“Rip it up”

Brenton Stacey
Public relations officer
Cooranbong, New South Wales, Australia

An Aboriginal Seventh-day Adventist minister is not only the Avondale College Alumni Association’s new face but also its Young Alumni of the Year.

Pr Johnny Murison was announced as the winner of the award during an alumni and graduation forum on the Lake Macquarie campus this past Wednesday (May 19). Johnny could not attend the forum, so friend Pr Garth Bainbridge, Ministerial Association secretary for the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Sydney, accepted on his behalf.

In a written message, Johnny challenged students to take risks for God. He recalled moving to Sydney after graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (Theology) in 2004. “I’m a bushman and I was hoping I would get sent to the bush,” he said. Instead, the church sent him to the urban jungle. “I knew I had to get out of my comfort zone” because, said Johnny, living a fulfilling life with Jesus is about “taking it up a notch and ripping it up on the side of good.”

Johnny would serve as sole minister at Mt Druitt Seventh-day Adventist Church and director of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Ministries for the church in Sydney over the next five years. He would grow Mt Druitt and establish a church plant called The Way in Redfern. He became an ordained minister on the Saturday before the forum and is now an associate minister at Parramatta Seventh-day Adventist Church. Adventist Media Network has appointed Johnny as a support presenter for a new evangelistic DVD series called Beyond Search, and he features as the new face of Avondale alumni in a video clip appearing on the association’s homepage.

“When you take a risk, you grow and your faith deepens,” said Johnny in his message. “When you use your gifts and talents for God . . . He will take you places you have never been before.”

Johnny wrote glowingly of his ministry in Sydney, describing it as “helping people taste and see the Lord is good.” “I get to do this on a full-time, professional basis and I get paid!”

He ended his message with this statement: “God doesn’t want us to make a living, He wants us to make a difference.”

Avondale College president Dr Ray Roennfeldt prayed earlier in the forum for the thousands of alumni “who have turned their backs on the comforts of life to serve in difficult places.” The president of the alumni association, Pr Des Hills, challenged members of the 2010 graduation class to dedicate themselves to service, describing them as “strong ambassadors for the kingdom of heaven.”

The Young Alumni of the Year honours: outstanding professional achievement and excellence; innovative or inspirational leadership; or notable contribution to a humanitarian cause or commitment to service. Alumni aged 30 and under and who graduated five years ago are eligible for the award.

Earlier, Ray announced the graduation class officers. They are:

• Shona Clarke, co-president (Lake Macquarie campus)
• Jewells Kiviranta, co-president (Sydney campus)
• Ray Moaga, chaplain
• Reuben Enor, treasurer
• Rebekah Behan, graduation banquet coordinator
• Neil Bustos, Chantal Heise and Wendy Saluni, undergraduate representatives
• Tristin Lever, vocational education and training representative
• Bev Christian, staff adviser