Part 1 was all about beautiful people from Vanuatu. This second post is all about some beautiful people from Australia. Is the language ‘beautiful’ a bit gooey? Bare with me. Who are these beautiful people from Australia? The Schoolies. NOT the drunken Schoolies that congregate on the Gold Coast, but a beautiful bunch of 20 young men and women intent on being counter-cultural in their end-of-school celebration.
These beautiful young adults were gathered from all over NSW as part of the Scripture Union Schoolies in Vanuatu trip. Bruce Boyle, Ali OpdeVeigh and their SU team did a great job in leading the trip. Following are three ways that I was impressed by this extraordinary group of beautiful people.
1) Expression of God-given gifts
At the start of our time in Vanuatu, I ran a training session on the nature of our ministry amongst the Nivan people: Encouragise; Empathise; Evangelise. (Downloadable from here). Let’s be honest. They really didn’t need much of an encouragement! God has clearly gifted each of these young men and women. They were constant in their encouragement of the local believers to keep trusting Jesus. When we visited the hospital, many Schoolies again showed an incredible ability to empathise, listen and pray. Likewise, they were bold in making the most of evangelistic conversation. It’s beautiful to see young men and women joyfully using – and discovering – their God-given gifts.
2) Love for Jesus and the Scriptures
I’ve been on 50+ youth camps in the last 10 or so years and probably spoken on 20+ of them. Of all those camps, this one was unique in the amount of quality time in the Bible. The Schoolies took reading and studying the bible with great seriousness. Our series, Don’t Waste Your Life, was a helpful platform to think about living life with eternity in mind. It was beautiful to look out on the lawn at random times of the day and see Schoolies scattered around under trees reading and meditating on the Bible. Then at other times to hear many of them grappling with big questions about God, Jesus and life. We hit on many of the big issues of God’s sovereignty and human responsibility, and it was a delight to see them willingly submitting to the authority of the Bible. Finishing school is a significant time of life, I’m confident that, under God, these young people are poised to make the most of their lives by growing in their love for Jesus.
3) Depth of Character
Teenagers aren’t expected to be godly. Society has low expectations on young people. My heart was warmed in seeing the way that these beautiful people are rebelling against these low expectations by living with great depth of character and maturity. (See this post for some links to great articles by the Harris brothers about Doing Hard Things). On our arrival back in Sydney their godliness was poignantly illustrated. After the customs people confiscated half of our souvenirs, we walked past this massive TV. On the TV there was a news report. The volume was turned off, but the images and text on the screen said it all. It was a scene from Schoolies on the Gold Coast. Something like: “three times as many arrests, three times as many alcohol fuelled incidents, three times as many fights on the beach”. What a contrast! While the majority of their peers were living for themselves and this world, our Schoolies were living for the sake of others and with a view to eternity.
The gospel really does change people. I really love these young people and the way that God is shaping and moulding them to be more like Jesus. Who knows, of all those 50+ camps, this was probably my favourite!!
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