National Training Event 2005 (long post!)

There are lots of different sorts of doors.

Old splintering doors. Doors which look newer than its surrounding house. Painted doors, polished wooden doors. Solid doors, and doors with panels of frosted or stained glass - blue birds, red flowers. Doors with fly screens, doors with security screens. Doors with security screens that can't be seen through from the outside. Doors that open to the left and doors that open to the right. Doorbells: Round buttons, rectangular buttons, brass ones that you have to twist and sound like a bicycle bell. Ones that go "ding dong" and ones that play a tune. Wrought iron door knockers. Doors with no bells or knockers. Doors with Christmas decorations. Door with cobwebs.

Doors that are left open behind screens to let the breeze in. Doors with voices behind them. A scuffle, a shadow of movement. Doors that are opened. Doors that are silent. Doors that stay shut.

Where do I begin? It feels as if I have been away from home for a month, when it was just a bit over a week. I got less sleep than I usually would over the last few days, but came home feeling refreshed.

(Although that feeling of refreshment only lasted until Sunday night, have been very tired these past two days, muscles are aching for no reason, have been sneezing and have a slightly blocked nose. Not sure if it's a cold or maybe hayfever.)

Canberra was a nicer city than I remembered it to be. Fresh air, greenery everywhere, arty architecture, wide roads, sparse traffic. Got to do some touristy stuff during free time, like see the Aboriginal tent embassy, go to the war memorial, the National Museum (which wasn't there the last time I went), drive around the embassies, see question time at Parliament House, walk along the side of the lake and pull the whistle on a steam boat! And it was my first time at the ANU too. They have a nice campus.

The conference part of NTE seems like so long ago now, but it was great to see around 1000 people from all over Australia, and even people from Fiji, gathered in one place to learn from and study God's word. The theme was The Fellowship of the King, and the two speakers, Richard Chin and Richard Gibson did a good job of entertaining everyone by bagging each other out continually in their respective talks. As well as preach faithfully from the Bible, of course. I think a lot of people found Gibbo's third talk the most memorable/challenging - that we are to have genuine, unfeigned, forgiving, self-sacrificing love for others, reflecting Christ's love for us.

There were moving stories shared from people in the mission field- the man who almost broke down in tears when he spoke of his wife's parents being "very angry at what they do"....Esther, the girl who grew up with missionary parents in India...I remember her waist long blonde hair tied up in a plait, her quiet, articulate voice that remained so calm as she shared with 1000 people of how her father and brothers were brutally murdered...But there were also happier stories, like the work of the PSFC (Pacific Students for Christ, I think it was), the student organisation in Fiji - "It's like what's happening in Australia - except it's in Fiji!"...And funny stories - the people who drove across Australia from Perth in a bus that kept breaking down (apparently it happens every year?)



For the mission part, half the people from Sydney Uni went to Belmore, and the other half went to Ashfield, to help out St John's Anglican (which is the church Andrew Katay is at now). I think we all arrived there safely from Canberra, after detours to various people's houses to collect enough bedding for 20-something people, as we only found out we would actually be sleeping in the church hall for the duration of the mission, the day before we came back up from Canberra.

I think we were a bit worried when we heard there was only one shower, and wondered how we would get to sleep in the heat with insects falling on our heads. But it turned out to be alright. I've never been billeted before, but I think camping out with everyone in the church made it so much more fun. The heat dispersed as the cool night breeze blew through the open windows, the whirring ceiling fans chased off the insects (or did they go out with the lights?), there were more than enough air matresses/bedrolls/sleeping bags/pillows for everyone to sleep comfortably, no one snored (until the last night)....and you got to wake up to blinding light streaming through the east windows at 6am in the morning!

But seriously, on that first night at Ashfield, as I lay in my sleeping bag, on top of two bedrolls, on the wooden floor of the church hall, staring up at the rich wooden panelling of the ceiling (which you didn't fully appreciate unless you were flat on your back), I remember thinking to myself, at that moment there was nowhere else I'd rather be. Because I was surrounded by people who I'd gotten to know a bit better over the past few days in Canberra, and who I would get to know even more over the coming few days, as we worked together to put St. John's, which has been in decline for the past 50 years, back into the consciousness of the community of Ashfield. And I was almost excited that I would get to be doing God's work over the next few days, even though at the same time I was anxious, because it would be new and unfamiliar to me.

And the next few days proved to be not disappointing - it was challenging, tiring, self-stretching stuff, but not so challenging that it was unachievable. Even though I felt like a novice at times (which I was), by the end of the camp I felt as though I, we, had accomplished something. Small victories. For ourselves as individuals, and for what we were working for. And hopefully, even though they were so small, they will have a bit of an impact on the church in the long run.

Doorknocking in 30 degree heat - you got thirsty and sweaty. But aside from that, it wasn't as bad as I expected it to be. In large part thanks to the awesome and very experienced staff worker I was paired up with for most of the time...but yeah, it was a great learning experience. A lot of people weren't home, most wanted to be brief, some didn't speak English, some were nice but uninterested, some bluntly refused, and one or two we held long conversations with. I started out wishing I didn't have to do it, but by the end of the last session, I regretted not having time to do more. So many doors, so many people who didn't know what they needed to hear. So many people who shut out what they needed to hear.

What else did we do...standing at the entrances to Ashfield station at 7:30am in the morning to hand out Christmas quizzes, running a stall outside Ashfield mall on Saturday (and handing out more Christmas quizzes there too), half the people in the team ran a kid's club as well....some people gave their testimony during the services on Sunday, and some of us did an item - we sang/played In Christ Alone during holy communion (which was cool since we didn't have music or lyrics for it and it still sounded good in the end!)

There is so much more I could write about even though this post is now massive...like the possum and the baby possum we saw crawling around the rafters in the church hall, and the crazy sing-a-long with the piano on the last night, and the BBQ that almost went up in flames but the chicken turned out just right...

Sigh. I felt rather sad having to leave on Sunday afternoon, although the other half of me was ready to go home after a long week. There were a few EU faces I was just starting to get to know a bit better, and God had blessed us with such sunny weather for us to do what had needed to be done that week, and we had worked so well together and learnt so much in the process. Until next time. We're not done yet.

Because God's work is never done. As we see on the news, there are so many people who are ignorant of the love of God. We looked at 2 Cor 4:1-6 in one of our team meetings, and it was such a good reminder of what we do...

2 Corinthians 4
1Therefore, since through God's mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. 2Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. 3And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. 6For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

Doors. The interface between the outside and the inside, where lives can meet. Maybe where lives can be changed.