Bryn Athyn College Alumni Magazine Winter 2015 | Page 28
SERVICE TRIP TO AUSTRALIA
by Luke David, ‘17
I
t all really started as a dream. Sure, I’ve always
wanted to travel and volunteer, but if you asked
me a year ago what I thought I’d be doing in
July and August of 2015, my answer certainly
would not have included digging through dirt in
Australia, making some make-shift scaffolding with
an Australian carpenter to fix a wall, driving through
Australian countryside, visiting nursing homes, or
petting a kangaroo (we also ate kangaroo burgers,
but honestly, I wouldn’t recommend them.)
And it really did start as a simple idea. I’ve always
had a strong desire to travel and connect to different
people, promote charity, and be useful. I also love the
New Church and the ideas in the Heavenly Doctrines, so I finally decided to combine them all and
take action. In my talks with Laura Nash [Director
of Experiential Education at Bryn Athyn College] on
how to pursue this, I joined forces with Alex Hyatt,
a friend of mine who shares similar desires. With
our combined brainpower, muscles, extraordinary
good looks, and dazzling rhetoric, we worked with
Laura and eventually secured a one-month volunteer
mission to the New Church in Hurstville, Australia,
where the minister, Todd Beiswinger, was excited
to have us come over to help out. We even received
funding for our trip from Charity Works which was
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an incredible blessing. That foundation made our
dream a reality.
Skipping along in time, we made the arrangements, packed, and flew out of JFK International
Airport on July 13th, 2015. After about 30 hours of
travel, including a nap on the floor of a Chinese airport, unrecognizable airline food, rerun after rerun of
The Departed, and Alex rejecting all my airline music
suggestions, we finally set foot in Australia.
We had a terrific setup too. The Hurstville
church society owns the house next to the church,
which they let people stay in (like us). Todd and
his wife, Jenn, lived in the other house next to the
church, so we had a cute little family situation going
on. For about the first week of our arrival, Alex and
I were Zombies. And also old men. Jet lag laughed at
us as we stared about with blank eyes and fell asleep
by 10:15 pm. Eventually, thankfully, we acclimated.
Okay, enough with the fun stuff. Let’s get to it.
Our mission was threefold:
1. Tear down the church walls, rebuild, spackle, and paint
them.
2. Establish an outdoor worship space for the congregation.
3. Connect with New Church families across the eastern
side of Australia, and participate in opportunities of
spiritual growth.