Day 13. Date Night. - Wednesday, 30/11/2005

We had our second Personal Retreat today. This time it was dry enough to have it in the Dog Park, so we did.


Yes, o Relatives, I wore the red dressing gown. Get over it already!

Tonight was Date Night - one of the two nights we have off. Everyone gets excited about date night. Even I can forget about the Schoolies long enough to have some fun.


For date night, the guys are divided into groups of about 4 or 5. Throughout the week, they are given an extremely small budget to plan a group date not knowing which girls they are going to have. This is not a real date, it's group dating a group, and all elements of individuality are eliminated in a very appropriate way.

Jim, Tim L. and Rob were in my group, and this afternoon the girls found out what groups they were in. At the last minute, we found out which groups we were asking out. Carla, Emma, Vanessa and Jess H. made up our group of girls.
We got the girls to stand together and then we down on our knees in front of them with fake roses in our mouths and Tim said something poetic (as he was already married, we designated him as the expert).


Then the girls had to take the roses from our mouths (not with theirs though, that would have been over the top).
Then we took Jim's van to Put-put, and played mini golf against moving obstacles. Carla won, I think, and I came last (definitely). I got a finite score though, and I think someone must have added it up incorrectly, because Rob marked me down for twice needing to hit the ball infinity times (even though the limit is 5). One of the times, because I lost my ball in a bush and had to get another one.
We found a humungous slug (you can see it on my hand), and I decided to keep it as the perfect Date-Night-Present for the girls. I thought it was very romantic of me...


Jim's van rocks! Literally! Some of the girls were afraid it was going to tip over when we leaned from side to side in sync to show the girls how cool Jim's van was. We sang every love song anyone could think of, but we hardly had to do anything to keep the girls entertained though, because Tim kept all of us in constant hysterics. He is a true comic genius!


We took the girls to the beach where we ate food and drank drink (sparkling apple cider), where this little dog, without any owner, came running past us as though it was going somewhere with purpose. No one seemed too amazed about it, until the same dog kept running past us almost everywhere we drove to tonight.

Also there was another date group that turned up at everything we went to just after us. We found out later though, that while Jim got discounts on everything by mentioning that we were Schoolies Volunteers, the other group didn't. It was funny later on, hearing the huge difference that they had to pay for everything.

When preparing for Date Night on Thursday, each of the guys wrote a message to put on a card, and then with calligraphy pens, Jim and I wrote the messages randomly on the cards we had made to confuse whose handwriting wrote what. We each bought a present wrapped it up, and we each randomly stuck someone else’s card to the present. We gave them the presents tonight after the dinner, and the girls took turns reading each card aloud so that the others could giggle and sigh at our attempt at romantic poetry, which was mainly borrowed from Songs of Solomon and other books of the Bible.

We drove to the border of NSW and QLD where we took a photo of the evolution of man from NSW to QLD. I, of course, represented the lowest of the hairy apes.



We also took some pictures of the guys in QLD rescuing the poor helpless girls from NSW.


And we couldn't miss Mother Earth at the center of the earth!


We played with sparklers. This happened here, because we forgot to do it earlier.


There was a storm brewing, and we went to the top of a mountain overlooking the sea, where Emma and Tim tried to take pictures of the lightning with digital cameras. Emma succeeded.


Tim is absolutely hilarious!

Day 12. Poor Leadership. - Tuesday, 29/11/2005

Today we had the last of our training levels. They were pretty great!

Drew and Trevor A. Gave us their testimonies at Lunch today, and Jess H. gave hers at dinner.

Emma, Jess C. and Rob B. were in my group tonight, and it looked to be a really promising group. I was also looking forward to it, because I hadn't had Rob or Jess in my group before. At the start of the night, Rob told me that I was the group leader, and then he said that Jess was 2nd in command, and Emma 3rd and then I said that he was calling the shots. This was all just nonsance of course, and nobody took it seriously.

Last year I had long hair to go with my beard, and all the Schoolies would ask if I was Jesus. I would answer, "No, but I know Him." and then we'd talk about it. This year, now that I don't have the long hair, all I ever get told by Schoolies is to "part the Red Sea" (because I'm Moses now, you see). Here are some people who asked me to part the Red Sea:


We also met another group who we helped build a sandcastle, which turned into a cake, which turned into a turtle, which turned into a dragon with a turtle's shell with bumps all over it, which became...


I was really frustrated tonight, because we seemed to be getting into useless conversations all night. At the end of the night, I decided it was because the Schoolies had learned how to give each other free converation since they had gotten over the shock of the stages being taken away, and so they didn't need us anymore. Rob put it down to my bad leadership skills.

I later found out that most of the other groups had the same frustration that night. As for not being needed that night though, that was no where near the truth. Two groups of Yellow Shirts had to call ambulances tonight. Who did the Schoolies run to when they needed help? SC!

Day 11. Thown in the Deep End. - Monday, 28/11/2005

Cat and Norm gave their testimonies today, and Darcy at dinner.

Tonight all our help and backup is taken away for the next week. No more signing in to HQ, no more Recharge Centre to take people to. No more SES, SST, portable toilet cubicles, Rosies, very few police and ambulance. And because the NSW Schoolies are a year older, most of the Schoolies are allowed into the pubs, etc. So there are no more stages on the beach.


Most of the new schoolies arrived yesterday while the stages were still there, so they didn't realise that they weren't going to be there anymore. They've been left very bored and idle, and it is a very dangerous night for us, but it is also an opportunity to talk to Schoolies who appreciate the free conversation over their boredom.

So tonight, before my group of Luke, Kristine, Krystle and I went out, we prayed that the Holy Spirit would lead us to the right places.

As soon as we were on the streets, God impressed me to lean against the wall around a corner. Immediately after I did, a guy leaned beside me and started telling me all about himself. He was a Jack of all trades whose temporary job was to cook for the Schoolies. He didn't know what he was going to do when they were gone. He wasn't getting any sleep, but he seemed much happier as he ran back off to his work after finishing his beer. I tried to keep myself in view of the rest of the team during the conversation, but they knew I was there.

Just on the night when there're no more toilets, I have to go from the start. So we went to these cubicles that lock electronically. A green light shows that it's vacant, and a red light shows that it's engaged. Well, that's the theory anyway. In practice, I had to knock on the door with the green light because I was paranoid that it didn't work, and then I walked in on some girl, so my fears were related to real disaster after all. I was extremely embarrassed, as you can imagine, and decided to hide on the other side of the building until she was gone.
When I finally did go, an electronic voice informed me that I had ten minutes before becoming vulnerable to causing someone else the same embarrassment, and then it started playing irritating jazz who's composer obviously had the intent in mind, of making such situations difficult.
When I finally escaped, I thought that as we walked around I would hum the tune to Luke, who had also used the toilets, in an attempt to tease him. It didn't work.

While walking along the beach, we found a person's hotel tag. On our way to return it, I felt we should talk to a couple of people sitting on the fence. I told Kristine, and straight away that's where we were going. On the way, we passed a group of girls which would have been a safer choice to talk to, and I started to doubt we were doing the right thing. As we got closer, I started to think that the couple on the fence looked like a boy and girl, which would have made it difficult to talk to them. But then I knew we were going the right way. It was two boys, and we had a great conversation.

Then I felt we should go to another place at the top of the stairs, and that's where we went without me saying anything this time. That's where we met a guy who had begun to believe in God, because every time he prayed to Him, impossible coincidences would happen to get him out of trouble. He was confused though, and wanted to know the truth about things, because he had been reading the Bible, but also Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time. Kristine told him that if he were to pray to God, the same way he had unwittingly learned to do, and ask Him to reveal the truth about Himself, He would, just as He had done so to us.

After that, I had no more 'feelings' about where to go, but we seemed to go to the right places all that night,

Last year, there was a night where everyone was dressed in green sheets. I had asked someone about it, and they told me they all stole them from a hotel. Last night, I expected to see people doing it again, and I planned to ask them which hotel it was. I didn't see them last night, but then tonight there were heaps of people in the same brilliant green sheets as last year. We asked some of them about it, and it turned out the guy had lied to me last year. It was actually a night club who was giving the green togas out at the door for the toga party. People were wearing them in all sorts of ways. The girl we were talking to was wearing it as a skirt. While we were talking, it suddenly fell off. She ran and hid behind a truck while she fixed it up. Talk about an embarrassing night! There was a third thing that happened too, but I'm going to stop there, or you'll think I was doing it on purpose.

We met Bethany's brother's fiancée's sister in a group on the beach. At least I think that was the relationship.

We escorted someone, who had talked to Jess H. on another night, to their hotel. Jess was really excited when we told her later, and wanted to know everything we talked about.
On the way we saw a guy on the ground who was not looking good. We told his friends that we would make sure they were looking after him when we came back. On our way back, however, I got a glimpse of him barely walking along the footpath on his own.

Then we met a group of drunk guys who were out to make fun of us. Something happened which I put a stop to when I remembered that I had signed a form saying that I would keep my own dignity. Luke thought it was hilarious though.

I saw that guy who thought I was trying to prove God's existence when I was with the Cool Group, but I couldn't speak to him at the time.

Day 10. An Exact Group. Sunday, 27/11/2005

Today we went to the beach. I didn't go swimming, but I played volleyball until we had to leave early, because the likelihood of us getting struck by lightning became too great for comfort.


At lunch today, I shared my testimony. I wasn't happy with how I told it though, because I immediately departed from my plan and started chucking out parts of the story that I felt were too unbelievable (I did this last year too, but it was my plan that time). As a result, I was left with a list of events that didn't appear to be relevant to the story and I took too much time trying to make it all flow. It just sounded like Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (maybe that's why it's become one of my favourite movies). But that's not what I was trying to get across at all. I wanted to make it apparent how much God had directly interfered in my life to make it possible to live it to the full (John 10:10). Fortunately, not many people were there to hear it, as they were still arriving from the beach.
Krystle gave her testimony as well, and that was much better. Trevor G. gave his at dinner. Darcy had given his to the church at the morning service, and Kerri gave hers tonight at the 6pm service.

Kristine, Bethany and Tim L. were in my group tonight. This exact group we had last year, so we worked together as a group very efficiently tonight.

Day 9. The Cool Group. - Saturday, 26/11/2005

We presented our Apologetics today. In our group we pretended that I was a Schoolie, and I asked questions about whether or not it's fair and loving for God to send people to Hell (see Day 5). At the end of the discussion, Noof threw in a “wise man's quote” that “because God loves you, He wouldn't force you to spend eternity with Him if you didn't love Him.” I felt we didn't get enough time for our Apologetics this year, and last year we also had some scientist or something come over to talk about Intelligent Design. To me this year we didn't seem to have prepared ourselves at all (1 Peter 3:15).

Marika and Bradley gave their testimonies at lunch, and Bethany at dinner.

I was really looking forward to tonight, because tonight I was in the Cool Group. I call it the “Cool Group” because last year it was this group that I was in when all kinds of cool stuff happened. In the group are Lisa, Noof and Darcy (who's replaced Nathan from last year, but it's still just as cool).

Tonight we spoke to three girls who said they were Christians, and one of them platted my beard again. They said they were going about Schoolies telling people to repent. The way they explained it didn't sound too tactful, but maybe I'm wrong. We soon got to see them in action though, and I'm pretty sure that I was right the first time.
A guy decided to challenge me while we were talking, to tell him why I knew that God existed. He demanded that I tell him my testimony on the spot, which I did in less than 15 seconds, telling what God has done in my life and explained that nobody can prove that God exists to another person, as He reveals Himself to those who search for Him with all their heart (Deuteronomy 4:29, Proverbs 8:17, Matthew 7:7-8, Acts 17:27, James 4:8).
But those three girls all jumped in after my testimony and started yelling at the poor guy so that all he heard was, “I can't prove God exists after all”. What's more, he thought I was trying to prove that God did exist, and so he thought he had won an argument that we weren't having and said, “See? That proves it! He doesn't exist!”
Before I could start my apologetic on this, the three girls chased him down the beach yelling, “Yeah, so shutup. Shutup shutup shutup!”
I was determined to talk to him again, because he seemed to have been hurt by people telling him to believe in fairy tails that sounded too good to be true. God doesn't want us to believe in Him like some fairy tail. He wants us to have an actual, real relationship with Him and to get to know Him personally our selves. I can't prove to you that God exists. If I were to eat an apple, and find out that it was delicious, I could tell you it was delicious because I had proven it to myself, but I couldn't prove it to you. You could tell me all kinds of scientific theories or quotes from philosophers to try to prove to me that the apple is not delicious, and I wouldn't believe you. Because I know for myself. I can't prove to you that it is delicious but you can easily prove it for yourself by simply tasting it.

“Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!”
Psalms 34:8 (NKJV)

What do you have to loose from searching for God with all of your heart. If He doesn't exist, then it's not going to kill you. By meeting God, you couldn't offend some other god, because it would already be offended that you didn't believe in it, or if you believed in it for no reason whatsoever, and never got to know it. God's not going to take all your money. He owns it all anyway.

Of course like all analogies, the one about the apple falls apart when you try to read too deeply into it. For example, to make it work you have to assume that everyone has the same taste in apples.
Another shallow analogy I used last year, was to pick up a cup off the ground (probably not such a crash hot idea at Schoolies) and put my pen in it. Then I set it back so you couldn't see the pen, and said. “Let's say that all religions have a cup, and every religion argues that the pen is in their cup. But they don't let you see their cup, because they claim that the pen is too sacred and can only be seen by special religious leaders who had purified themselves, and that it is up to them to describe the pen to the common people. So each religion keeps their cup behind closed doors.
But then this bunch of people comes along and puts their cup on display, and says, ‘Look for yourself! The pen is in our cup. I have seen it, and believe, won't you?’
And other people are running around saying, ‘I have looked in their cup and there's nothing there. Don't look in the cup, you'll only set yourself up to get hurt with disappointment.’ And of course you have the atheists who say that there is no pen, and then there are the postmodernists who say that the pen is in everyone's cup at the same time. You don't even have to try to prove that one, because it doesn't make any sense to begin with.
“But the cup on display is too easy. All you have to do to prove to yourself whether it's true or false once and for all, is to look in the cup for yourself. It's that simple.” Once again, please don't look too deeply into this analogy. Especially as I made it up on the spot last year, and without the context of the conversation that led up to it, it probably doesn't make any sense at all.

We also talked to two people from the Wilderness Society, who we seemed to get along with very well. They wanted my take on whether or not animals have souls or would be resurrected, and I said that Ecclesiastes 3:18-21 seems to imply that we don't know, but we have been given responsibility for them, and we should treat them with mercy (Genesis 1:28;9:5, Numbers 22:21-33, Luke 12:6, James 1:18;3:7).

Day 8. More Basketball! Friday, 25/11/2005

We had our Personal Retreat today. This consists of five hours alone with God. This is usually done in the Dog Park, which gets its name from the fact that lots of people walk their dogs there. The fact that Lisa had her lunch taken out of her mouth by a dog as she sat there last year kind of helps as well.
This time though, we had the retreat at the girls' church and the girls had theirs at ours. This is because it was too wet to go to the Dog Park.

After the Retreat, we had free time. I should have used this time to go back to our church to blog, but I stayed at the girls' church to play basketball again instead. What was I thinking?
Actually I decided I was going to get over my basketaballuphobia today, and finish what I started on Mystery Night. I didn't compromise my effort and I was pretty happy about it.

Tonight, Vanessa, Kristine, Damien and Drew were in my group.

While all thirty of us were on the way to HQ, someone almost jumped on my back. It was the guy and girl who we missed watching the sunrise with. He wanted to know if Emma was there, and I pointed ahead, but he couldn't see that she was really close by, so they left.

As we walked along the beach, after everyone in our group had remarked on my unique basketball strategy (basically, it's just: stand and wait for the ball to come to you, and let it do all the work), we had our digital picture taken by a group of people who kept telling me to part the Red Sea, and I regretted not asking them to email me the photo.

Damien and I almost had a spiritual conversation with a guy, but his Christian friend pulled him away, which I so saw coming.

We worked in the Recharge Zone for the second half of the night, and it wasn't so bad. All those thirsty faces, and all you have to do is hand them a cup, and you've helped five people in three seconds. The sunrise guy came up for a drink and to tell me it was their last night there. A few people wanted free beer, and some wanted coffee and Milo, but they had to make it themselves. One couple asked me to fill the cups for them, but they were gone at the last minute when I came back with the cups.

Day 7. Hairy Creepy Guy. - Thursday, 24/11/2005

Today we had to prepare for Date Night. I'll explain Date Night a little better when it comes. The guys found out what groups they were in today, but the girls won't find out what groups they're in until Date Night itself. Even the two Tims, who are arranging it, haven't worked out the girls' groups yet. Jim, Tim L. and Rob B. were in my group, and we drove around buying presents and choosing where we were going to go.

Today Kirsten gave a talk on What's wrong with Religion. Carla and Luke gave their testimonies at lunch, and Lindsay gave his at dinner.

Tonight, Chris, Emma, Tim M. and Jess C. would have been in my group, but as it was a group of five, it was working in the recharge zone, and it was decided that Norm should be in that group because of his injured foot. So I was swapped with him, and ended up in a group with Jim, Bethany and Marika. I've never been in a group with Jim before.

Marika had to meet up with a guy she'd met a night before.

There were several factors that made this night particularly quiet. One was the fact that we always seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, another was that I was completely out of it, trying to recover from the night before. As a result, the Schoolies' perception of me seemed to change from being the cool guy with the wicked beard who couldn't possibly be there to tell the Schoolies what to do because he's one of them but in a yellow shirt, to being the really creepy, quiet, hairy guy. Other things were cramping my style too, tonight.

We are not there to tell the Schoolies what to do, by the way. We have no authority to do that. We are there to help them. When they are in trouble they usually run to us for help. We are just there to do as Jesus would have done at Schoolies.

“"For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”
John 3:17 (NKJV)(See also Romans 8:34)

We've had to be patient all this week for the Schoolies to finally realise that we are not there to police them (that's what the police are for). Next week we'll have to start all over again when the NSW Schoolies come. A lot of the QLD Schoolies leave tonight.

Day 6. Ouch! - Wednesday, 23/11/2005

Today we started the other training level. This is the first time I’ve had Jim for one before, so it was pretty exciting.
Kerri and Rob B. gave their testimonies at lunch today.

Tonight was our first night off. I got pretty narky about it last year, and so I tried to prepare myself this time, but it was no use.



We went to the RSL club and that was ok. I brought my labcoat along, expecting to be told to take it off. The guy at the door just told me to button it up, which I thought made me look rediculous.

We all wrote our signatures on the blank side of the cardboard coasters, because Tim M. had alrady done it a thousand times in an attempt to get his signature right, as he was apparently thinking about it too much.

Then we turned all the coasters over so that the non-blank side was facing up.
Just before we left, I found one more blank coaster. I couldn’t think of anything clever to write on it, so I wrote, “It wasn’t me who wrote on this piece of cardboard.” Then I turned it over and joined the others to find out who owned the pen I had used. I looked back across the room just in time to see that the lady who worked there turn over my coaster, out of all the others.
She laughed at it and looked at me. I still had the pen in my hand. Then she called over another guy who worked there, and after they had both laughed at it, she pointed to me. I gave a nervous wave and went to the toilet. When I came back out a while later, the lady was still showing the card around to workers and pointing at me.

We then went to Macca’s where most of us got icecreams and played inside the playground where I developed a renewed appreciation for my lack of colostraphobia. We read some newspapers to see how outrageously violent the media had made schoolies out to be. HC had some good publicity, so we were thankful. As we were leaving I heard one of the people who worked there say, “Where did all those people come from?”
Another guy answered, “I don’t know! They must have come in a bus.”



Tonight was called the “Mystery Night”, because our next destination was supposed to be a mystery until we got there. I could be wrong, but I kind of got the impression that where we were going was just as much a mystery to Jim, who was leading us there.

We then went to the beach, and that’s when my attitude turned sour. Where we were was very quite, but we could see the lights from where Schoolies were several hundred meters away. I was thinking about how we had just spent the last five days patiently showing the Schoolies that we were on their side, and now if they needed help or there was an emergency, there were suddenly no yellow shirts to turn to. They had all been taken off the beach simultaneously.
And of course we were on the beach, but we couldn’t help them. And even though I conciously knew it wasn’t true, I still felt as though we had turned up at Schoolies, and there were no Schoolies. That this was a really useless night. Everyone started singing Chrismas carols, but even though I knew it wasn’t true, I subconciously felt as though it was a really lame way of cheering ourselves up about the trajedy that there were no Schoolies tonight. I really felt miserable, but no one else seemed to miss the schoolies. They all seemed to need the night off, so I just sulked quietly by myself.

Afterwards, we went to the girls’ church to play basketball. I don’t like basketball, but there was nothing else to do to get my mind off the worst night of Schoolies, so I started playing as soon as we arrived. I was just setting myself up. I knew all of these moods were irrational, but even though I was ready for them, I couldn’t help arriving home feeling really disgusted and sick that night.

Norm also didn’t enjoy the night, because he injured his foot on the beach. I’m not sure whether or not it was broken though.

While we were playing Basketball, Emma came and showed me an SMS she had received that morning, saying something like, “You’re missing an awesome sunrise right now.”

Day 5. It Just Keeps Getting Better! - Tuesday, 22/11/2005

Today was the last day of this training level, and tomorrow we will start the other one.

Today the Apologetics were about the harmony of science and God by Trevor G, and why we can trust the Bible, by Luke (the one we all agree with).

Also today, we each had to break into groups and start preparing to give our own presentations of apologetics. Last year we chose our topics before we came on the project, but this year we chose them today, and we don't get much time to prepare, or to present them. I joined Noof and Emma's group to answer the question: “Would a just God send people to Hell?” The answer is “yes” by the way. Not because He wants to. Even though we all deserve to go there, God went to great lengths to make sure you don't have to, which included suffering as a man and going there Himself. Now that's more than just, that's going overboard!

Emma and Jonathon gave their testimonies at lunch today, and Kirsten gave hers at dinner.

Tonight I had Emma, Krystle and Tim L. in my group.

The first thing that happened, was that we ran into Rob D. who told us that because of an incident that happened there last night, there were less volunteers on the beach tonight. He told us we were badly needed, and that he would send more SCs as well. It was raining a bit tonight, and I didn't bring one of our transparent ponchos, so Rob also told us to go to HQ to get me one.

While we were talking to Rob, my brother went out of his way to sneak up and tap me on the shoulder, which I appreciated very much. Of course nobody knew what had happened, and I told them later when we were getting my poncho.

I got my poncho (HQ, who have moved this year, simply sent us to get it where HQ used to be last year), but it was opaque white and it hid my Yellow shirt. It also gave me tunnel vision when wearing the hood, which I considered dangerous when trying to keep an eye on our girls. I ended up taking it off, and I preferred not to wear a poncho anyway, which was the reason I didn't have one in the first place.

We decided to go to the lonely areas of the beach, because the music was too loud. They seemed to turn it up in an attempt to try harder to attract people into the rain. We spent a lot of time talking to each other as we walked, and getting to know each other.

We went back to the mall, and a guy and girl came up to us and asked if we were the people who helped people. After our affirmation, they asked us to swap SIM cards so that they could figure out what was wrong with their mobile phone. Somehow, the girl ended up talking to Krystle and Tim, and the guy ended up talking to Emma and me.

He seemed to think that Biology and evolution were the same thing, and that Science somehow had proven the theory evolution (which cannot be scientifically proven, whether it's true or not), and that somehow people who believed in the Bible didn't believe in Science. I was very happy that he didn't seem impressed that I was doing Physics and Maths at uni, and he was still convinced that it was his duty to convert me over to Science.

He thought that if I stayed with him at 5:30am that morning, that the glory of watching the sunrise would convert me to Science. Of course, I'm already converted to Science. I'm a student Scientist. But that's not what he meant. Emma said the sunrise might convince Him of God who created Science, and he seemed to see that as starting a never ending argument. We tried to explain that as we had to go to bed at 3pm every night, there is no way we would be allowed to stay up, even though I would have loved to. We promised to ask permission though.

It would have been nice to look at the rising of that big star (from our frame of reference), and to think about the fact that even when taking into account the approximately 10²³ stars in the universe, the total probability that any kind of life could exist anywhere in the entire universe is about 10^-20. That's 1 out of 100000000000000000000. And that's being as optimistic as possible. And that's just life existing. What about it starting? Don't get me started on the impossibility!

Believing that God created the universe is no less scientific than believing that it accidently harmonized out of a big explosion. It doesn't require more faith to believe in God, just more common sense. The theory of evolution is not more scientific at all. It's just more popular because our society doesn't want to believe in God.

Fortunately, we didn't get into this debate. It was tempting, because Trevor had only just covered this apologetic this morning. At the time though, It was far more important to clarify the definition of Christianity than the definition of Science.

While we were talking, two girls ran up to Tim and Krystle, and said, “The Red Frog Guys told us that the Yellow Shirt people could tell us about God. Can you tell us about God?”
The Guy we were talking to said, “Yeah, become Christians!” Then he turned to us and said, “No, I'm determined I'm going to convert you to Science. Just stay up with me this morning!”

Then we had to escort a girl to her hotel. On the way another guy was walking beside me, and I had a lot of questions for him about Buddhism. He said he wasn't the one to ask, even though he planned to teach it.

I had a little hope about staying up for the sunrise, because tomorrow night is our night off, and although I knew it was extremely unlikely, and I thought maybe I could get permission if I promised to sleep through our night off. Emma asked Bethany, and of course the answer was “no”. I told Jim about it too during debriefing. Last year all the guys got together in the Blue Room (which is for the girls to rest in during free time if they need to, and which happens to have blue walls) every night for debriefing. But this year we have it in our separate cars on the way home to save time, so we don't get to hear everyone's stories, except a few in the car, and a few who have time to tell them at lunch time after the testimonies. Then we pray in the car and go to bed.

This has been my best night so far!

Day 4. We're the Coolies! - Monday, 21/11/2005

Today, Drew gave his Apologetic Presentation on Other Religions, and Emma gave hers on Pain and Suffering.

Lisa and Jim shared their testimonies at lunch today, and Kristine at dinner.

Tonight I was in a group of five, with Cat, Lisa, Jonathon and Tim L.

Where I just give a “How’re you going?” to people who are going by, Jonathon goes out of his way to speak to everybody. It’s great to have him on the team.

We met yet another Schoolie who wasn’t into the Schoolies scene but was there all the same. He called the ones who hadn’t finished School yet the “Foolies”. They’ve also been called the “Pubies” and the “Poolies”. We usually refer to them as the “Pre-Schoolies”. He had a friend with him who was talking to Jonathon. Then another friend showed up, and the guy we were talking said goodbye because he was ashamed at how drunk(?) his friend was.
The friend though, wanted to entertain us, but first he put his name tag (the hotels give Schoolies name tags that hang around their necks) around to his back and said, “No full names! Don’t give them your full name!” Then he did the same to the other to guy’s tags. He walked out in front of a bus, and Lisa was worried, but I think he was showing off. He did other stuff too, and the whole time he was repeating, “No full names!” So he was swearing furiously when he came back in time to see the guy Jonathon was talking to giving him all of his contact details.

Tim thought it was hilarious when a drunk girl ran up to the intercom of one of the buildings and asked them to bring down some food, pretending that she thought it was a drive through.

While we were walking around I prayed and wondered if I would see my brother at Schoolies this year. I felt I would see very little of him at all, but that I would tomorrow night.

Tim and I talked to two guys sitting on the beach, and the guy Tim was talking to, was asking about God, so Tim shared something we sometimes like to call “the sand illustration”. The other guy wanted to leave, so I tried to keep him talking so that Tim could finish what he was saying. I let him alone every time he listened in on Tim’s illustration though, especially when Tim was saying that it didn’t matter how good we were, it wouldn’t get us into heaven. This is how the sand illustration goes:

1. You hold out your left hand, palm up, and say, “Let’s say that this hand is me, and that the sky is God. What is between me and God?”

2. When your audience answers, “air” you say, “That’s right! Nothing! So There’s nothing between me and God having a personal relationship.”

3. Pour a big handful of sand on your hand and say, “Now let’s say this sand represents all the bad stuff I’ve done...” When you are not on the beach, you usually use a book instead (make sure it’s not the Bible!). This is why this is more often called “the book illustration.” Put the book on your hand and say, “Now let’s say this book has written in it all the bad stuff I’ve ever done. You don’t want to know what’s written in my book, and I don’t want to know what’s written in yours. Now what is between me and God?”

4. When your audience answers, “bad stuff” you say, “That’s right! Now I can’t have a relationship with God, because I’ve broken it with all my sins (bad attitudes towards God, and doing things you know he’s not happy about)”

5. Hold out your right hand in the same way as your left one, and say, “Now let’s say that this hand represents Jesus. What is between Jesus and God?”

6. When audience answers, “nothing” you say, “That’s right! Jesus has no sin, because He lived a perfect life here on earth. When Jesus died though, He cried out something. He cried out ‘My God, My God, Why have You forsaken Me?’ Why do you think Jesus said that when He had a perfect relationship with God?”

7. Here it gets tricky. When audience is listening say, “Because this is what happened.” Then quickly tip the sand/book onto your right hand, bring your left hand empty back to it’s place and say, “When Jesus died He took all of my sin...” Then put your right hand on the ground saying, “...He was buried...” Let go of the sand/book and say, “...He dealt with the sin...” Lift your empty right hand back to it’s position saying, “...and then three days later He rose back to life. Now what’s between Jesus and God?”

8. When audience answers “nothing” say, “That’s right, and what’s between me and God?”

9. When audience answers “nothing” say, “That’s right, because When Jesus died, he dealt with all sin for all time, past, present and future.”

10. Take book in left hand again and say, “Now Jesus loves us and respects our decision. I chose to give my sins to Him...” Tip sin onto right hand again, put on ground pick up again with left hand, “...but if you don’t want Him to take your sins, if you decide you want to try to deal with them yourself, then He won’t force them from you, it’s your decision.” You should be sitting there with the sin on one hand, and Jesus the other.

Each night we usually have two groups of five. These two groups each spend a half of the night working in the Recharge Zone, which is a tent on the beach where we take drunk or injured people to keep them out of danger. Schoolies also line up to it to get cups of water and cordial. Being a group of five, we were scheduled to work in the Recharge Zone for the second half of the night.
I prefer to not work in the Recharge Zone, so I was happy to find that they didn’t need much help, and they only needed one of us. We left Tim behind.

We walked past the Crime Stoppers’ van, and they told us that if we saw any Red Frog people (HC) to get them to give them some red frogs, as they hadn’t had any yet. Less than half a minute later we met with some HCs, and let them know.

We then talked to the guard at the road barricade, and Jonathon asked him if he’d like a coffee. So we went to a support station and got him some. He was very grateful.

We came back to the recharge zone, and replaced Tim with a girl. I thought Tim would be relieved, but it turns out he prefers to work in the Recharch Zone. He said he had some really great conversations. I spoke to Trevor G. who was in the other group of five, and he said that he helped to do all kinds of physical work with the fences. He said now he felt great, and that he was really helping the Schoolies. I would have felt the opposite. I’m glad we’ve each been given the jobs we’re cut out for. It’s definitely because of the prayers.

Trevor also told me that a volunteer he’d never seen before had run up to him and said, “You’re Trevor! Can I have your autograph?” He didn’t know how she knew what he looked like, because the other volunteer he gave his autograph to last night didn’t seem to be around.

At HQ, there is a huge whiteboard with news and info about Schoolies written all over it. I noticed that we have been officially labelled now. The Schoolies Volunteers have been called the “Voolies” and the Chaplains (us) have been called the “Coolies”.

Day 3. I'm Content. - Sunday, 20/11/2005

Being Sunday, there was a church service this morning. Most of the boys on project slept through most of the service, seeing as we get up at 11:15pm, and then we had our showers, so that by the time we were ready, church was over. We all attended the 6pm service instead though. The Baptist church we're living in has been very helpful and tolerant over the years that Student life has been doing the projects. They've even built a shower downstairs specially for us.

Today we started our training sessions that Student Life has on camps, projects and other events. We do these in groups of students who are on the same training level. What training level you are on depends on how many you have done on other Student Life events you've been on. On the Schoolies Project, we do two levels. So we started the first of those today.

While we were eating our lunch today, Noof and Tim L. shared their testimonies in front of everyone, as everyone on project will have to do either at lunch or dinner.

Lisa gave her inspiring testimony at the 6pm church service, and Bethany said some inspiring things too.

During the day, we have a clever little postage system to encourage each other. We each have a soapbox with our name on it, and there are little coloured pieces of paper with “encourageogram” written on the top. The idea is that when someone wants to encourage someone, they write something on one of the pieces of paper, and pop it in the person's soapbox. Last year they were called “happygrams” and I still call them that. “Encourageograms” just doesn't have the same ring to it. After the 6pm service today, I sent a dozen or so happygrams until it was out of my system.

The church has a pool table where the guys are staying, and it has forced us to become interested in starting a pool competition. When playing against Chris today, I didn't realise it was for the competition. I was just fooling arround, so I lost and am not in the comp. anymore. I probably would have lost anyway though, as I haven't beaten Chris at any other time. Chris shared his testimony at dinner tonight.

Tonight I had Kirsten, Cat and Trevor G. in my group. We prayed that we would be content with the night, and not be discouraged if we didn't have any spiritual conversations with anyone.

While on the streets Trevor was impressed with the number of conversations that were started solely by my beard. He said it made him want to grow a beard for next year.

When I meet someone that I know on the street, so many things are going on, that most of the time the rest of my group has no idea what has happened. I think this is the same for everyone. You have to stay alert, and alert others if it's something important, which doesn't include meeting people you know. This happened tonight when I met the girl who platted my beard last night.

We met a group of people sitting on the beach, and Trevor and I got excluded from the converstaion. There were about five or six friends in the group, so I thought I should make an effort to stay in the conversation by starting a sand castle. Nobody joined in, and it was only when I ended up sculpturing it into a dragon's head, that I realised it wasn't working. So Trevor and I stood up and talked away from the group. Trevor said he didn't feel like he was doing anything to help the Schoolies tonight.

I saw a few people who I met last year, but didn't know the names of. One was a certain security guard, so I know her name now.

We met a set of identical twins who told us that the floor above the one they were staying at had been burned by a fire, and that the people staying on it had lost all of their stuff.

About half way through the night, most groups decide to return to HQ for refreshments. A lot of times there are doughnuts. We are so spoilt! There are usually some voluteers from other support groups who are doing the same. Tonight we met a lady from the Schoolies Support Team, and Trevor gave her his autograph on a napkin. He said something like, “It isn't worth anything now, but in another 10 years... It still won't be worth anything...”

Back on the beach, Trevor and I sat down and talked to these two guys who said that they were not into the whole Schoolies thing, and had just come to check it out. We had such a great conversation! I got heaps out of it myself. I was really impressed with how great a friendship these two guys had. They really cared about each other. When one was telling us about a difficult conversation he was in, the other friend would then help us to understand the difficulty of his friend's situation. The exact opposite of the sort of friend who keeps butting in to make the subject about himelf. One or both of the guys were each in love with a girl, and Trevor had some great unintentional advice, and even showed them a very helpfull relationship graph on the sand. It wasn't a spiritual conversation, but it really made our night, and left me feeling really fulfilled.
In the meantime, the Kirsten and Cat were standing a little bit away from us, and we almost forgot to look after them, but the wind was blowing directly from them to me, so that I could almost hear every word they were saying to each other and to Schoolies. Also Trevor said that I said things to the two friends at just the right times so that he could not look distracted while he checked on the girls.
All in all, we should have broken up into boy-with-girl halves a lot more than we did, but it was a great night and I don't regret any of it. I got home feeling extremely content.