Archive for October, 2012

Market Day coming

Friday, October 19, 2012

Caf initiative will build community

Sofia Ruiz
Bachelor of Arts student
Avondale College of Higher Education
Cooranbong, New South Wales, Australia

A market day organised by Avondale communication students—the first of its kind—will strengthen the relationship between the college and members of the community.

Thirty-five stallholders will sell fruit and vegetables, homemade arts and crafts and baked goods on Avondale’s Lake Macquarie campus this Sunday (October 21) from 10.00 AM. Market Day also features four Coronary Health Improvement Program mini-seminars and live entertainment during lunch. Children are catered for, too, with face painting, games, a jumping castle and a petting zoo and pottery art.

The cafeteria, which initiated the event, is the main sponsor. “We wanted to create an event that would give members of the community a reason to come onto campus,” says director of food services Nick Hartigan. “They know we’re here, but they think we’re a closed community, and we’re not.”

Half of the Bachelor of Arts (Communication) students taking Bruna Tawake’s Event Management class are organising Market Day. “Learning is enhanced by real-life practice and this is the kind of event that has all the potential of providing that,” says Bruna. She describes Market Day as “a relaxed event where there’ll be something for the whole family to enjoy. I hope it will provide the college and the community with a way of getting to know each other.”

“We want people, even if they’re not part of the Seventh-day Adventist community, to feel welcome on our campus anytime,” says communication student and group leader Brittany McNitt.

Nick is excited the cafeteria’s idea is, thanks to Bruna’s class, finally becoming a reality. “They’ve helped a lot. We’re impressed, and we have a great feeling about this.”

Market Day Southlake, Sunday, October 21, 2012, 10.00 AM-2.00 PM.

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Three-peat champions

Friday, October 19, 2012

Visitors yet to lose a game in Adventist Basketball Championship

The Gold Coast Waves is still undefeated after winning its third consecutive Adventist Basketball Championship this past weekend (October 13-14). The Waves are the only team to have won the competition, held again this year in the Chan Shun Auditorium on Avondale College of Higher Education’s Lake Macquarie campus. Most of the team members play together in a Gold Coast-based competition. Eight teams entered the men’s competition with Waves beating Suns—a team of Avondale alumni captained by Chris Starrett—93-83 in the final. No teams entered the women’s competition.—Brenton Stacey, public relations officer, Avondale College of Higher Education Credit: Lagani Gairo.

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Brown talks to Smith and Jones

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Voices for Justice heard

Nathan Brown
Master of Arts (Research) student
Avondale College of Higher Education
Cooranbong, New South Wales, Australia

Not quite. I did talk with Ewen Jones, Member for Herbert (based in Townsville, Qld) in Australia’s House of Representatives, but Mr Smith—my local member of parliament—ruined my headline by postponing our appointment due to other commitments.

These meeting opportunities were part of Micah Challenge’s Voices for Justice (September 15-18). After two days of worship, training, networking and prayer, 280 Christians from around Australia went to Parliament House in Canberra to speak on behalf of those who suffer because of global poverty.

The focus: to ask for Australia’s continued commitment to the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the government’s promise to work to increase Australia’s international aid contributions to 0.7 per cent of Gross National Income. But we also thanked Australia’s leaders, noting globally extreme poverty has been halved from 1990 levels and that some of the MDGs have already been achieved.

I have written previously to my local member of parliament, sometimes about big issues, sometimes about local concerns. But at Voices for Justice I spoke up in a different way and in an unfamiliar setting. Yet it seemed to fit with a different way of seeking justice and goodness: “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves; ensure justice for those who are perishing. Yes, speak up for the poor and helpless, and see that they get justice” (Proverbs 31:8, 9, NLT).

And I believe our voices were heard. Over two days, the 40 impromptu Micah Challenge “lobby groups” walked the halls of Parliament House and dozens of parliamentarians made the commitment to work toward these goals.

And I still have work to do to complete the headline. I have already written to Mr Smith requesting a meeting with him when he and I are back in our electorate. But it isn’t just about a corny headline; it’s an opportunity to make a unique difference in the world, despite our all-too-common surnames.

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Atoifi and me

Thursday, October 11, 2012

The privilege of mission-minded nursing

Erin Raethel
Bachelor of Nursing student
Avondale College of Higher Education

Thirteen nauseating hours in a seemingly toy-sized boat. This is how eight of my classmates, our lecturer and I travel from Guadalcanal to Atoifi Adventist Hospital on Malaita in the Solomon Islands. The purpose of the two-week trip (July 3-17): to serve as a clinical learning experience in a developing country and as an introduction to medical-focused mission.

We fly to the Solomons with more than 170 kilograms of excess luggage—alcohol wipes, catheters, dressings, hymnals, paediatric wall stickers, shower curtains, stationary and wall clocks. The students in the hospital’s School of Nursing are grateful for the supplies and distribute them on the wards for immediate use. They’re resourceful, too: gauze and cotton wool double as feminine hygiene pads and cone-shaped fetoscopes detect the foetal heart rate like an ultrasound.

The only other expatriates at Atoifi are a Peruvian couple, Dr Elma and his wife, Angelica, a pharmacist. Dr Elma performs surgery only when the village generator is operating—9.00 AM-12.00 PM and 6.00 PM-9.00 PM. Outside of these hours, nursing procedures are conducted near windows or by torchlight.

Dressed in scrubs with Crocs on our feet, we nurse patients who’ve fallen out of coconut trees, contracted malaria or tuberculosis or given birth.

The local women prepare a regular feast for us—cassava, cucumber, pawpaw, tuna and watercress feature. We also begin drinking coconut milk like we drink water.

The continuous rain does little to dampen our spirits or drown out the harmonious voices singing praises at morning worships. Even on the wards, the nurses begin their day by having worship with the patients. Atoifi survives on prayer.

To nurse in a developing country is a challenge, professionally and personally—to witness how true healing comes from God, not from medicine. To nurse the vulnerable—whether here in Australia or overseas—back to health is a privilege.

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