baulkham hills baptist church i and ii

The past two weeks have been pretty good, church-wise. I was very kindly invited to Baulkham Hills Baptist, by a friend of mine who completed the sign language interpreting diploma at the same time as me. She has been doing volunteer interpreting for the handful of deaf people who attend the services.

As it turns out, the Church is only five minutes’ drive from my house. Literally. If I hadn’t been invited, I probably would have come across it anyway, in the “search for a church”. The service starts at 9:30am, and both times has finished about 11am. The first week was a special one, with an emphasis on “beach missions”, which is something the church has been involved in. We heard from a number of people who spoke about their involvement in the mission, and their experiences.

There were about 50 or so people at both services, and all-in-all, I had a pretty good time. There are a fair few older people, but also a lot of new families — couples with toddler babies. It’s been interesting, because twice now people have suggested I should come along to the evening service also, because there are more “young” people there, who are “more my age” … (I don’t know how old they think I am?!) In general, people are friendly, and have made a point of coming up to me an introducing themselves either before or after the service. After last week’s service, the senior minister encouraged me to sign the guest book (which I did). Then a couple of days later, I received a very nicely worded card in the post, thanking me for my involvement in the service, hoping I enjoyed it, and welcoming me if I ever chose to come again. It was a very nice touch, and greatly appreciated.

They have a ministry team of piano, KB, a few vocalists, and some brass/woodwind players too, so the music has been nice. I’ve known just about all the songs, and been able to participate really well here. (When was the last time you sang “Your Love Keeps Following Me”?)

It’s pretty late at the moment, so I’ll keep this entry pretty short. But I will hopefully write a bit more next time … I plan to go back again. They are looking for someone to help with interpreting on a volunteer basis, so this might be somewhere I could fit in and also be useful. So far, so good!

Cheers,
Andy

fellowship

/ˈfεloυſιp/ n. 1a the condition of sharing similar interests, ideals, or experiences, as by reason of profession, religion, or nationality. b the companionship of individuals in a congenial atmosphere and on equal terms. 2 a close association of friends or equals sharing similar interests. 3 friendship; comradeship.

I spent most of this week camping. I joined a big group of the Deaf Christian Fellowship (including some of the students at the school where I work) and travelled to Deuba /nde'umba/ on the Coral Coast, where we had a great time. Those of you who know me really well will be quite surprised to hear that I involved myself briefly in a game of rugby. This did result in me injuring myself on an open window (honestly, who expects to be caught in the neck by a window frame on the rugby field?) but it was still good.

The food was … camp-like. Porridge for breakfast every morning. Then morning tea. Then lunch. Then dinner. Then supper. It does make me wonder … with so much eating, why did I not need to use the toilet the whole week? Surely this is not right? I wonder if it’s a bad sign for the coming few days. Fijian and Indo-Fijian food tastes really good on the whole, but it does play around with your digestive system. Anyway. Sorry for the excess information there. Moving on…

On one of the few sunny days we had (it was drizzling and cloudy for the most part; typical eastern Fiji style) we all went to the beach for a bit of a swim, which was really nice. It was warm and refreshing. One of the younger girls had forgotten to take the packet of chips out of the pocket of her swimming shorts though, and very soon we were surrounded by a school of fish. It was fantastic. A very surreal, bizarre feeling though. The fish didn’t touch us at all, and swam away very quickly once the food disappeared, but it was a nice experience.

It was great to get to know some more Deaf people, and socialise with them. I learned some new Fijian Sign Language (which has just recently been allocated an official abbreviation, FJSL, by the Fijian Association of the Deaf). I made some new friends, which was awesome. I am so thankful for the openness of the Fijian people, putting up with all my questions and mistakes. I have tried to show my interest in their language and culture as much as I can. Even more so, I am heaps thankful for the way the Deaf people here are accepting me, and welcoming me, and helping me learn new signs and change the ones I knew which don’t apply here. The overall theme of the camp was “Fellowship”, and we were given several challenging reminders of what fellowship is, and means, and how to stay in fellowship.

As an aside, if you’re wondering why I’ve capitalised the word “Deaf” all the time here, I’d encourage you to search the web for articles about Deaf culture and Deaf communities.

I will be going home to Sydney in just a few days for my sister’s wedding, so stay tuned for my next update, which will probably be from the best city in the world (Sydney, in case any of you out there were confused and I needed to say it again)!