Adventure in Action

Let us define an adventure as an experience that is exciting or daring and which is typically bold and sometimes risky. On that basis we have lots of adventures together at Grammar, not least in our community service.

Adventure Example 1 – we have a team of students who participate in the craft group at New Horizons in Mowbray. It is not the craft that is the adventure, but the real risk and daring of stepping outside our comfort zone and building friendships with other people. What is the danger you ask? Rejection, feeling foolish, being misunderstood, making a mistake, or offending someone – these are all genuine threats, but our students commit to the adventure with courage, humour, and humility. You will not be surprised to know that they are both a blessing to others but also blessed by others. I wish more of our young people would take on that adventure.

The model we operate on in understanding service is not a model of ‘giving back’ or sharing our strong capacity with people weak in capacity –rather it is the simple response to the challenging command from God to love your neighbour as you love yourself.

There are two implications that form our practice. The first is that love is best understood as a gritty real-life relationship, not a sentiment – so our best expression of service is in mutual relationships. We need to know and be known. Secondly, when Jesus was asked to define who our neighbour is, he told the story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25 – 37). That story is as radical a riff on service as any piece of literature the world has known, not least because of the way it turns expectations on their head. The simple idea is that whoever you come across is your neighbour and you should go to them and be with them for their benefit even at your cost. Nice.

Adventure Example 2 – Just up the road from Grammar is the Migrant Resource Centre. The people there are our neighbours. Among the recent Migrants to Australia are the Bhutanese refugees. Theirs is a mixed story. There is the harrowing persecution, isolation, hardship, and trauma but with equal parts of courage, resilience and practical hope.

We have begun the adventure of building a relationship with our Bhutanese neighbours. Our current Grade 10 have heard the Bhutanese story, met with one of their leaders and considered what it means to have such neighbours – how to listen and love with care and courage – to take the risks that lead to the exciting experience of living deeply and bravely in the company of fellow adventurers.

The next step in this adventure is to grow the relationship through spending mutually beneficial time together – they can teach us how to cook spicy, and nutritious food in their resource centre kitchen, we can teach water safety in our heated pool to people who don’t know how to swim but live beside a river on an island surrounded by an enticing coastline. We can learn about ancient music and culture, and they can practice English speaking and reading with our brilliant students. The adventure will grow – watch this space – and if you would like to be involved in some way, please contact me.