Scotch College

Can We Risk It?

I was listening carefully to our Guest of Honour at the Year 12 Presentation Night. It wasn't difficult; Mr. Campbell Anderson was relaxed and easy listening. However, when he encouraged the class of 2000 to take risks I found myself involuntarily more attentive.

In class we encourage harm and risk minimization in a range of specific areas. Especially when it comes to drinking, other drugs, driving and sex. Suddenly I listened more intently. He was talking about pursuing education and business ventures. (It's so important to get the context right, isn't it!) And I had to concede he had a valid point.

We won't know our capabilities unless we take them to the limit. Whether it's an educational step or a business venture.

With careful planning and adequate preparation we encourage boys to set out on adventure. It's part of the transition to adulthood. It is helpful for young men to be directed to areas where they can 'push the envelope'. Young people can respond amazingly to challenge. One glory of a school is its perpetual youthfulness!

I was amazed and delighted how many year 12 students responded to the possibility of a venture to East Timor. Our reconnaissance party, Norm Bain and Richard Pearce, went to Dili for us to check out what was possible. The Hosanna Church had property that needed repair and re-equipping as schools. There is urgent need of food distribution to street kids. Alas, security is rated Chapter 7 and we won't risk taking boys unless it is reduced to Chapter 6. Besides the dry season is less hazardous than the wet. We'll see what develops by mid 2001.

Then (providentially) I bumped into Will Symons ('96) at the supermarket (again). This time he was back from his three months with Youth Challenge Australia.

Web address: http://www.uts.edu.au/oth/yca/. He went to Guyana. Cool. No, actually very hot. He did me the favour of coming to talk to the year 12 boys whom I knew would be disappointed at losing the chance to go to East Timor. Will was involved in living with tribal people and helping them with a range of projects, from building and agriculture to immunization. He found it humbling. He learned heaps. Including that the river can be the only road and not to cool off in water holes that are home to anacondas!

Just coming to Australia on a creaky sailing vessel was a risky business in 1837. Just getting here must have been quite an adventure. When 24 year old James Forbes arrived in Port Phillip (Melbourne, pop. 300) it must have been rather like a visit to a third world country. He set about preaching the Christian gospel and educating migrant kids (and the locals where they wanted it). These were the twin planks of his platform for building the social fabric of the rapidly growing town.

Risky as it was in those days, he saw the need of Christians working together. He worked for this and modelled it where he could. One historian says in the early days of the settlement 'it was long remembered in Melbourne that its three leading clergymen, the Rev James Forbes (Presbyterian), the Rev AC Thompson (Episcopalian) and the Rev PB Geoghegan (Roman Catholic), had been seen walking in Melbourne streets with their arms linked'.

No doubt he was influenced by Jesus' final words in John 15. He took Jesus seriously. This itself is a risky, life-transforming business! That's a risk I invite you to embrace.

Rev Graham Bradbeer