Schoolies 05 part 2

THE STREETS

Probably the craziest part of the whole time we were there.

I can't recount every single second of every night, so I'll give you the main stories.

20 November - Marika met a guy wearing a Shihad shirt. I had no idea who they were, but she managed to start a conversation with this dude. We met up with him later that night, and had a pretty good conversation with him. We wanted to meet again, but no luck. Never mind.

24 November - I met a girl called Hope and I knew that she was ready to hear about the gospel, so in the end I gave her a KGP and promised to write her a letter. Yay! :-)

25 November - 2 guys, with a lot of ideas and opinions (some very messed up) about Christianity. One was a pain and just wanted to argue - I was seriously annoyed by the end of the conversation. Aargh. *However, every conversation I had after that - even with hostile people - was a breeze compared to that one* But the other guy, although he had a lot of arguments, actually had far more questions and was really searching. He got a KGP too, along with some advice to "go home, get quiet and listen for God".

26 November - met 2 guys who worked for the wilderness society. Had a good chat. Met them again later in the week (1 and 2 December) - they'd run into the 'Jesus Loves You' people.

27 November - no D&M's (deep and meaningfuls), but I did get a kiss on the cheek - twice - by the same guy - who was a little bit....off the planet on E (or something)

28 November - chased some seagulls on the beach.

29 November - met a guy called Jamie. He was wearing a funny Scottish hat on this night. Had a bit of a spiritual conversation, but he wasn't particularly interested in Christianity. Met him again on 1 and 2 December - just wanted to chat. :-)

I was in a team with Carla, Jon and Trev G. While we were talking to 4 guys, a girl runs up and says, "Our friend's on the beach and he can't breathe." So we all start powering for the beach, these 4 guys in tow. Carla and Jon get there - this guy (his name was Jonathon) was lying on the sand coughing, slipping in and out of consciousness (no, he hadn't taken any drugs and he hadn't had anything to drink). Carla and Jon knelt down next to him and tried to keep him awake. Trev and I went and waited with 2 of his friends for the ambulance.

Jonathon, when he saw Carla, said, "Who are you?"
"I'm Carla."
"Are you a Christian?"
"Yes."
"Will you pray for me?"
So in front of his 10 friends Carla prayed for him (he turned out to be a Christian).

There was one point where apparently everyone was getting distressed, and Carla said she just looked up and looked at God and felt an incredible peace and at the same moment everyone calmed down.

The ambulance arrived and we had to go. But Carla met him again a few days later - he was totally fine and couldn't remember asking her to pray for him. But he said his friends' faith had been strengthened by the whole experience. Yeah, God!

1 December - wet and cold and cold and wet night. No real spiritual conversations. BUT Trev G (who is so much taller than anyone else in the crowd) saw this flame go up down the street and goes "There's a fire." So off my team goes. Some pizza shop's fuse box was on fire. Beth busts in, going, "Your fuse box is on fire!" The owner looked at her crankily. "I know!"
The crowd frowned at her. "We know!"
Then why on EARTH aren't you doing anything?!
We moved out to watch. The fire brigade were called. 5 minutes later the owner comes out with a woosy fire extinguisher and gives it a squirt. The fire goes out.

We stand around a bit longer. Suddenly BOOM!!! The fuse box begins to spark. Then it's quiet. And does it again. And again. Then the fire brigade turns up. So it's all good.

2 December - Tim M was in my group. "Dear Lord," he prayed, "Please give us a challenge tonight."
Suddenly I felt scared. "Tim!" I said. "What did you pray that for?! Now we'll GET one!"
"Okay," he said. "Dear Lord, please don't give us a challenge. Make us stagnant in our faith."
"That's not what I meant!"

That night, there was one point where we had talked to EVERYONE on the beach and no-one was particularly interested in conversing. The challenge was to keep positive and keep initiating conversation while feeling like a bit of a dill. That was a bit rough, but Lisa said later that it's not about us, it's about what God wants to do and it's about the schoolies - it's about meeting them where they're at. So that was helpful.

3 December - I prayed that morning that someone would come to have a relationship with Jesus. And guess what?! Someone did! :-) Carla was the one who was found by a girl who'd chatted to a hotel chaplain earlier in the week and was ready.

I had a good conversation with a Buddhist guy and watched him go from quite defensive to "oh, I get it. I know what you believe and why now." That was cool.

So that was the streets!


SPEAKING JAPANESE
Oh yeah, and on the 3 December Drew and I also tried to start a conversation with 2 people - who turned out to be Japanese tourists. While Drew was standing there stunned going "What are we going to do God?" I said something like "konbanwa! Watashi no namae wa Nikora desu!" (translation: Good evening! My name is Nicola) and he went "Thank you!" So we had a great time teaching each other Japanese, English and Spanish.

Drew wrote down how to count in Spanish:
Cuarenta - 40
Cincuenta - 50
Sesenta (? - can't read the writing) - 60
Sesienta - 70
ochente - 80
noventa? (his question mark) - 90

Also we learned 'tensai' - Japanese for 'genius'.

GRANDPARENTS
Mine live in Southport. They called a few times. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa! :-)

SLEEPING ARRANGEMENTS
Mattresses mostly. Unless you're Tim Muller, then it's a 'cot' which gets moved to unusual places i.e. the ceiling - or unless you're Trev G at AGMF, in which case it's a swag that wasn't made for your six-foot-plus frame.

Guys - Southport Baptist.
Girls - Labrador Uniting.

OTHER SONGS WE COMPOSED

At church the second Sunday we were there (27 November), Jim did a great talk about trusting God. When he got up there and said what it would be about, Lisa and I looked at each other and just burst out laughing - I think the night before (or a few nights before) we'd done that 4.30am chat thing - some of it about trusting God. And after that there was a song about rejoicing the in the Lord. Going from that theme, I began singing 'Rejoice in the Lord' over and over. For a long time. So that was my little song I composed.

SLANG
Most of these are Marika-isms.

"Hot" - read 'cool'. As in "he was so hot" - it means he was really cool, not that she actually thought he was hot. Although he may have been that too, but she meant cool.

"Slash" - Marika and Carla-ism. "I'm so tired...slash...I need some more sleep." "That was so annoying...slash...stupid." (That was so annoying/stupid.)

"Retarded" - bad, stupid or undesirable. "We need the Holy Spirit to help us stop doing those retarded things, cos the Holy Spirit doesn't want us to be retarded!"

"Hey!" - general greeting

"Violated!" - said when one is upset, offended, hurt or generally ticked off.

AGE ISSUES

Trev A looked at me seriously on our last day and said he couldn't believe I was only 19.
"Well," I said, "I'm actually 67, but I look good for my age."