Posts Tagged ‘One Mission’

Concert for the Cause

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Raises more than $3000 for student mission club

Sara Thompson
Public relations assistant
Avondale College of Higher Education
Cooranbong, New South Wales, Australia

Lawson Hull and Dayna Petrie take centre stage in the Education Hall during Concert for the Cause.
Credit: Luke Bacon.

The success of a fundraising concert will see Avondale student mission club extend its duty of care to those who volunteer overseas as team leaders.

More than 140 people attended Concert for the Cause, held in the Education Hall on the Lake Macquarie campus this past Saturday (May 18). The auction and concert raised more than $3000.

The money will support students who volunteer as team leaders for One Mission—the student club organises about half a dozen mission trips each year and aims to send 100 students overseas this year. One Mission will keep some of the money in reserve for emergencies and use the rest to help leaders meet their own expenses and teams reach their fundraising targets.

“It’s a relief,” says concert organiser Bek Eyre, who coordinates One Mission’s fundraising. “We tripled the amount we’ve raised in previous years.”

“We want to be able to help our teams as much as we can,” says One Mission leader Joel Slade. “If we have good leaders, we have good trips.”

Anna Beaden and Lawson Hull, both winners of the Young Achiever Prize at the Manifest Creative Arts Festival, joined other Avondale artists and bands, including Jackie Chan and the Mi Goreng Police and The Costigan Sisters, on the concert bill. Items up for auction included the popular auction-a-date, with the highest bid for Bachelor of Education (primary) student Holly Phillips ($700).

“It was great to see the support from college,” says Joel. “That’s why I love One Mission—the passion for it is what keeps everyone going.”

Nearly there

Thursday, May 31, 2012

One Mission fundraising update

Josh Dye
Public relations intern
Avondale College of Higher Education
Cooranbong, New South Wales, Australia

Three One Mission teams will visit Botswana and Zambia, Cambodia and Mongolia during the semester recess. Here is an update of each team’s fundraising and projects.

This graph shows the fundraising targets and actuals of each of the One Mission teams.

One Mission Africa
Target: $30,000
Actual: $20,000
Evangelism, education and health are the foci of this trip. The team will be joined by young volunteers from local churches who have registered to help with HIV/AIDS awareness and education.

One Mission Cambodia
Target: $12,500
Actual: $10,000
The funds will help build a toilet block to provide sanitation for local communities. Supported by the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA).

One Mission Mongolia
Target: $18,700
Actual: $13,500
The funds will help build a fence around agriculture crops in rural Mongolia to improve food security for local communities. Supported by ADRA. The project seeks to train and empower local farmers.

Beyond baptisms and buildings

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

What makes a “successful” mission trip?

Josh Dye
Bachelor of Arts student
Avondale College of Higher Education
Cooranbong, New South Wales, Australia

Here’s a typical question I’ve received since returning from a One Mission trip to the Solomon Islands in December: “What did you achieve?”

It’s a fair question—we like to quantify things. A typical answer could be, “We baptised 50 people through our evangelistic series,” or, “We built a school for disadvantaged children so they can receive a Christian education.” But One Mission Solomon Islands didn’t baptise anyone or build anything.

“What will we achieve?” As leader of a team of 14, I mulled the question over before and during the trip—for the record, we organised kids’ clubs, conducted soccer clinics, taught English classes, led Bible studies and presented a series of worship meetings. The question frustrated me because I knew I needed to submit plans for the trip to God but felt as though I had to have something tangible to say. It frustrated me because I don’t believe we should judge the “success” of mission trips by comparing numbers of baptisms or the size of building projects.

Are baptisms and buildings trophies to show when we return home? If mission trips don’t provide any follow-up personal support for new believers or financial support for maintaining new churches, is it responsible to call for baptisms and construct buildings?

Let’s look beyond baptisms and buildings to the example of Jesus, who devoted most of His life on earth to mission. Yes, He valued baptism and even buildings, particularly one in Jerusalem—think the clearing of the temple, but He didn’t see those as achievements. His one mission? Connecting with people.

Jesus valued relationships above anything else. He blessed, healed and taught to build, restore and strengthen them. So should we.