Big Weekend Part II

On Saturday afternoon, I went to the Darnell Room within the St John's Cathedral complex to attend the GFS Annual General Meeting.

If you haven't heard of GFS before now, I'd recommend taking a minute to research who they are and what they do. GFS is an organisation with a very long history of excellent children's ministry. Their most obvious presence in recent times has been in the form of kids' clubs under the banner of KidsPlus+, and there are several KidsPlus+ groups alive and well within the Anglican Diocese of Brisbane, including those at Kenmore, Bundaberg and Logan.

They have also become increasingly well-known recently for their extremely generous provision of financial grants to parishes carrying out youth or children's ministry of virtually any kind (not just KidsPlus+ groups). I was happy to attend the AGM to pass on my thanks personally to GFS for their amazing support of so many YCF ministries. Their grants have lifted the spirits of many of us working in the field!

Claye, Lesley B, Aaron.

A huge and unexpected bonus from being at the AGM was hearing from Bronwen Healy, the founder of the Hope Foundation, a Christian charity with an audacious and astounding mission. Bronwen spoke to acknowledge the support of GFS for her Foundation and to explain some of the ongoing challenges she is facing.


Lesley B giving Bronwen a cheque...with feeling!

I hear Bronwen's testimony is pretty powerful, and I can believe it based on her few words here. Wow.

Another great moment was hearing from two Formation students (i.e. "student priests" if you like), Claye and Aaron, who are the beneficiaries of more grants from GFS to assist them in their studies.  Thanks GFS and well done, guys!

And even then, the weekend wasn't over!  On Sunday night, I joined the teens and young adults of Kenmore parish with their great clergy the Rev. Bev Bell and the Rev. Vince Conway for their regular U-Nite service. Always great music and input: the next meeting will be a Bible Study on 14 April and the next U-Nite service will be Sunday 28 April: a sausage sizzle at 5pm followed by the service at 6.  You would be most welcome to come along from wherever you are!



Eggs before Easter, GFS AGM and other good times.

Relay with gloves, glasses...and eggs.

One of the best parts of my job is travelling around to different parishes and seeing young people meeting together in a safe, secure place where they can have fun and learn more about Jesus and the Christian journey without worrying about what's happening elsewhere for a while.

Last Friday, I made it down to Logan Anglican parish (St Mark's, Daisy Hill) to join the Youth@APOL  (Anglican Parish of Logan) for their Term 1 break-up.  What a great group!  About 17 teens turned up, alongside their four wonderful leaders, Lisa, Frances, Tom and Howard. The group is clearly a diverse bunch but the children of Africans, South Sea Islanders and Australians competed in mixed teams in a fantastic spirit of fellowship.



Some incredible skills here in egg-swiping!

I admit I was a little worried when Lisa pulled out a big basket of coloured eggs and started handing them out, but after I gave my blue one a bit of a shake, I was fairly reassured I was dealing with the hard-boiled kind... which is SLIGHTLY less concerning at the start of a Youth night, but I knew we weren't out of the woods just yet.  I've seen some very disturbing messy games nights in my time, and eggs were often a big part of them.

90 minutes later, we had done almost everything it was possible to do with the eggs: hunt for them, run around with them on spoons, roll them, grab them, drop them, unpeel them... I don't think I saw anyone actually eat one, but it could have happened when I wasn't looking.

The Blue team won tonight's Egg-olympics, but not without a big struggle.  The Easter egg hunt inside the Church and Hall was also very competitive, though pleasingly no chocolate appeared to be consumed before the end of the night when it became open slather.

It was great to catch up with Fr Geoff, and also with Jeremiah, the leader of the African migrant community within the parish.

The Group Deal

As we shared a lavish supper towards the end of the evening, I was quite taken by the group's Mission Statement on the wall.  Does your group have a Mission Statement like this one?

Mission Statement

I was also delighted to see a 'social contract' or as it's sometimes known, a 'group deal' statement where the group members and leaders decide by consensus what kind of behaviour will be considered OK and what kinds will be not OK when the group is in session.  It's very important that the group deal is abided by and referred to frequently as the year rolls along.

Great to meet you, Youth@APOL, and I look forward to seeing more of you this year!  Youth@APOl is open to all highschoolers and meets at St Mark's Daisy Hill from 7 to 9 every Friday night during term time. Contact the Parish office vis the link above for more info.

Shave for a Cure awesomeness

To top off a huge weekend, I raced over to Aspley-Albany Creek parish on Sunday afternoon to witness a selfless act from a young married couple who have been long-time, hugely involved participants in all kinds of Anglican youth ministry activity.

The first time I met Mr Lindsay Gardiner, it was hard to miss his pony-tail, which he has been growing for a long time by the looks of it.  Although I'm always surprised (and impressed) when a young lady like Rosie announces she's going for the big Shave, I must admit I was wondering what on earth Lindsay would look like afterwards. And now I know.

To date, this wonderful couple has raised at least $3800 towards Leukaemia research, and we were delighted to support them. If you'd like to add a donation, it's not too late - sponsor them here: http://my.leukaemiafoundation.org.au/rlgardiner

They handled the whole event very calmly indeed. At one point, the operator of the clippers said, "Don't worry; I'm an artist."  Quick as a flash, Rosie's mum, the Rev. Gillian Morel, quipped, "So was Van Gogh!"

Well done, Lindsay and Rosie. Your efforts here are the stuff of legend!

Starting with something good!

With the creation of our new website, comes the creation of this new blog!

There are so many interesting ideas and events that come across my desk from day to day.  I hope to use this space to draw attention to some of them.

As our website (www.aycf.org.au) develops and evolves, I would hope that it comes to serve as a 'one stop shop' for everything someone would need to carry out youth ministry, children's ministry or families ministry in our branch of the worldwide Church, as well as giving quick info about things that are happening.

Yesterday, I attended the closing Eucharist of our annual young adult Emmaus weekend, at Luther Heights, Coolum.  What a great service and what a brilliant weekend!  The 22 'seekers', previously known as 'candidates', came from all over the Diocese, as did the large and talented Team.  The Rev. Julie Woolner was the Spiritual Director, with the Rev. Vince Conway leading the Musicians.  The Rev. Ian Dredge is the official Diocesan overseer of the whole shebang, and the lay Directors were the simply amazing Nathan Haywood and Jenna Willocks.

I was absolutely delighted at the enthusiasm of the whole group, and what a pleasure to see several older members of the Cursillo movement from local areas joining us for the service. Although they may not have known many, if any, of the seekers personally, they wanted to express their love and prayers for these young adults who represent the present and future of the Anglican church in our region. Thank you Cursillistas!

A couple of comments from the new Seekers stayed with me.  One was from an unashamedly Evangelical youth leader who admitted he had been 'forced' to attend by his parish priest.  His verdict was that the weekend was nothing like he had expected, and the format allowed for a lot of freedom and also for great depth in thinking and reflection on the set topics.

Another was from a young lady who said:

I really loved the atmosphere, everyone was so so lovely and you could be yourself without being judged...which there are not many places that happens, there was not one moment about the camp I didn't enjoy honestly...so much more freedom then [other camps] and everyone was so much more mature (: just loved it!

12 months ago, we had only 5 or 6 Seekers on the weekend, and it seemed the Emmaus ministry was about to be put to rest.  After a Strategic Review by the Emmaus Executive committee, new ideas were put into practice, and this wonderful weekend was the result.  Thanks to the Team and glory to God for the impetus and momentum this weekend will have on our young adult ministry across the Diocese.  I'm still buzzing from it!

Photos to come as soon as we can gather and curate some!