song was sung, the benediction was prayed, the congregation flooded from the auditorium and gravitated towards the the supper table, I stood back. I smiled, and I watched. I saw tear filled hugs from young women who have received the gift of being listen to by "two old ladies... who do some church stuff." It just reminds me youth workers and DYs are the only ones, who change the lives of young people.

Stuart McGifford

The Young and The Hopeful

I am constantly amazed at how God chooses to use the less than obvious choices of people to change the world!!

I had the privilege of travelling to Bendigo on Sunday night to preach at their Divisional Youth Service Fuel. As i was preparing what it was that I felt God wanted me to say to these young people, I realised again the number of times God used teenagers to transform the world.

Look at David, he was probably only 12 or 13 when he killed and decapitated the giant Goliath. Think of Jesus' parents; both only teenagers and trusted to raise the Messiah (makes you think about unwed teenage mums a bit different huh??)!! Think of the disciples, still only 16 or so when Jesus called them to take up their cross and follow Him (was Jesus the first full-time youth minister?).

Remember back to the early days of The Salvation Army... Back to when a young Bramwell Booth was taken into the pubs and shown the drunken hopelessness of those there, then taken to the bridge under which many homeless people spent the night and was told by his father to do something. Do you remember the story of the 2 teenagers who decided to take the entire country of New Zealand for Jesus, 1 starting at the southern end the other at the northern end and planning to meet in the middle with over 10,000 people!!!

It occurs to me that God has often used the young Spirit filled people of a generation to change their world. Is this because these young people have not yet become jaded and cynical, because young people are still capable of seeing possibilities and opportunities where the more 'mature' person sees only problems and obstacles.

I leave you with the words of Paul to Timothy in 1 Timothy 2: 12 - 16:
"Let no one despise your youth, but set the believers and example in speech and conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. Until I arrive, give attention to the public reading of scripture, to exhorting, to teaching. Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you through prophecy with the laying on of hands by the council of elders. Put these things into practice, devote yourself to them, so that all may see your progress. Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; continue in these things, for in doing this you will save both yourself and your hearers."

Darrell's first go!

I have just returned from Melbourne where I attended The Salvation Army Australian Southern Territory’s “event of the decade” Connections07. I must say it was very encouraging and challenging at the same time.

I feel I should share some thoughts and questions I have coming away from the conference (please don’t hear me having a go at anyone, or TSA, I am just someone who likes to ponder things).

1. The first thing that really stood out for me is that we are a very unique church. Consequently there are not many models we can adopt from other churches. So why do we try?
And also do we do ourselves an injustice when we try to build churches aimed at white middle class Australians? (I am not saying every Church in our organization does this and I don’t have anything against this particular demographic – I am one). Does all the church growth stuff that is bandied around fit with our movement?

2. The Salvation Army as a movement unapologetically calls it’s members to live radically in a world that needs God. So an obvious question is why do so few seem to do it?

3. One of the presenters I heard said “we have the resources we need within our organization to achieve our mission”. Comments on this?

4. I love what Commissioner Knaggs said about the people who are employees and volunteers (non-Salvationists) are part of TSA. We are all in it together. We all make up the Organization. My question on this is can this kind of thinking really become a reality because at the moment we seem far from it.

I don’t want this to be too long so I will stop there! I would love to hear some comments cause I think in conversation we hear from God.

God Bless

Shared Experiences

It's amazing how sharing an 'experience' can bring us together.

Think of you closest friends, what is it that you remember that made you so close?

I imagine that in 90% of cases it was a shared experience.

I was at Delacombe for their youth group which they call JPSI (Jesus Per Square Inch). Last Friday was the first night that we opened it up to the grade 6's who will become a part of the JPSI crew next year when they go to High School.

I t was great night with lots of fun!

We started off the evening playing some table tennis and just hanging out while we waited for eveyone to turn up, then we went over to the local primary school oval where we had an awesome game of Watermelon rugby (imagine rugby played with a watermelon, a nice, juicy, watermelon). This went really well, everyone seemed to have a great time, if a little messy (I know at least 1 of my team was heading home to get their mum to bleach their white t-shirt clean again).

After this we switched to playing a game of Capture the Flag in the dark.

Each person playing wore a glowstick taped to their arm and had to capture a flipper with 2 glowsticks taped to it.

This went really well too.

I guess the main point I'm trying to make is that while we had heaps of fun, that wasn't what the night was about. The night was about connecting the youth who are in Grade 6 this year, and about to enter Highschool, with the youth of the JPSI crew and building relationships with them.

I believe that one of the best ways to build relationships with people is to share experiences with them. By playing these games where each individual is part of a team we began what I hope will be one of many shared experiences and in time we will grow closer becuase of these shared experiences.

The young people at JPSI may not realise it yet, but the plan is not just for them to have a bit of fun, but for them to have a shared experience of Jesus Christ one day, I pray that it will be soon!!

A Simon Thought...

Wow what a horrible week was last week.

I had to deal with a family who's son was accused of raping his girl friend. The bottom line is she is 14 he is 15 and they organised to do the deed after school when her mum was out, he'd made his excuse not to go home straight after school. After they had finished he left to catch the next bus home. She goes out and is walking the street crying. It turns out she was sexually abused at age 8 by her dad and had never talked about it. Her mums current boy friend has been hitting her for the past few years. All this came to the surface in her life after this latest sexual experience.

I don't know about where you are, but here in Tassie this is not an uncommon story. I know that there is a lot of talk these days about does the Bible really say don't have sex before marriage. Is it alright to do so if both parties are in love after all God is love so it has to come from him.

But in my 38 years I have had a lot of friends make some bad sexual choices and I've had some make some good ones. All my friends who kept themselves from the sexual stuff untill marriage are still all together. Some had to really work out some deep life issues still, but being pure in this area helped them. Others just dived in with their partners and they seem to be carrying more bagage than the first.

So my prayer for our youth is that they do the God thing. That their soul journy is so deep that they know what is good, beneficial and right for them and others.
I hope none of our youth have to go through what these two young people did.

Blessings.

Simon

Rowan's first blog

What have I learned? I know that young people are capable of great acts of heroism, self sacrifice and bravery. I know that young people talk big and it blows me away when they match their talk with walk. I recently heard Tony Campolo speak and one of the many gems I will probably lean on to get through the weekly demand of contributing to this blog (more likely fortnightly with my memory... monthly even... Bi annual maybe?) was this:

"Adolescence is good for one of two things; heroism or entertainment. Which are you going to invest in?"

What have I seen? I've seen young people give up their $9000 car savings to feed the poor, I've seen young people give away their shoes to the shoeless, I've seen young people choose mission over money and calling over career and I've seen young people trek all over the world just to keep up with what God is doing... I've seen young people pray in healing, kick out demons and bring people to Jesus - some of these just in one day at plenty valley corps too!!! (Props to the James Thompson)

I've also seen 100 young people raise $30,000 dollars over the last 2 years to build a 24 bed dormatory for children, boys and girls, rescued from Cambodia's sex trade. This Friday night we have Operation 58, a self denial program that runs all year round in Adelaide, where I'll witness young people do more amazing things as we raise more money to go the building of this orphanage - it works like this; We give up the cash, they build the rooms and then they rescue the kids. Every dollar raised gets us closer to another child rescued.

I've seen young people do some pretty cool things... Entertainment or heroism - you choose...

School Holiday Camp...

I was recently involved in a school holiday program in Rochester and Kyabram. Located in Northern Victoria, not far from Echuca, these two small, farming centred towns are have been hit very hard by the devastating effects of drought. The plan was simple, a group of cadets from our training college would put together a 3 day kids program, as part of their mission experience and Nari and I would put together a small mission team from around the division to support the program.

I always get a bit edgy leading up to any event as anxiety about whether people will come can sometimes overwhelm the anticipation and excitement that opportunities like this present. There wasn’t really a need to feel nervous; as mission started we had a total of 6 teenagers from Bendigo, Maryborough and Echuca Corps. On the second Tuesday of the school holidays we travelled the 70 kilometres from Bendigo to Rochester to commence the school holiday program.

The first morning we met for prayer and planning. As we met there was a great sense of nervousness: What was going to happen? Would we have two kids or two hundred? Will the program work? The prayers were simple; Lord we pray that you will change the lifes of some kids this week. Some wholehearted amens, a few last minute changes, and then before we knew it the first kids arrived.

Some very talented cadets were running the week up front, and there were a bunch of corps members who were there to help out and prepare lunch and snacks. However, the small group leaders were all teenage, mission team members. It was going to be up to these guys to come alongside the kids and ensure the message was getting through. As the first kids headed to their small group, I will never forget the look of horror as one of the girls glanced across the room, shrugged and mouthed the words “what should I do?”

Despite the initial hesitations, the team was quick to cotton on to what was required. As we sat back at the accommodation on Tuesday night, there was a different emotion. The looks of horror, had been replaced with a sense of confidence and encouraging memories of the meaning relationships that had started to develop over the course of the day.

One of my favourite images from the three-day program is of a truly bizarre dance move performed by one of the leaders. The move, conducted by a 17 year old team member, involves standing on leg, using your left hand to hold the left ankle, placing the right hand behind the head and the convulsing (the only suitable word from my point of view) in such a way the person rotates like a sprinkler in time with the music. While the move itself is impressive, on the last day of the program, one of the kids approached the leader and said “check out this!” she then perfectly executed the sprinkler. The teenager was blown away.

As we reflected after the last day of program, we talked about the influence these guys, only teenagers themselves, had had in the lives of the kids. Although ‘the sprinkler’ made us all laugh, as a groups we remembered that we had also showed that Jesus was alive. While there had been dancing and games, there had also been real discussion about who Jesus is, about what it means to be Christian, and about why we should read the bible.

As the week finished up, I was chatting with the Corps Officers. One of them said “you know I find it amazing, that these teenagers would give up a week of their holidays, travel up here each day and invest in the lives of these kids.” What he says is true, when given the opportunity our teenagers will surprise us with their competency and passion. Too often we reduce our ministry with teenagers to entertainment and turn church into a product and our kids into consumers.

Jesus spoke some words that we in the west have really run with. He said “If anyone would come after me, he must be prepared to party and shop like everybody in else in the world does.” I’m pretty sure that’s what he said, or perhaps that is what we’ve heard. As we open the book and read the text we are reminded that it says “he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” There is good news though; there is more joy and meaningfulness in sacrificial service than there is in a thousand, iPods, playstations and other toys.

--Stuart

New Perspectives

I love the way youth are able to see things from new and interesting angles!

In recent weeks I have had the opportunity to share with a few different groups of youth and have been surprised at the way they have been able to see old subjects from a new point of view.

The youth have spent time thinking about these things and have been able to come up with their own ideas about them.

I have alos learnt that this means that I need to be prepared for the questions that come from seeing these things from a new point of view!!

I was caught off guard the other day when one of the youth asked me a question about something that they had seen from a new perspective. But this is good, because it challenges me to think about these things from new perspectives myself.

I also want to encourage the leaders of my division, I heard yesterday that we have had yet another Junior Soldier enrolled in the division. I cant quite remember what that brings the total to for new Junior Soldier to this year, but I love to see that there are more young people out there willing to commit to learning more about God and being obedient to His leading in their lives. Please pray for our junior soldiers!!!

Joel

Simon's Thoughts...

Over the last two weeks I've taken advantage of two public holidays. The Royal Hobart Show and the Northern recreation day (For some strange reason Tassie likes to split it's public holidays up from North & South. This is not confusing at all!) On both of these occasions I have gone kayaking with 5 of our youth. Just hooning around the Drewent River down south and the Esk River up north. On both of these occasions God blessed us with great sunny skies and a light cool breeze.

Something I've learned.

I learned to love again the sponenaiety of youth when you see a hill, or a swinging rope or a herd of cows that need to be chased. I learned why so many youth laugh, it was at the random things, the way Jackson kept slipping in mud, or the way Bryce kept falling out of the Kayak, or Matty sitting in the back of the two man kayak while Shan paddled her heart out (somehow she never noticed he wasn't paddeling). I learned how awsome it was to just float back down a river talking and laughing not having a care in the world. at one point up north we had all 4 kayak's straped together floating as one group, just having fun. I learned you sometimes just need to go climb a random hill and sit there for no other reason.

Something I've Seen.
I saw on that day youth put all their stuff aside and just be in community, eating, drinking and working together in a team. No one was in charge, if one of them wanted to climb a hill we all climbed the hill. If someone wanted to scare the cows we all scared the cows. I loved what one youth said quietly to me on the side, "I feel really bonded to everyone now". I saw how 5 hours on a river could take someone away from their life and free them for a time. Or develop deeper friendships. I also saw how burned you can get if you don't reapply the suncreen lotion. Grr.

Simon

Coming Soon...!

In just a very short time the 2Love Territorial Blog will be up and running. Watch for interesting posts by wonderful youth leaders from around the territory!