summer 2012 - Scripture Union NSW

SUMMER 2012
It’s awe-inspiring to realise that
Jesus, the creator and sustainer of
the universe, came and dwelt among
us. The word ‘dwelt’ really means
‘tabernacled’. We don’t really use that
word anymore, but ‘tabernacle’ is
just another word for tent. In the Old
Testament before the temple it was
also where God chose to reveal himself
to his people.
In saying that Jesus dwelt or
tabernacled among us, what John’s
really saying is that Jesus came down
from heaven, entered into the mess
of humanity and pitched his tent here.
He lived, worked, laughed, loved, cried,
mourned and rejoiced with us, as one
of us, as he worked to save us.
Heading into our upcoming mission
season, it isn’t hard to see that what
we do each year at Scripture Union
Family Missions is a faint but wonderful
echo of what our Saviour did. We leave
our familiar environments to go and
pitch our tents among thousands of
holidaymakers who don’t know Jesus.
We share life with them and we enter
into relationship with them in the hope
that they will be saved by hearing the
gospel and accepting Jesus as Lord of
their lives.
As you read about what’s happening in
the SUFM world, I encourage you to pray
for the hundreds of volunteers going out
to share their lives and the gospel. We’ve
listed all of this year’s missions on the
opposite page; why not stick this page
up somewhere you’ll see it and pray for
a different mission team every day?
Yours in Christ,
CEO | Scripture Union NSW
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Postal Address:
PO Box 528
Rydalmere, NSW 1701
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scripture union nsw
Office Address:
Scripture Union HQ
223 Victoria Road
Rydalmere, NSW 2116
Phone: 02 9638 9000
Fax: 02 9638 9001
Email: [email protected]
www.sunsw.org.au
Patron Dr. Bill Andersen
Chairman Rev. Simon Flinders
CEO Rev. Mark Mitchell
2012/2013
SUFM
ROLL
CALL
• Pray for these directors as they lead and look after their teams, that God would
give them wisdom and stamina and grace to do this well
• Pray for the hundreds of volunteers who make up these teams, that they would
have servant hearts and grow in godliness while on mission
• Pray for the thousands of holidaymakers who will come into contact with these
teams, that God would even now be softening hearts and giving them ears to
hear his life-changing gospel
• Pray that all would be kept safe over the mission period
• Pray that God would move mightily and that his name would be glorified through
SUFM this year
Bawley Point
Frank Leonarder
Nerida Mcredie
Sarah Piper
Brooms Head
Adrian Armstrong
Katherine Armstrong
Brunswick Heads
Elizabeth Collison
Mark Dunstan
Budgewoi
Jonathan McGill
Andrew Miller
Jacqui Miller
Bulli
Martin Kennedy
Crookhaven Heads
Peter Reeve
Sarah Schachtel
Kioloa
Lachlan McTaggart
Sarah McTaggart
Albion Park
Robert Gerrand
Elise Robinson
Byron Bay
Tony Wong
Chrissy Wong
Currarong
Lucy Wu
Ronaldo Sanchez
Lake Tabourie
Stephen Carlisle
Kelly Carlisle
Jason Manning
Sarah Manning
Cootamundra
Stephen Donohue
Elizabeth Williams
Kiama
Mitchell Smith
Sophie Smith
Evans Head
Tiffany Watson
James Dawson
Forster
Bojan Ristevski
Gerringong
James Goff
Karen Lawson-Smith
Camel Rock
Greta Cornish
Tanya Edwards
Gerroa
Simon Nixey
Kevin Chan
Jono Hathway
(Assistant)
Lauren Castle
(Assistant)
Helen Fuller
Canton
Pierre Blondel
Kit Ng (Lai)
Tom Habib
Hallidays Point
Katie Bolton
David Shaw
Chris Bowra
Coffs Harbour
Tim McIver
Jodie McIver
Harrington
Richard Riley
Jess Allen
Conjola Entrance
Bec Baines
Hawks Nest
Kelly Hastie
Conjola Lakeside
Peter Cannings
Huskisson
Tracey Elliot
Joshua Maule
Burrill Pines
Michael Stone
Merrilee Stone
Corrimal
James Lyle
Rebecca Lyle
Iluka
Daniel Gerakios
Lennox Head
Emily Hoare
Luke Coulton
Old Bar
Tracey Jones
Taani Kruik
Joel Hollier
Shellharbour
Sarah Kenyon
Brian Barker
South West Rocks
Phil Kaye
Sussex Inlet
David Lewis
Sarah Judd
Toowoon Bay
Sam Fung
Gunnedah
Forster
Sarah Cameron (Henderson) Ruth Shooter
Luke Shooter
Gus Cameron
John Frazer
Summerland
Bethany Southwell
Marty Southwell
Surry Hills
Michael Tang
Port Macquarie
Jenna Murray
Trevor Barker
Peter Tillott
Alison Clipsham
The Entrance
Neil Rennie
Deanne Cox
Tuggerah
Chris Cipollone
Michelle Werry
Umina
Richard Bow
Pete Dubravs
Dianne Dubravs
Ulladulla
Shona Daniels
Scott Daniels
Lauren Urasaki
Dave Buster
Urunga
Brian Sindel
Windang
Jason Marriott
Jane Coles
sU NEWS Summer 2012
3
Mission is such an intense
couple of weeks that it can
be easy to forget that each
team is part of a bigger
network. SUFM teams
know the other people in
their team, but who else
is involved with keeping
SUFMs running each year?
Our mission teams are grouped into ten
regions, and each region is looked after
by a group of Regional Directors. “These
people have got mission experience,
they’re ‘mission people’. They understand
the problems that mission directors
experience, they love their directors
in their regions, they’re real about the
problems they’re facing,” says SUFM
Director Steve Windsor.
The RDs are quick to quash any
perception that they are just inspectors
checking up on groups. Their primary role
is to provide support and encouragement
to their teams. “Especially for first time
directors, it’s a pretty awesome task,” says
Chris Campbell, RD for the far south coast
region. “So there’s a pastoral aspect to
being a regional director.”
“I think most people probably wouldn’t
appreciate how intense and emotionally,
physically and mentally draining it can
be to be leading a team,” says Andrew
Kingsmill, RD for the south coast region.
“It’s important to have a support network
there so that directors have someone to
call on when they need it.“
One way the RDs build that network is
by getting to know the mission directors
personally, and encouraging them to
form support links with one another
throughout the year. Mike Hastie, RD for
the mid north coast region, loves the
fellowship fostering part of his role. “I’m
just providing an opportunity for them
to come together to share ideas. I’m so
stoked, one of my joys is when I see an
email from one of the directors to the
other four teams saying, ‘hey I’ve got this,
what do you think of this?’ and I think
wow, I didn’t even ask for that, it just
happened.”
Cheryl Webster encourages her teams in
the Shoalhaven region to share resources
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and visit each other during the mission
season. “To be able to pray together, to
know that each other is there is really
important,” she says. Chris says one of
the good things is that “different teams
have different expertise, especially in
equipment. So you try to just facilitate
them sharing their ideas, resources,
personnel if they need to.”
“To be able to pray
together, to know that
each other is there is
really important”
As well as looking after teams in the
present, the RDs have an eye on the
future. “I try and stay out of the micro
decisions that [the directors] are working
through, but help them to rise above that
a bit to work out for themselves what kind
of culture they’ve got on mission, how
they might foster that, and who are their
rising leaders,” Mike says. All the RDs
agree that having a strong succession
plan, both for the Mission Directors but
also for the section leaders, is a vital part
of keeping the teams alive.
The Regional Directors are also part of
the Missions Committee, which means
the committee is better informed and
equipped to support the teams in the
decisions they make about SUFM. Steve
believes it’s a wonderful union between
the mission directors, the regional
directors and the committee. “The
stories and info from the team level is
now integrated into the committee’s
understanding of what’s happening, so as
a group we have intimate knowledge of all
the teams.”
Getting around and visiting all their teams
during mission season means that the
RDs don’t have an active role on any one
team, but it means that they do get to
see a bigger picture of what God is doing
through SUFM. “Sometimes I really miss
the up front role with a team that you get
to know and lead. But I’m really enjoying
seeing other people have a go at that.
It’s heaps different, and I have to listen
more!” Mike laughs. “But I’m still close
enough to those guys that I can share
their joys and their hardships too.”
“It excites me whenever anyone becomes
a Christian,” Andrew says, “and in many
cases it’s been after a number of years
of coming to team activities and hearing
the gospel. There was a case on one
of the teams in my region where a girl
did a talk at an evening activity on Two
Ways to Live. Two teenage girls came
up afterwards and wanted to become
Christians, but they had been coming
along [to mission] for five years. So it
really is about seeing the fruit of coming
back year after year and maintaining
relationships year after year.”
Mike says that for the upcoming season,
“we’re really praying for kingdom fruits,
first and foremost, and that that would be
a real blessing to those people who have
poured so much energy into this, that
teams would be energised by what God’s
doing amongst them.”
Andrew agrees, but adds longer term
he is praying for lots more volunteers
to get on board, and seeing SUFM return
to the times when there were 70 or 80
– or more! – teams going out each
summer. “There are still stretches of coast
where hundreds of thousands of
holidaymakers go each year and there’s
no mission team.”
sU NEWS Summer 2012
5
Mandy grew up in south western Sydney
with her parents and older brother, and
each summer the family headed down to
their caravan at Easts Beach Kiama, on
the NSW south coast. Even though the
Curleys weren’t Christians, they were
more than happy for the kids to attend
the activities run by the Scripture Union
team. “Mum and Dad were always up for
a chat [with the team], not necessarily
about Christian things, but they could
see that these people were nice and were
caring and looked after us kids well, and
we wanted to go, so they were very happy
for us to go along.”
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Mandy and her brother would spend the
week with the team and plenty of other
kids who also regularly holidayed at Easts
Beach. “Most of us didn’t come from
Christian backgrounds, but we all had lots
of fun with what the team was doing.”
However, when Mandy was ten years old,
the yearly visits from the SUFM team
became about more than just having
fun. “I’d just had a bad year at school
with friends and stuff like that…And I
remember looking at the people on the
team and just going, ‘there’s something
different about you guys.’” Mandy
approached Jo, one of the team leaders,
and said, “You’ve got something that I
don’t have and whatever it is, I want it.”
Mandy laughs as she recalls how direct
she was, even as a ten year old. She says
Jo opened the Bible and started reading
Mark’s gospel with her, but Mandy stopped
her. “I said, ‘You’ve been telling me this
for years. I know that Jesus is God’s son,
I know that God sent him to Earth, I know
that he did all these miracles, I know that
he died on the cross and rose again. But
you’re different to me, and I want to be
like you.’ Jo said, ‘well, you actually have
to accept that you’re one of the people
that Jesus needed to die for. So you need
By the end of year 12, Mandy was leading
with the Easts Beach team, but she found
that familiarity with the campers she had
grown up alongside wasn’t necessarily a
positive. “All they wanted to talk about
was my family, so visitation took ages, and
we’d have long conversations, but not so
much about the gospel.” But she says that
people who hadn’t known her growing
up were actually quite curious about her
story, and gave her the chance to show
how Jesus had impacted her life. “It was
really interesting just watching them over
the years go, ‘so you’re taking this really
seriously. This isn’t just something you do
on holidays, this is your life.’”
“This isn’t just something
you do on holidays, this
is your life.”
to say sorry to God, ask him to forgive you
and ask him to make Jesus Lord of your
life.’ I said, ‘Well, it sounds like we need to
pray!’ So we prayed there and then, sitting
in the corner of the big marquee. It was
the second of January 1987.”
From that moment on, Mandy’s life began
to change. The SUFM team gave her
the contact details of her local church,
as well as a Bible and Scripture Union
notes. She eventually got involved with
the small ISCF group at her school, and
joined a youth group. But she still had
a strong connection each year with the
Easts Beach Kiama SUFM team. “I’d turn
up at the end of the year with an exercise
book full of questions about things that I’d
been reading that I didn’t understand and
ask them for the answers. From Boxing
Day afternoon I’d be sitting at the bottom
of the hill, waiting for the beach mission
team to arrive.”
While at uni studying business and law,
Mandy moved on to the Bawley Point
team with a uni friend. Then, after a
short break overseas she joined the Lake
Tabourie Theos team. She eventually
decided to take a break from SUFM
while studying at Bible college and
working during the holidays. But Mandy’s
commitment to Scripture Union didn’t
end there. She was a member of our
first ever City2Surf team this year! Being
passionate about running, passionate
about the gospel and passionate about
Scripture Union, she says, “it just made
sense”, and it gave her the opportunity to
tell her friends and family about Scripture
Union and her relationship with Jesus.
Mandy is just one of many people whose
lives have been changed into eternity
through SUFM, but it can be hard for
those involved in this ministry, as the
fruit of their labours isn’t always obvious.
Mandy wants SUFMers to be encouraged
by her story. “I stand here as a Christian
now because of the faithful people who
served at Easts Beach Kiama all those
years. People who wrote me letters during
the year to encourage me. People who
prayed for me and my family during the
year, and would remember stuff about me
and ask me about it the next year. It has
such a huge impact, and I think we often
don’t get to see it. But what a privilege
it will be to be in eternity and be able to
walk past somebody and go, ‘hang on
a second. Don’t I recognise you? Easts
Beach Kiama, 1984!’”
That’s the reason why, even though she
hated camping, Mandy counted it as a joy
and privilege to serve with SUFM. “It’s
God who actually brings people to him,
but he uses us in lots of different ways
to do that. So, you know, I’m a Christian
because God chose to use Scripture Union
Family Mission to bring me to him. So
that’s why, hating camping, I went back
nine or ten other times, because if there’s
one other kid like me who hears about
Jesus because of that, it’s worth it.”
Mandy is currently the part time women’s
worker at Artarmon Community Church
and ENTER, the evangelistic ministry to
the entertainment industry. She says that
even all these years later, her parents
don’t quite understand her commitment
to Christ, and where it has led her. “[My
parents] would be happy for me to be
involved in church, but does it have to
be the centre? And you kind of go, yeah
actually, it does. Because even if I was
working full time at the tax office, Jesus
would be the centre.”
sU NEWS Summer 2012
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SUFM
kiT
Each SUFM team plans its
own activities and program
for mission, but there are
often special activities
or resources that are
developed for all our teams
to use. Here, we are three
tools that we'll be using
this year.
1
Many people we meet on mission have never read the Bible.
One of Scripture Union’s aims is to encourage people of all
ages to meet God daily through the Bible and prayer, so we
are always excited when new and creative opportunities
come up to share God’s word with people.
SGM Lifewords has produced a whole range of booklets with
engaging, contemporary designs that encourage people to
look at God’s word for themselves, and this year they have
generously provided a number of booklets for our mission
teams to give out, including:
The little book
of help
A taster of what the Bible has
to say on topics like success,
wisdom, loneliness, tough times,
anger and friendship.
I Suppose
A photographic re-telling of the
prodigal son (Luke 15)
You Matter
A cartoon retelling of the
prodigal son (Luke 15)
Please pray that lots of young people and families would
take up these booklets, discover how vibrant and relevant
God’s word is and be encouraged to explore the Bible more
deeply!
SGM Lifewords has many other types of Bible-based
booklets available on their website that you might also
find useful in a church context, in a small group, or even
ministering to someone one-to-one. Check them out at
www.sgmlifewords.com
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2
3
It can be hard to strike up conversation with families on
mission. Many people are willing to have a chat, but there
are some who just don’t want to talk to anyone from SUFM.
Stadium director Alison Clipsham remembers a family at one
of the north coast sites who didn’t want to have anything to do
with the team, and in fact, were proudly anti-SUFM.
Reddy was developed with input from a number of
artists and designers as a recognisable, kid-friendly
mascot that teams can put on posters, invitations
and handouts.
Glenn Coombs also worked hard (with lots of help
from his family) to make a life-sized Reddy costume,
and will be running workshops with seven teams
to help them make their own Reddy for mission
this year. To top it all off, Reddy even has his own
original theme song written and recorded by Colin
Buchanan (thanks Colin!).
We’re hoping that young people will connect with
Reddy and that he’ll encourage them to:
•Get Ready to get involved in SUFM
•Get Ready to have fun
•Get Ready to hear about Jesus
which is, quite simply, why we called him Reddy!
When Reddy is out and about at caravan parks with
his music playing, you won’t be able to miss him.
If you happen to spot Reddy this summer, grab a
pic with him, email it to [email protected] and we
might just print it in the next SU News!
Then the Stadium came.
SUFM teams book the Stadium for a four-hour round robin
soccer event for different age groups (toddlers, older kids and
adults). The actual Stadium, a giant red inflatable structure,
creates a buzz and atmosphere that draws people from all over
the site to watch and participate. Because the Stadium team
runs the whole event, SUFM team members are freed from the
pressure of running the event and are able to get alongside
spectators, have a chat, and get to strengthen relationships.
It can also break down walls! “Everyone comes and checks it
out. A lot of the time you get those families that SU’s been
trying to contact but haven’t been able to, who will
come along and their kids are really excited about it,“
Alison says. In the case of that north coast family, the parents,
grandparents, aunties and uncles of the family’s children all
came to watch them play. “That afternoon the mission team
reported back to the Stadium that when they did their rounds,
the family actually invited them in for a cup of tea, which is
such a turn around!”
Alison and her fiancé Pete Tillott are new to the directing role,
taking over from Alison’s brother and sister-in-law, Jon and
Gemma Clipsham. They’re anticipating a lot of hard work and
fun, but whatever happens, Alison wants the gospel to be front
and centre. “I really want people to hear God’s word, and I think
that just has to be the foundation of everything we do.”
sU NEWS Summer 2012
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We are so pleased to announce the birth of Steve and Lynette Windsor’s first child, Ethan Jordan
Windsor, who was born on the afternoon of 15 October.
All are doing well! Please pray for the Windsors, that they would rejoice and cling firmly to God
as they adjust to this new stage of life.
After a short break to get the family settled in at home, Steve dives back into the busy pre-SUFM
period. Lynette is on maternity leave for the next year; we look forward to catching up with her
and meeting Ethan soon!
Stepping in as Missions Administrator is Tiffany Leonarder. Tiff has been involved with the
Bawley Point SUFM team since 2009, and worked as a pharmacist before coming to Scripture
Union. Her husband, Frank, also directed the recent Boys Kayaking Camp, so they are a family
with SU in the blood! She’s excited about finding a purpose at work and thinking about how soon
it is until SUFM time. Tiff says, “I am still filled with awe with how dedicated the volunteers are to
serving Christ.“
20 January 2013
Come set up the SU tent at the
Tamworth Country Music Festival
on 20 January 2013 and help us
get God’s word out to thousands
of country music fans!
For info on how to get involved,
contact Kaz Barter :
[email protected]
or 0401 575 634
Show us what makes SU tick – we want to see your
best photos that show just how SU empowers
people to share the love of Jesus.
Go to www.sunsw.org.au/photocomp for rules and details on how to enter
sU NEWS Summer 2012
11
Dare to be Different is five
days of intense fun for able-bodied
and disabled young people that
will guarantee you new challenges
and friendships. You’ll discover
more about yourself, other
people and God.
Camp Conqueror is the
adventure of a lifetime for
students in years 7-12.
Are you a high schooler who loves
the outdoors, chilling with friends
and getting into God’s word?
Challenge yourself, make some
new friends, see some of God's
most beautiful creation and
have a whole lot of fun!
Don’t miss Chaffey Dam Water
Sports Camp!
For more info and to register, go to
www.sunsw.org.au/dare2Bdifferent
For more info and to register,
go to www.sunsw.org.au/
campconqueror
28 December 2012
– 1 January 2013
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5-13 January 2013
For more info and to register, go to
www.sunsw.org.au/chaffeydam
7 – 12 January 2013