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”.
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”.
posted by Mathieu | 9:38 pm
1 Comments:
that's really cool, am waiting for day 5!
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