My Jesus. All. experience

Joanna Darby
Young Alumnus of the Year
Avondale Alumni Association

A bookmark falls out of my Bible. Things regularly fall out of my Bible—a church bulletin, a photograph, a folded scrap of paper that used to be a Nominating Committee report but is now a scribble of notes. My Bible is a makeshift filing system, a bit like Mary Poppins’ carpet bag. The bookmark is a pledge I made at the One Project in Sydney this past year.

“I, Jo, commit to Jesus the One by . . . .”

The year before, over a messy lunch of falafel wraps and not-very-chilled orange juice outside our humble green tent at Big Camp, an annual event organised by the Seventh-day Adventist Church in northern New South Wales, Pr Eddie Hypolite tells my husband and I about the One Project. It began, he says, with a bunch of pastor types who met in a hotel room to pray, fast and seek Jesus. We’re intrigued.

Once we arrive home and tackle the Mount Washmore that appears in the laundry after a week at camp, we celebrate our reunion with Wi-Fi by exploring the One Project website. We’re inspired.

We are devoted to church but not Jesus Christ. We spend so many hours reading and talking about church, we feel busy but not necessarily full. And we want to be full—every crease and corner and crack filled with Jesus Christ.

We spend two days at the One Project celebrating the supremacy of Jesus Christ. The conversations are honest, the teaching uplifting, the unity encouraging. We appreciate the simplicity—it allows us to interact with others—and the authenticity. We’re convicted.

Jesus in our history. Jesus in our theology. Jesus in our mission. Jesus in our experience. Jesus. All.

One Project, City Hall, Newcastle, July 20-21
www.the1project.org