Day 2. Schoolies Attacked My Beard! - Saturday, 19/11/2005

Last Wednesday, although a lot of us knew each other already, we all met together for the first time at Jim's house for Government Training. This is basically involves: what to do in an emergency; what we're not allowed to do; who to report to; etc.
Rob D. trained us this year, and he was hillarious! I can't believe he got away with saying half the stuff he did! We also went way overtime. It was only supposed to go for two hours, but it was at least three.
Last year David gave us the government training, but today he came over to give us training in Pastoral Care instead. He told us that where he was now working there was a whole degree on the subject, but that our hour and a half wouldn't even compare as a bandaid to major surgury, but he did his best. Throughout the training we broke into groups of three and practised active listening skills on each other.

I was nervous when I found out that I was supposed to disciple a newbie. I've never done anything like that before, and I was a little bit worried, but we had our first session today, and it turned out really well, so I'm looking forward to the next one.

Tim M. wasn't here yesterday, because he was really sick. But he is here now, and he will be going out tonight. Hopefully no one will catch whatever he had. I don't think so though, because one of the specific prayers we've had this year, is that no one will get sick while on Project. Last year a few people did, including me, and we couldn't go out on one of the nights. It was horrible!

Last night when we prayed before going out, we didn't do it in the groups we were going out in, and I was worried that we were going to miss out on a very important part of the routine this year, but tonight we prayed in our proper groups, so I think it was just that first night.

Tonight on the street I had Kirsten, Bradley and Jess H.

As soon as we left Headquarters (HQ), we came across a guy spewing even before we got onto the streets. His friends told us that he hadn't been drinking, but had just eaten a hot curry pie, so we went to the Recharge Zone and brought back some water for him.

From talking to Schoolies tonight we learned that this year they are calling us Yellow Shirt people the "Coolies." The 'C' coming from "Church" or "Christians", but mainly "Chaplains".

While Kirsten and Jess were talking to a couple of girls, Bradley and I were talking to a couple of boys, and to a girl who decided to plat my beard. She wasn't happy with it the first time though, so she unravelled it, and platted it again. She then wanted me to dance with her, and that's when I tried to get rescued. Thanks, Trevor G, for the picture.



We then met a couple of boys who seemed to be more willing to beat-box to us than to chat. We were all very impressed as one of them made stuff up about us on the spot while the other one did the beat.

This night was probably the biggest there will be, in that I think we've seen most of the Schoolies now. They still are not sure of us yet though. In the next few nights we won't have to look for people to help, because they will come to us as they realise that we're there to help. We still need to keep a very sharp eye out though, probably an even sharper one now.

Day 1. Schoolies Schoolies SCHOOLIES! - Friday, 18/11/2005

Shoolies has started!
While on the Project, we guys stay at a certain Baptist Church, and the girls stay at a certain Uniting Church. Each day, we wake up at about 11am (did I mention when we were on the streets?), and the girls come over to the Baptist Church where we all do our training and such.

It's amazing how God worked everything out at the last minute. I finnished my Quiet Time on the day Jim had to print them out. I finnished my packing on the arrival of Jess H. to pick me up for Schoolies this morning. Even the last of my financial support was raised only just last night!
When we arrived at the Baptist Church today, I was jumping up and down saying, "Schoolies Schoolies SCHOOLIES!" I did this a lot near the end of Schoolies last year, but it didn't catch on very well. Today though, it caught on immediately. Everyone was commenting on how happy I looked, and that I had a permanent smile on my face. Every time I make an entrance now, everyone jumps up and down flapping their hands and saying, "Schoolies Schoolies SCHOOLIES!" and looking almost as ridiculous as I do.

They were talking about making our shirts a different colour this year, which I wouldn't have liked. Yellow stands out quite well, unlike the HC ones, which were brown. I was relieved to learn though, that our shirts are still yellow, and the only thing different, is that they no longer have "Schoolies-Care.Net" written on the front of them anymore. Although HC have changed their shirts to black this year.

When we go out on the streets at night in our Yellow shirts, we are in groups of four, with two boys and two girls. Sometimes there are groups of five, with three boys.
I've made a little discovery, and it has been confirmed that it is not coincidence. Last year, in my first group, I had Kristine, Jess H., and Nathan. This year, in my first group, I had Kristine, Jess H., and Darcy. Nathan is not on the project this year, and Darcy was not on the project last year. I looked through all the groups, and sure enough, we are in exactly the same groups as last year, except that the people who are no longer with us have been replaced with the newbies, but in alphabetical order. So Darcy replaces Nathan in every group.

I think some of the newbies were shocked to find that we would be starting on the streets this very first night. The first night of Schoolies is always extremely quiet, mostly because the Schoolies have their formals on that night. So we were free to cruise around and get familiar with the area and where all the police and medical places were. Everybody had a chance to organise their nerves too. I liked it, because it gave me a chance to get over the memories of last year. Everywhere we went, bang, bang, bang, the memories hit me. There were a dozen memories from every place around. Even the obscure out-of-the-way places. I realised, "Wow! Two weeks is an awfully long time!" It seems as though I've never been away from Schoolies, and that the last day from last year is yesterday, and that it's just four weeks in a row. It seems as though half the people from last year have suddenly been taken away, and replaced with new people. So I really miss all you guys from last year right now.
Tonight Jess H. and Kristine had their hands kissed, but otherwise the night was quite quiet as expected. Stay tuned for more action and less explanation.

What I will be doing.

Alright! I'm going to explain what I'll be doing these next two weeks, so listen carefully, because I'm not going to try to explain this again. First though, a little background:

Every year, about 30,000 students, who have graduated from grade 12, get together with their mates and book rooms in hotels at Surfer's Paradise for about two weeks. Each night they have a huge party on the beach. They are the Schoolies. These people are at a turning point in their lives, and they have a clearer opportunity to ask such questions as "What is my pupose in life?", "Is there a God?" and "Where am I going?".

Meanwhile, Student Life is an interdenominational Christian group on campus (UQ, QUT, Griffith, etc.), who's motto is "Turning lost students into Christ centered laborors." I joined Student Life in my first year as a student at QUT (2003). Student Life mainly trains Christian students in spreading the Gospel on campus. One way in which we create an interest in the Gospel, is to ask random students at uni to fill out 'spiritual feedback forms'.

Anyway, one of the projects Student Life uses to train us, is the Schoolies Project. There is Hotel Chaplaicy (HC), and Street Chaplaicy (SC). Those students who choose HC, stay in the hotels of Schoolies and make life easier for them. I don't know much about HC, except that they give out red frogs (lollies). Those of us who decide to become Street Chaplains walk about the streets and the beach from about 10:30pm to 2am each night for two weeks to keep the Schoolies safe, and to give them someone to talk to. We have our KGPs (Knowing God Personally Booklets) with us too.
I do know about SC, because I was on the Project last year, and it was absolutely the best two weeks of my life.

This year I have the privilage of being able to go on Schoolies as a Street Chaplain again, from the 18th of November until the 4th of December. Each day I will type up a short diary of what goes on, so that you can share in the experience with me a little. I plan to post each day to this blog. I won't be able to make it to an internet café to post every day, so I will have to post two or three days at a time, but I will still seperate each day as a unique post on my blog. I daresay some of these posts are going to be pretty wild, especially if Schoolies is anything like it was last year. You'll just have to wait and see!

P.S. Noof and Luke are also going to be Street Chaplains this year, so they might blog about it when they get back too.