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The Anglican Church in Tasmania Search |
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a healthy church...transformingLIFE |
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Nostalgia Now |
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There is a disturbing fact about being a Christian and living life: you either grow or you stop and stagnate. My TransformationImagine: you have been serving in a ministry and God pulls the plug. You are cold and shivering and say to yourself ‘what do I do now?’ After being involved in parish youth work for thirty years in Sydney I began to see the writing was on the wall: ‘mene, mene tekel’, your time is coming to an end. I had nightmare pictures of myself running around a church hall at ninety, playing games with kids and teenagers; like in the Keith Green song ‘ So you want to go back to Egypt where it is safe and secure?' My identity and who I was related all to youth but I was getting older and I was now fifty; which let me tell you is a long adolescence and very painful but that was all that I knew. What had made you want to work with youth?Seeing their potential when they didn’t. Knowing that Jesus could transform their lives to reach their potential. Acknowledging that God had a plan for each one of them and adventure. How did this new interest arrive?A lady in a nursing home said that she had been on the two-way radio when the Japanese submarine came into Sydney Harbour and that her husband had been the last person to speak to Kingsford-Smith. I began to think this is an incredibly interesting person. You can tell if people are having a fulfilled life or they are just filling in time. Meeting seniors made me think about the need to share Jesus with them in the context of life lived and still enjoyed to the max. I developed a program for evangelism called ‘Nostalgia Now’ and trialled it in church retirement villages – in the Parish of Claremont and Peacehaven in Launceston. This gives the person opportunity to reflect and review their lives, including childhood memories. We listened to songs and ‘yacked’ about issues and concerns in their lives – like their children and grandchildren. What brought you back to Tasmania?I had worked here ten years ago and said that I would return when I was fifty. It came round quickly; I realised it was going to be different. The challenge was to move from youth work to seniors’ work. I attended the Bishop’s Breakfast where he spoke about a ‘permission document.’ The lists of questions in this booklet could have been written just for me! After working through these questions I could not duck the challenge. I spoke to my minister at Claremont and realising what a responsibility this was, sat on it for six months. I have to take the risk to move forward to grow or stagnate. I must now establish specific goals and objectives. The more I have been with seniors the more I can see that we should appreciate them; value their lives and their adventures; see how they can be involved in a faith community, use their gifts; not patronise them; be a role model for them; help them enjoy abundant life.
It’s planned to launch Nostalgia Now at 7.30 pm on Friday 29 October at Holy Trinity, Hobart. Stay tuned! |
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