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 28 | W I N T E R 2 0 1 6 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.