Edition 44, July 2015
Connecting Christadelphian Young People
FROM THE EDITOR The Vine is published quarterly by the Sydney Christadelphian Young People (SCYP) COORDINATOR Georgia Muir EDITORIAL TEAM Georgia Muir, Isaac Pogson, Tobias Niven, Cameron Hillman, Verity Niven LAYOUT/DESIGN Cameron Hillman MASTHEAD DESIGN Alisa Thompson CONTRIBUTORS WRITERS (in order of appearance) Alyce Pogson, Fozzy Foster, Amy Norwood, Nicola Fenger, Cecelia Muir, Lauren o’Toole, Ben Pooley PHOTOGRAPHY Georgia Muir (pg5, 6, 12), Brad Harris (pg10, 15, 16), Cecelia Muir (pg11), wesleymission.org.au (pg12) COVER Cecelia Muir The Vine is published to the Glory of our Heavenly Father, through whom all things are made possible. Opinions expressed in The Vine are the authors' and are not neccessarily held by the Editorial Team or the SCYP. e: thevine@scyp.net w: scyp.net/thevine & issuu.com/scyp
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Hello again! Welcome to the Inspire edition of The Vine! We have some fantastic articles inside, all about worship and other things that inspire others to keep their eyes fixed on God. I really enjoy hearing other people's perspective on life and the things that they appreciate. It often gives me a new angle to think about. Are you curious yet about what the covers of the magazines will spell out over the year? Well, you'll just have to wait and see! They're pretty great drawings don't you think? We're getting a bit short on photos to use generally across The Vine and finding it more and more difficult to get photos from events, so if you have any shots you'd be happy to let us use please let me know! Happy reading! Georgia
inspire
edition 44 _ JULY 2015
CONTENTS
4 Inspire 8
Trust in Your Instruments
10
March Activity – Praise in the Park
11
May Activity – Apple Picking and Grass Karting
13
Easter Camp – Review
14
Music and Worship
17
Shave for a Cure
18
Baptism Watch
19 Grapevine
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inspire
Alyce Pogson
I have tried my very best over my twenty years on this Earth to never take for granted each person I meet. I try to make it a point to remember that each and every person I have met, and will ever meet, has a unique set of experiences that make up their story. Each of these stories hold lessons. Important and valuable lessons. Lessons that I can take a lot of things from, and learn from, and be inspired by. It is not often that you get to hear someone tell you what it is that they live for, or explicitly explain the things that they are trying to achieve in their lifetime, or even the people that have inspired and helped make them into the person that they are. But I strongly suggest that you try to enter into these conversations more often. Because everybody, no matter how young or old, has at least one story that will help you understand who they are, and why they live the
You may be thinking right now that there is no possible way you would ever describe yourself as 'inspirational'. I totally, 100% get that. 4
way they do, a lot better. Every single person, no matter how young or old, has a story that will no doubt inspire you in some way. Every single person - including you - is an inspiration. You may be thinking right now that there is no possible way you would ever describe yourself as 'inspirational'. I totally, 100% get that. When I first started thinking about this, I felt like if I said this in some random conversation, I would sound so up myself! To think that someone out there might be inspired by the way I live my life, or my response to a particular situation, or whatever it might be. But think about it - we are continuously being inspired by the people around us. The list of people who have motivated, influenced and helped me become the person I am today is nearly endless. So why would it be so crazy to think that we are inspiring the people around us right back? There are no rules to who or what inspires us, and there are no limits or rules that define who or how we inspire other people. You don't have to be perfect to be an inspiration. It isn't about age, or gender, or intelligence. It is simply about interaction, and influence, and how to make sure these things are positive for us all.
What I am saying is that if people are being inspired by us, let's strive to live in a way that is going to reflect Jesus, and in turn be consistent in our efforts to be the best and most positive inspiration we can be for those people who are looking to us for motivation or example.
every effort to be your best self to them.
If you think about it too much, it can seem intimidating. But it really isn't. It simply means that we have to create a life where we are conducting ourselves in a way that we can happily say we would like others to copy, or imitate in some way.
For me - friends are a big one. Friends are the people whose stories you know intimately. The people we spend most of our time with. Friends love each other. And to be friends with someone gives you a unique position in that person's life to be one of their biggest inspirations, and learn from and be inspired by in return. This happens through the way the way you act, the things you talk about, the advice you give them, the way you treat them. Never take for granted the influence you have on your friends, or the influence your friends have on you. It isn't something you will always realise, or be thinking about, but it always exists, and can always be utilised in a way that allows each of you to be a positive, Christ-like
Make it second nature. Immerse yourself in a culture where talking to the new kid isn't something you even have to hesitate on. A culture where it isn't annoying to include your little sister. Where the way you act is never detrimental to somebody else. That is, doing to other people what you would have them do to you, and in turn inspiring people to be their best self by continuously making
We all, no doubt, have our list of inspirational people. The people who have made you want to be better in every way. Friends, family, partners, teachers, randoms.
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"When I wrote Something Beautiful, I was in a pretty desperate state. I kinda felt like I hadn't seen anything truly inspiring in awhile. And we're taught that inspiration is just around the corner, but the problem is, it may not be until the fifteenth corner that we finally see it. We talk about that risk and we use a metaphor in the verse of being "ankle deep in the ocean" but "the water is rising quick" and the tide's coming in, y'know, am I gonna drown, in search of this thing that I've been looking for. But I believe that anything worth having, is worth the risk of losing it... In the song, we don't really give the answer of how to find something beautiful. Because how you find that may be completely different than me. But I'm pretty sure it's going to start with a broken heart and a [remorseful] spirit." — Bo Rinehart (NEEDTOBREATHE)
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inspiration to these people who trust and love you more than anything. There are a lot of people on each person's list of inspirational people, because without even realising it sometimes, we all seek and find inspiration everywhere we go, and in everything we do. And while we have all found it in many different places, we can all find it in the same place as well. This same place is Jesus. A man, just like us, who fought every battle we have fought, and who, without ever once becoming bitter or angry about it, took on all those less-thaninspirational things we have done. A man who knew that there were going to be times when we failed terribly at being the best version of ourselves at being a positive inspiration to the people around us. A man who knew how far we would stray from him and his father at times. And a man who, despite this, still let himself be nailed to a cross for us. We can see this idea of using today to be your best self all through the Bible. From Genesis to Revelation we are given numerous instructions: Don't focus on being the best or on how to advantage yourself. Live for others. Agree with each other. Love each other. Be friends with each other. Encourage one another. Motivate one another. Inspire each other to be better. Live in such a way that the people who look at you are looking at a
reflection of Jesus - no matter where you are. Whether it be your work colleagues, the old lady next to you in the line or people you know better, like your siblings - even your parents. Do this consistently and intentionally. Make it your way of life. If people are looking for inspiration, what better inspiration to give them? Not only this, but always be looking for the things in other people that are inspirational. Everyone has a story. Be active in looking for the things in everybody's stories that move you, and inspire you to be better. Get to know people - enter into those conversations where you come away knowing what it is that person lives for and strives for - and let it motivate you. It is all about that interaction, and example. Basically, I'm asking each of you to think about the things that inspire you, and the people you are looking to for inspiration and instruction. It is of great importance that these sources of motivation are sources that are affecting you in positive way - that is in a way that is drawing you closer to God, and to Jesus. Not only this - begin to start the process of looking into yourselves and try to ascertain whether the people who look up to you will see the same a person whose actions and way of life are a demonstration of their best self. A person who is motivational, loving, encouraging, friendly, agreeable. Someone who is their best self - a true reflection of Jesus. Someone who is a true inspiration. 7
Trust in your Instruments Fozzy Foster
I don't know about you, but whenever I see a mate or someone who I care about having a rough day, I like to throw this verse at them, as hopefully it will give them strength to feel better. When it comes to Fozzy's daily life, when I have a rough day or struggling with life's daily issues, I find these verses to so hard to implement. Why is that? Because I lose my focus as I'm distracted? As I'm trying to take over the controls and trying to navigate in MY OWN wisdom on how to deal with this trial. In book of proverbs God talks about the heart or human wisdom, in Pro 28:26: "He that trusts in his own heart is a fool; but whoso walketh wisely, he shall be delivered." See, modern society thinks the heart is this little YODA ("Hmmmm the force [or the heart] is with you") or Budda of wisdom and knowledge that will show you how to deal with life's issues. As we all know the saying goes "just follow your heart" if you're not sure what to do. The heart as God sees it, as in the mind or our thoughts, is a default setting that each one of us has, its in our DNA and it's something we have to fight against every day as a follower of Christ. 8
"Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil." Prov 3:5-7 So then how do we combat it? And how do we let these verses inspire us, and AFFECT us today? Well do as God lays out in Provb 3v5: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart." Not 12% or 66%, but 100%. So, no matter what you're going through, you have to let go of the controls and fly through the storm... But, "HOLD THE PHONE Fozzy‌ that's hard MATE!" ‌YES it is. One thing I was taught when I was learning to fly a plane was, the most important thing a pilot MUST do is have TOTAL Faith and trust in their
INSTRUMENTS or the tools that help navigate the aircraft to its destination. Why is that important? Because when you're flying at 30 000 feet, in and out of clouds, and storms and turbulent weather, how the heck do you know where you're going? Where is north or south? Am I heading for a mountain?? So, instruments are there for a pilot to help them to direct the aircraft safely to its destination. If the pilot didn't have those instruments, they would have to lean on their OWN UNDERSTANDING. What does that mean? They would have to try their best to find their own way visually. Did you know when you're flying in a big fluffy cloud, if you had NO Instruments In front of you, or no way to show you where to go, your body then Leans on its own understanding, and that is deadly. Why is that? Because your body gets mixed signals as it can't see where it's going, and you have no strong foundation to work off. So your body goes into a meltdown, and tells you that HEY you're spinning out of control, DO something RIGHT now!! You might be flying perfectly straight with your wings level, but your mind is telling you what it
THINKS TO DO, which sadly is often wrong, and many pilots have crashed due to listen to their own body rather than trusting in their training and most importantly, their main FOCUS: their INSTRUMENTS. God has given us His words, which is a book that we read which helps us gain our training, and shows us our instruments, or where to focus on each day - that is the Lord Jesus Christ. Someone once told me when I was flying in bad weather, "Don't focus on the clouds, don't focus on the mountain goat, don't focus to what your body is telling you to do, don't focus or worry about the rain or bad weather, but direct your focus to the instruments (or Jesus Christ) to help you navigate you through this tough flight path." And I've never forgotten those words, as they really inspire me when my day turns pear shaped or really turbulent and my faith gets challenged and I feel lost, I always think of that little story which reminds me of me Proverbs 3v5 in a whole new way. And I've found over the years, as I fly into storms or trials each day, the more I learn to trust In Christ, the more I find the worries of this would don't bother me as much as it did before. Yes I still get bumped around at times, like me in plane, but I find the bumps are easier to take as my FOCUS is on Christ and I know he will guide me through these storms in life. 9
March Activity
Praise in the Park 10
Apple Picking and
Grass Karting @
Bilpin - MAY Activity 11
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easter camp2015a Review by Amy Easter Camp 2015. Three words to describe it? Awesome. Magnificent. Volleyball.
The long weekend was filled with talks, food, discussion groups, free time and the night activities. The speaker for the long weekend was Nick Morgan, his main theme being Magnificent Obsessions. The six talks revolved around how Nehemiah was led by the hand of God from being cupbearer to the Persian King to successfully leading the rebuilding of Jerusalem's great wall. Nick's words reminded me to focus beyond our obstacles so we can move past them rather than hit them. He also inspired me to have eyes for the "broken walls" of this world. My favourite nights were the Trivia night, and the Praise night. Trivia night was led by the one and only Jake Sandwich (for those who weren't there: Sam De Calmer, Jake Pooley and Sam Quixley). The dress-code for the night was double denim, and we had several rounds of challenging questions and interesting activities. The irreplaceable, highquality '2015 Trivia Cup' was presented at the end of the night to the final winners: The Double Dee's! Praise night was the most inspiring night for me being a muso. We sang plenty of great songs (my top
three were Made Alive, Oceans and Something Beautiful). Special credit to everyone who was involved in the band – you all did an awesome job! We also heard three thoughtprovoking meditations led by Lizzy Pooley, Eleanor Saxon and Peter Nicholls.
Norwood
One other highlight from the weekend was the Amazing Race. Everyone was split into groups of about 7 and we had to complete several challenges. The top four teams competed in a mass three-legged race while the other teams pegged water balloons at them. Congrats to Sophie O and Sophie G for the final win, receiving a watermelon as their grand prize! Unfortunately some activities had to be cancelled due to rain, but this was made up for by the slightly violent card games, intense volleyball and cardboard box creations which featured two impressive forts, two mighty warriors, a Trojan llama and matching mini Trojan horse. Lastly, a massive thanks to Lachlan Fenger and Annabel O'Toole for organizing a great camp, Nic Morgan for giving us motivating talks, the hosts for looking after us and the biggest thanks to God for providing us with such an awesome weekend to grow and learn more about him alongside friends! 13
Music and Nicola Fenger Muir Worship Cecelia Lauren o'Toole Why is music worship?
N: So I understand worship to be any way that we are able to experience a real, tangible connection with God. It's a way for us to express our love and admiration for Him and all He's done for us. I believe that you can worship God in pretty much anything that you do! For me, music is a HUGE part of how I worship, because music by itself has the ability to affect my emotions and when you add God into it, it can become a really impacting experience. It is worship to me because music enables me to sort of 'disconnect' from the things immediately happening around me and really focus on God.
Why do you love worship? C: I love that God provided a medium through which people can express themselves in a completely unique way. It is not limited to the ones making the music, but everyone contributes to create the worship experience. Worship through music has the ability to take a load off of you, if the song is about an experience you are having, you can relate to it, and it can also illuminate stuff for you about life.
How do you connect to God through music? L: When I worship, I feel like everything goes away and it's just me and God. It's a moment where I 14
can organically connect to God, and truly appreciate what He's done. And music is a vessel for me, that helps me to connect in this way and come to know God better. Our lives are usually so crazy that I find I don't have time to connect with God through my week – music allows me to have that connection. What is your favourite song and why? C: Multiplied by NEEDTOBREATHE. It's got a pretty fun little riff, and I love the lyrics of the chorus: God of mercy, sweet love of mine I have surrendered to your design. May this offering stretch across the skies And these Hallelujahs be multiplied N: My favourite song at the moment is Scandal of Grace by Hillsong. The key lyric in the chorus is "Oh to be like you." That's an impossible statement if not for the grace of God. It's only by the grace of God that we can share in His glory. I just really connect with the message of the chorus that says, "Oh to be like you, give all I have just to know you, Jesus there's no one besides you, forever the hope in my heart" – the fact is that this message is scandalous, it makes no sense! But that's what makes the message of the
Praise in the Park, 2015
bible so awesome! We did the crime, but he paid the ultimate price for us!
When I worship, I feel like everything goes away and it's just me and God.
L: My favourite song at the moment is Touch the Sky by Hillsong. To me this song inspires me to surrender all I am to God. We live in a culture now, much like back then, where status was based on who you were and what you looked like and who you knew or what labels were attached to you. God said, "No, it doesn't matter who you are," and because of that we don't have to try and elevate ourselves in order to find God. We find God from a position of surrender. 15
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Shave for a Cure Ben Pooley First and foremost, I love my wife. Our world was rocked on a normal Friday. It was the 2nd of August 2013 and I received a call from Amanda telling me that she was at the hospital and needed a bone marrow biopsy. My mind was racing, I had a pretty good idea as to what this might mean, but I was in shock... I couldn't even imagine what was going through Amanda's mind, all I was thinking was that I needed to get to her side. I rushed to get there, and I was pointed to a waiting room where I was told someone is supposed to come and find me. It was a nerve racking wait... After a time a nurse finds me, tells me Amanda is ok but she needs me and they have some news. Walking along that corridor was one of the longest walks of my life. The news was that Amanda has Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia. This has changed our plans, our perceptions, our lives...everything. I share this story with you because it is only one story... unfortunately one story of many. People fight every day, whether it is for their health or otherwise, because life is important. Soon after Amanda was diagnosed we wanted to get on the front foot. Not even 2 months had passed before we participated in a fundraising event called Light the Night. Perhaps not everyone is so fortunate as we are in some ways and have been, but what I
tell people is this: As soon as you let a disease or illness stop you from living and what you would normally do in life you have already let it win. I want to fight for a cure for Leukaemia for Amanda and others and that is why I also chose to do Shave for a Cure this year at Praise in the Park. When these things come up I am blown away by people's generosity. So again I wanted to take the opportunity to say thank you! About 70 people or couples donated $5,947.10 in total towards the cause and to see me bald for which I will forever be grateful. Don't take life for granted. There is no more inspiration needed than to look at the world around you and thank God every day that we have life. Everyone has their challenges, some visible, some not. To look at her, to speak to her, to see her work, to see her play, to see her serve our heavenly father every day... you would not know. Amanda, my darling wife, she is my inspiration.
People fight every day, whether it is for their health or otherwise, because life is important. 17
Baptism Watch Meshael Lawrie Before making the decision to get baptised, I was confused about what I really believed. During high school my mind was not focused on religious or spiritual thoughts; I was too absorbed by stress, the HSC, friends, exams, relationships, getting my P's and everything else in between. I hardly ever prayed and I was unsure if I'd ever get time to just focus on God. I wondered if I even wanted to get baptised at all. This made me feel really guilty because of family and other people's expectations of me, which then this fed the feeling of not being "good enough" to be baptised. Now, we all know doing the HSC can be a really stressful time for some people but I was so thankful for doing Ancient History as a subject. This started to open my eyes and make the connections between the people and places in the Bible and real archaeology in the world today. I started to enjoy reading the Bible and felt like I became more confident in the reality of God and his existence and ability and that He was really out there somewhere! Then at one SCYP class some young people got up and spoke about why they got baptised and why it was important to them. I believe this one SCYP class was a turning point for me. I remember listening to Sam Collins talk about his experiences and I likened them to mine. He spoke about how he started 18
to pray again and give God some time in his busy day. I took this on board and tried to do the same thing. I tried to pray every night about how I was struggling with school, with my relationship to God, with friends, family and everything else. Slowly but surely things in my life that I was struggling with started to turn around for the better and I felt much happier inside than I think I ever have. I really thought God was listening to me and was happy to finally hear from me again! I believe He was guiding me through situations and generally doing the best He can to make things better for me. This made me feel incredible. So with this feeling and support from friends and family I decided that getting baptised was the best thing I could do. And now, around a year or two later, with a huge helping hand from Phil Pooley, I'm now baptised and wouldn't change it for anything! If you feel like you're not good enough to be baptised, just think, who really is good enough? What makes a person "good enough"? No one is perfect and God knows this! He created you! Another thing I can't stress enough is: if you're feeling doubtful about anything at all, talk to Him about it, get it off your chest and just trust Him. It might not change right that instant, but it will when it's the right
time. He is always there to lend an ear to you, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and He is more than happy to help where He can. I want everyone to feel this way. I want you all to feel amazing and happy knowing that no matter
what, you ARE loved and cared for. In this crazy busy life we have, we can rest assured one day it's all going to be AMAZING. Bring on the Kingdom! I hope to see you all there!
BAPTISMS Kath Bruce (Blue Mountains) Daniel Tretola (VIC) ENGAGEMENTS Phil Whitehead and Mikayla Herbert Brandon Wilson and Nikita Plumridge Scott McClure and Maddy Lund Emily Carroll and Jesse Ryan MARRIAGES Josh Crawford and Rebekah McGrath
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