Chaplaincy at Australia's Biggest Christian Festival

This blog was originally posted in March 2012. 2 years on, the cry has once again gone out for willing and able volunteers to assist in a unique festival position. Although this is a re-run, you can hear a recent conversation with the Chaplaincy Coordinator Leanne Hutton.

Every Easter the city of Toowoomba in regional QLD plays host to a massive music festival that also features a mass of great speakers. This festival started off as The Australian Gospel Music Festival, but changed its name to Easterfest for its 10^th anniversary 5 years ago to better reflect its mission to be a festival at Easter about Easter.

Being a Christian festival, one thing that they are constantly aiming to do is to look after the spiritual health of the (mostly) volunteers that make this festival happen and this is done through a network of chaplains.

Leanne Hutton (R), Chaplaincy Coordinator for Easterfest

Leanne Hutton, chaplaincy coordinator, says they are coming from a place of service to just “be there” and to help out with stress and bring God into the forefront of everything that happens. This is done through praying for people, sharing a cuppa or lending a hand in areas which reflect the skills of their other lives. Throat lozenges, water, band aids, earplugs, picks, safety pins are the main stay of a chaplain’s “tool kit” which comes out of years of Leanne being a mum to a musician. “Musicians are a forgetful bunch on the whole, so its amazing how often they forget to drink before performing. If someone loses a pick in the grass, its great to pray about it, its even better to just hand one to the artist.”

A great example of the way that chaplains can be an asset in a totally unforseeable way was at last year’s festival when the site in Queen’s Park copped a torrential downpour and had to be evacuated. “The young man who was chaplain for Mainstage was a Large Tongan young man who used his physical strength to lift and carry…” Leanne said. “Another person who was only able to come on the Sunday, in his professional life he had been involved in the Brisbane floods looking after the victims and he knew how to speak to the young people who had been in a pretty stressful situation the night before. I think he went to every campsite that remained and spoke to everyone to see how they were doing. I had just the right people for the jobs that needed to be done.” 

Chaplains are being recruited for this year’s festival and the type of person Leanne is looking for is specific. “We don’t really want someone who is there to get their photo taken with a famous person. We want someone who can be sensitive and caring and who understands that everyone from the car park attendant to the sound and lighting techs and the artists need someone who will be there to listen, pray and just be available.”

http://easterfest.com/apply/

What price should we put on elite sports training?

Now that the Winter Olympics is over, out come the claws as some "experts" say that Australian taxpayer's contributions of $10.8 Million over 4 years to end up with only 3 medals is not worth it.

I prefer to listen to the other experts who say that the Aussie taxpayer paid 12c per Aussie per year to make up the $10 million, while the Australian Olympic Committee paid $10 Million raised through independant investments and sponsorships. According to Fox Sports columnist John Lehman, Corporate Australia has spent $38 million on the London and Sochi Olympic campaigns combined. He also made the point "We better give up on the Paralympics too as federal taxpayers will be giving $9,101,250 this financial year towards Paralympic sport – more than three times as much as our winter sport investment."

The Australian Newspaper's Nicole Jeffery also defended the performance of our Winter Olympians; "Australia has spent less than half of the money that Britain has to earn one less medal at the Sochi Winter Olympics."

So now we have to wait and see what happens next as because Australia didn't get a Gold Medal at this olympics, rumour has it they will undergo similar structural changes that the Summer Olympic team went through when their performance at London wasn't up to scratch.

Aussie snow journalist Rachael Oakes-Ash shared on her Miss Snow It All blog 60 reasons why we should applaud our winter olympic team, even if we didn't win Gold at Sochi. Have a read and remember that in every sport there are those that play for fun and those want to compete with the best in the world proudly wearing their country's colours.

I say congratulations to all of our Olympians for even managing to get to this level. I know I'll never be there and recognise the hard work and sacrifices made by these sports men and women to get where they have.

Australia's Winter Olympic Team prior to the Sochi Closing Ceremony. 

 

Photo from https://www.facebook.com/AUSOlympicTeam

Christ the King

Jeremiah 23:1-6 Colossians 1:11-20 (Revised Common Lectionary Year C)

Welcome to the end of the year. Now don’t go thinking I’m a month or so early…I’m not talking about the calendar year. I mean the end of the Liturgical Year- the church year. Next week marks the start of Advent and with it, a brand new year for the Christian Church. So as is customary amongst our faith tradition and through our lectionary, today is celebrated as Christ the King Sunday. It’s a day to hear again the scriptures that foretell of the coming of the king and also to reflect upon what sort of King it is that we serve and worship.

What is a King??According to the Oxford dictionary… A male ruler of a country by right of birth; a man or thing regarded as supreme. Now to expand that a little further…our 20th century culture has crowned a few kings.. King George VI, King Of England and father of our current monarch..Then there’s the king from other countries like Monaco or Denmark. We’ve also crowned if you like a king of pop – Michael Jackson, the King of Country Slim Dusty and who can forget THE king – Elvis Presley.

So who is our King and what sort of Kingly attributes are there about him? Scattered throughout the Gospels alone, 24 times Jesus is referred to as King of the Jews. Now this is not always done so in a manner of reverence as you would refer to our Queen or to the King of another country…in fact a lot of it is said either in jest or in sheer contempt. But those passages also show what sort of a King Jesus is and was. This King has the privilege of being from a long line of Royalty… in fact the entire lineage of this King is traced back at the beginning of the Gospel of Matthew. He comes from the line of David…the little shepherd boy that fell a giant with a sling and a stone. David who went on to become God’s anointed one, the greatest and most powerful King of his time. So its no surprise then that this King has waited for expectantly. The Prophet Jeremiah foretold the coming of a great king. This king he foretold was a messianic king, one who would bring people to him, one who will gather the scattered sheep of the flock and reign over them in justice…unlike the kings whom Jeremiah dealt with in his time.

Paul tells of this King in the letter to church in Colossae as the beloved son of the Father…the Father who enables us to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light and who rescues us from the power of darkness. This King is the image of the invisible God and the one from whom all things have been created and all things have been created for. He is also the head of the Body- the church and in whom the fullness of God dwells and whom God made peace with humanity through the blood of his cross. So just from the account of the Prophet and from the Apostle Paul, we begin to see an image of a powerful king, God like and mighty who rules over everyone and everything…human and animal. But as always when it comes to Jesus, things are not quite that straight forward.

The clue for us of course is in the words that Paul wrote to the Colossians (Col 1:19-20)…that through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things…by making peace through the blood of the cross. Here’s a big neon sign…blood and cross…a king who has suffered the agony of the Roman Empire’s worst way of execution…bleeding, hanging and dying on a cross.

This King we serve, the monarch above all monarchs as Paul will eventually describe in a letter to his young protégé Titus…the king of kings and Lord of Lords…is by far the greatest ruler the world has known, because he endured pain, suffering and death for it. Jesus was recorded in scriptures, fulfilling the prophecies of the Messiah…the promised King of Israel. But this was a title Jesus refused to accept. He didn’t want to be served upon in the way a normal king would, he didn’t have a palace, he didn’t have a privileged upbringing. He was a simple carpenter’s son… a man who knew that he was not only fully human, but fully divine. But never did he exploit this. Never did he use his birthright as an excuse not to act. He healed the sick and the lame, fed the hungry, he associated with the lowest members of society and most of all, he showed Love. This King knew his people and knew their pain and was punished for it.

Now before you think that I am way ahead of myself and maybe preaching an easter sermon…I want to you to think about what lies ahead of us in the church calendar. Over the next 4 weeks, we will prepare ourselves for the birth of our King. To remember that this King was born to humble servants of God. But you can’t forget that the manger is meaningless without the cross and the cross was nothing if it doesn’t point to the manger. Christ the king…this King was worshipped at birth…and rejected as an adult. But his purpose was never to come and establish his kingship over us…his purpose was to point us to his kingdom. A kingdom given to him by his father, a kingdom that would never end.

I want to ask you a question now. How are you following the edicts of our King of Kings? Is the King’s example and rulings still visible in our world today? Across Australia today, thousands of churches are taking part in something called Abolitionist Sunday. It’s a campaign organised through World Vision that calls Christians especially to action. Christ the King, our lord and saviour came to change the world. As I said before… he didn’t live in a palace and have slaves working to fulfil his every whim. Quite the opposite. He was an activist who worked against injustice. Abolitionist Sunday takes its title from William Wilberforce and the abolition of slavery movement he was part of over 200 years ago. Wilberforce’s Christian faith informed him of the injustices of slavery and kept him going when even he doubted the impact he was making to legally end slavery.

In verse 11 of Paul’s letter to the Colossians, he writes May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power and may you be prepared to ENDURE everything with patience… Slavery still exists in our modern world, and more and more of it is creeping back into pseudo-legality. The subtlety of the slavery is starting to get noticed. The clothes we buy, the food we eat, the goods we consume. Worst still was the case that was reported in the UK last week about a girl who had been a domestic slave her entire life!!

Now don’t for a second think that I am saying we do this knowingly…I am as guilty as so much of the modern western world. I am not always an ethical purchaser of clothing or food. The technology I use, I have no idea where it came from or at what cost. But I want to try. Christ the King set an example for us. When he turned the tables over in the temple and evicted the money changers, when he stood up for the woman caught in adultery and most of all, when he showed compassion and forgiveness to those that put him on the cross. Pontius Pilate recognised something in Jesus when he tried, some say valiantly, others half heartedly to save his life. Right at the end, as is recorded by the Gospel of John chapter 19 the Pharisees were enraged that Pilate would dare put a sign above the cross of Jesus saying “King of the Jews”…they wanted it to say he claims he is…king of the jews. But Pilate stood firm and the king of the Jews was crucified on the hill over looking Jerusalem.

I went to a Grant Norsworthy performance a couple of weeks ago and one of the many things he spoke passionately about was the name of Jesus. I don’t know why it lingered with me, but it has and it really highlights for me what today…Christ the King Sunday is all about. In Medieval times, when someone banged on your door and shouted “open up in the name of the King” a wave of fear or at the very least concern would have washed over you. The name of the King had quite serious connotations. You didn’t declare everything in the name of the king…and if you were a representative of the King, then you were treated with respect and listened to, maybe even feared – as a direct representative of your King and ruler. But Grant pointed out that these days, in the name of the king has diminished. Its just a phrase now. Even in church circles. When we pray, we pray in Jesus name..in the name of the King, but so often we feel the need to add to that name…Jesus mighty name, Jesus powerful, wonderful, holy etc etc. There was once a time when asking for something in the name of Jesus, the king of kings, was enough.

Our King is a powerful King. Not because he has millions of loyal and faithful subjects, not because he came from a long line of royalty and could trace his lineage back as far as the great patriarchs of the faith Abraham and Isaac. No our King is a powerful King because he changes us. When you become a subject of the King of Kings, when you lay down your life at the feet of the one king who has conquered death and who sits at the right hand of the creator of the universe; then something inside of you is going to change. Submit yourself to the king. Understand his edicts of loving those who need it the most, of working towards justice. Jesus showed us that being a king was about real and true love for his subjects…and that loyalty and love was returned.

Before I finish, I want to first encourage you to check out more about Abolitionist Sunday. There are a range of resources available to you through World Vision and other agencies that can help you take small but meaningful steps towards abolishing slavery. Something as simple as purchasing fair trade chocolate can make a huge difference in the fight against slavery.

Secondly I want to encourage you to discover for yourself what it means to serve Christ the King. Study the scriptures and find out about his reign and what it means to be part of the kingdom of heaven. Jesus transforms lives.

Lastly I want to share a story with you that shows the power of our king. Matthew West is a contemporary Christian Music artist from the US and one of his songs has for a while now really impacted me. But more than that was the story that inspired his song.

Out of the Darkness of addiction and into the light of recovery…. “Hello, my name is Jordan and I am a drug addict.” That was the first sentence of this young man’s story that he sent to me. He went on to tell me how for years that was how he identified himself. A two sport all star athlete in high school, Jordan received a college scholarship to run track and play football at a university in Kentucky. 

But during his sophomore season, Jordan broke his ankle. That is when he received his first prescription to Oxycontin. He wrote about how addiction quickly took a hold of his life and sent him spinning out of control. After two failed drug tests, the university kicked him out and removed his sports scholarships. Jordan had lost everything he had worked for. 

He landed at a place called Teen Challenge in North Carolina. Teen Challenge is a Christian rehabilitation center in the business of restoring lives with the hope of Jesus Christ. Jordan said it was during his time in Teen Challenge that he began to realize that God wasn’t done with him yet, and that all of those defeating titles like “addict,” didn’t have to be attached to his name the rest of his life. 

His story is far from over. He told me that in the years since his recovery, he went back and got his master’s degree from the very college that kicked him out. Now, he is a teacher and a coach and a newlywed. And he has recently felt God calling him into full time ministry. He closed his story by saying, “These days I introduce myself a little differently than I used to. Hello, my name is Jordan and I am a child of the one true king!” 


Matthew West - Hello, My Name Is (Lyrics) from matthew-west on GodTube.

Baking for Charity at Community Festival

Brisbane Taiwanese Uniting Church in Australia organised a stall at the recent Taiwan Festival at Calamvale Community College on 6 & 7 September 2013. 

Irene Kuo said fellow congregation member Amy Liu organised the church to be visible and give something back to the community. Volunteers were recruited in just 4 weeks to man the stall at the 2 day festival and bake home made goods to raise money in the Australian Red Cross "Big Cake Bake". All their cakes and biscuits sold out before the end of the second day and they raised a total of $2,068 well above their target of $300. 

Overall reactions were positive to the church as they also promoted their new premises at the former Hillcrest Uniting Church after outgrowing their old buildings in Moorooka.

Pictured from Left: Irene Kuo & Milly Tsai at Taiwan Festival in Brisbane

Book review - Bush Nurses

When the foreward of this book starts with a story about a nurse helping save the life of a baby in-utero by physically holding the cord off the baby’s neck until the Flying Doctor can arrive as backup, you know this book will have some fascinating stories. But when the story finishes with the doctor doing a follow-up and the nurse informing him that after the plane left, runway flares extinguished, clinic cleaned up & getting to bed at 4am; she was woken at 6am by someone asking for panadol… well you know that the stories will have just that little bit extra incentive to keep reading to learn more about “Bush Nurses”.

As you get away from the big city and into regional areas, you start to notice some of the differences in the way health care is offered. When you get away from the regional areas into the country areas, there’s a bigger difference again. But when the nearest doctor and hospital is only available by calling in the RFDS; you have to be a pretty special kind of person to undertake nursing in outback clinics where anything can and usually does happen. This book celebrates those special people and allows them to offer some insight into their world in their own words.

Despite a career as a nurse Annabelle Brayley is the first to admit she has always had a love of hearing people tell their stories. Now retired and as a regular contributor to the RM Williams Outback Magazine, Annabelle regularly gets to indulge in this passion. 

Getting into the stories told in the all too short 287 pages, you get just a glimpse into this world. There are tear jerking moments as you read the account of a tragic weekend in North West NSW where a long awaited R&R opportunity was interrupted by a house fire killing 2 children and a car rollover on the way to the race meet involving a member of the community that didn’t survive their injuries. In contrast though, there are the laugh out loud moments of the way nurses trained to help human patients, also end up working on the animal companions – going to show that an understanding of veterinary medicine doesn’t go astray if heading outback.

The stories contained in these pages are ones of resilience, of self discovery and at times “creatively” dealing with bureaucratic rules made by people who don’t understand outback communities. “Bush Nurses” also offers rare insights into some of the earliest AIM nurses and the way they handled isolation and limited medical facilities to help provide the “Mantle of Safety” that John Flynn envisaged. It is these ideals and the commitment that continues to outback Australia that has inspired Penguin books to donate royalties from the sale of this book to Frontier Services in recognition of 100 years of service to rural and  remote Australia.

If there is one criticism that I have of these stories, is that some of them seem a little too short. Understandably to fit so many stories into so few pages, some editing had to be done, but with some of the stories it feels like you just start to get into it and its over with. If you can handle that then you’ll have no trouble picking this book up and losing yourself in various communities across Australia.

Published by Penguin Books Australia. RRP $29.99

An edited version of this review was published by the Uniting Church QLD Synod Magazine "Journey" in their July edition. Thanks to them for asking me to do the review and providing the reading material in the first place. 

 

Country reign continues at Uniting Church's 30th Qld Synod

Players in the Synod touch football competition

Synod wouldn’t be the same without the city vs country touch football game, named after the mythical (some say legendary) former Trinity Theological College Student Charles Farnsworthy.

Despite the game being used as an example for the whole of synod on voting practices on Friday night, it was uncertain whether country would have enough starters. Thankfully though, country rallied and was able to provide a team to maintain their hold on the trophy and bragging rights.

Former Country player Paul Clarke revelled in being back in the City team (some suggested that country would now be stronger) and rallied teammates Tim Robinson, Lu Senitulli and John Dansie in leading the charge. City opened the game at a fast pace, but were kept in check by referee Linda Hanson (despite being without a whistle). Clarke scored first points of the match, but the celebrations were short lived as Country’s Greg Adsett scored quickly surprising a complacent Senituli.

Country continued their embarrassment of City’s much fitter looking team after a marvellous display of showmanship and footwork from Tim Robinson backfired. A comment from the sideline questioned City’s fitness after asking Deception Bay’s Dansie why he was sweating more and breathing harder than the older guys on his team. He admitted only to running harder.

A confusion of sports almost cost Senitulli his place on the team after a volleyball esque spike almost lost a try, but a quick footed John Ruhle recovered the ball and scored for City. A late substitution on by Greg Rankin was Country’s secret weapon as no sooner was he on the field, he had assisted Brendan “Hoops” Hooper in crossing the line for a second time.

Country led at half time not showing the effects of the warm midday sun, City on the other hand feeling the pressure saw Peter Lockhart flat out on his back bemoaning the youthful exuberance of the country team (and wanting oxygen and Summer Madness Coffee in that order). He quickly recovered though and as the second half began, so too did City’s resolve. They pushed hard against Country forcing mistakes but the on field encouragement from Jim Pearson rallied Country, forcing an out of bounds run from Robinson and a try disallowed by the ref. “Hoops” and Tim Griggs scored in quick succession taking City by surprise again and cementing their narrow lead.

City pause for prayer after the game; perhaps asking for victory next year?

By the end of the game, City had been outclassed once again and Country were able to take home bragging rights and their place on the trophy winning the match 6-4. In post match interviews, Tim Robinson from Logan UC commented that his running was impaired by eating too much of the fine cuisine offered by Alex Park staff, but also admitting that Country were “a much fitter team, the score didn’t reflect the true competiveness of the game…Country beat us far more convincingly than that ”. 

Both City and Country had strong representation from across the Synod, although heads were being scratched at Scott Guyatt’s choice of an Lions AFL guernsey for the game. Spectators were up on previous matches with many intrigued passer bys stopping for to witness the spectacle that is the Charles Farnsworthy Memorial Cup.

Also published in UCA QLD magazine "Journey"

Stepping back in time

Imagine taking a step back in time to the 1800s. Every year on the first weekend in May, that’s exactly what many thousands do.

For the last 37 years, the Woolshed at Jondaryan in South West Queensland, comes back to life in the same way it may have been in the 1890s showcasing the skills and the life of the farm. Whether it be steam driven butter churners, horsedrawn wagons and other long forgotten machinery; they all take pride of place at the annual “Heritage Festival”.

“We find that families and kids absolutely love it” Shana Rogers Business manager of the Jondaryan Woolshed said “It’s things that some of them have never ever seen before and just have no idea that the clothes we wear come from sheep or animals we see out in the yard.”

From a family perspective this day offers something for even the younger kids. A chance to see a massive Clydesdale up close and watch it pulling a wagon, noisy smelly steam engines that chuff along wheezing and whooshing, a flock of sheep being herded in by a kelpie ready to be shorn or good old fashioned billy cart races, sack races or bobbing for apples.



The best part though is that there is wide open space unspoilt by city traffic, plenty of room to run around and the smell of fresh air mixed with the aroma of smoke from old fashioned wood fires and the occasional whiff of horse flesh as the stagecoach comes rolling by.

But there are plenty of other sounds, smells and tastes that bring the woolshed back to life. Fresh damper cooking in the coals, homemade scones baking in a wood stove in a tiny kitchen, served with a generous helping of homemade butter and jam or good old fashioned stews bubbling in a camp kitchen in the back paddock near the shearing shed.

The Old Swaggie pushing his cart

“The whole village is in recreation so we have spinners and weavers here and many of our volunteers dress in (period) costume which is lovely to see” Ms Rogers said “everything, every building that’s on the woolshed site was original from the Jondaryan Station which was around 300 000 acres at its peak in the late 1890s and the history of the place is just incredible”.