Kimberley Ellison

I would guess I’m not alone in saying that the past few weeks have been summarised (not to mention exacerbated) by the weather.

A series of highs and lows; warm, sunny days building up until they’re too hot for their own good and they come crashing down in a hullabaloo of rain, thunder, and lightning — only to start rebuilding. It’s as though summer is a toddler who can’t quite stay on its feet yet.

One of the factors contributing to my own personal mayhem of ups and downs is this precious little publication. This is the last issue of the Voice for the year, and I’m honoured to be able to turn it over to the capable hands of Sara Thompson and Jamin Binning, the new editor and designer for 2011. I have no doubt that they will inspire and entertain you with their very own style.

I hope you, the student body, will continue to use The Voice as a microphone for your own voice, because no matter how cliché it may be, or how many John Farnham songs it may provoke (one, repeated over and over and over…), this magazine is called The Voice for a reason. Proverbs 28.8 says “Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.” This may seem like a rather small start for such noble aspirations, but from small things, big things grow.

To those of you who are graduating soon, congratulations! You did it! The beginning of the rest of your life is so close you can smell it, and it probably smells a lot less like weet-bix or a marmite creek than your current life.

To those of you who are returning, make the most of it. I feel old just thinking about writing this, but it actually does fly by.

The good news is (providing climate change doesn’t kick in faster than expected), summer will learn to walk, and chances are that with it, some stability will return to the lives of Avondaliens everywhere.

Meanwhile, enjoy dancing in the rain!

Trent McCrow

“Chaff: To banter, rail at, or rally, in a light and non-serious manner, or without anger, but so as to try the good nature or temper of the person ‘chaffed’” – Oxford English Dictionary

The years you spend at college or university will most likely be some of the best you’ll have throughout your life. A college student usually has few responsibilities to the outside world and a lot of time on their hands, even when they are supposed to be studying or working on assessments. All this free time, coupled with Australian attitudes towards leisure and entertainment, means that a college student will often find themselves looking for something fun to do. Out of boredom arises the practical joke and ‘chaffing’ culture Avondale College has recently experienced.

The so called ‘chaffs’ that have recently occurred on the Lake Macquarie campus are not chaffs at all. Sure, they may not have been done with anger, and they may have been done to test the good nature of those on the receiving end of the ‘chaff’ but they were not light and non-serious in manner. In truth, the ‘chaffs’ that took place were not chaffs at all. They were invasions and have been dubbed the ‘Confetti Invasion’ of October 26 and the ‘Cereal Invasion’ of November 3. A proper chaff is one that teases, mocks or jokes in a light non-serious way — not like ‘chaffs’ that have occurred at Avondale recently.

Here are some proper practical jokes:

-Blowing up balloons and filling a friends room with them

-Put a friends room key in jelly and hide it in their refrigerator

-Use post it notes to cover a friends window

-Hide something and make a list of clues for your friend to find it

Having fun is part of a young adult stage of life and practical jokes and chaffs do form a small part of that fun. Some colleges have a rich history of chaffs and practical jokes, like MIT and their ‘hacks’, and perhaps one day Avondale College will have its own chaffing heritage. But the tradition that was exhibited during this latest round of invasions is not proper and has no place in the Avondale Community. We have a chance to learn something from this and to create a legacy of fun.

So next time you’re bored and want to do a chaff, don’t turn a bit of fun into defamation of character. Do something light and non-serious in manner and make it fun for those on the receiving end too.

Josh Zyderveld

I want to introduce you to one of the most influential and effective people of the 21st century. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for creating a powerful solution to the global tragedy of poverty. His name is Muhammad Yunus, and these are some of his words:

“Poor people are a like bonsai tree, a little tree. You pick the seed of the tallest tree in the forest and take the best seed out of it, and plant it in a flower pot. You get a tiny little tree, we call it a bonsai. Nothing wrong with the seed, you’ve got the best seed possible. Nothing wrong with the tree, because you actually picked the tallest tree in the forest. But actually it grows this far… why? Because we put them in the flower pot. The base. Society is the base. And society is so stingy it doesn’t give the poor people the space to grow.
So I say, change the base! If you change the base, anybody will be as tall as anybody else! My belief is poverty is not caused by poor people. Poverty is caused by the system. Poverty is caused by the policies that we pursue.

People can change their own lives, provided they have the right kind of institutional support. They’re not asking for charity, charity is no solution to poverty. We have created a society that does not allow opportunities for people to take care of themselves because we have denied them those opportunities.

I was teaching in one of the universities while the country was suffering from a severe famine. People were dying of hunger, and I felt very helpless. As an economist, I had no tool in my tool box to fix that kind of situation. I went to the bank and proposed that they lend money to the poor people. The bankers almost fell over. They explained to me that the bank cannot lend money to poor people because these people are not creditworthy.
Poverty is unnecessary.”
Muhammad Yunus created the ‘microcredit’ concept, and founded the Grameen Bank. As of July 2007, Grameen Bank had issued AU$6.38 billion to 7.4 million borrowers.

Simply by believing that credit without collateral is a fundamental right of the poor, Muhammad has helped to lift millions of people out of poverty.

Kirsten Bolinger

If Benjamin Moyes were footwear he would be a pair of Havaiana sandals. We all know them and we all love them. They are not your average slipper but they are comfortable, useful, and cute.

This describes Ben in a nutshell.

I met Ben in my first year at Avondale and I have nothing but good memories of him. If you have been to Coles in Morisset during your time at Avondale you have probably met Ben. He’s the dark haired cutie with the big grin and year round tan that works at the check out.

The first thing you notice about Ben when you meet him is his vivacious and charming personality. He is all grins and compliments. In fact I think every time I see Ben I hear him compliment someone about something.

Ben started out with a teaching degree but had a change of mind after having had work experience at Channel 7 Sunrise. This is where his passion for TV blossomed and he began studying for his Bachelor of Arts in Communication.

“Ultimately I would love to be a talk show host. I know it sounds cheesy but they get to have a fun TV career that can actually have deeper meaning and help people,” he says.

Ben believes that we are all given our talents for a reason and he feels God nudging him this way or that in his career.

“I don’t know where I’ll be in five years and honestly I don’t really care, as long as I am happy and the people I love in my life love me back,” he says.

Among other mission projects, Ben’s particular passion is an outreach program he started in his local Salvation Army Church. The group visits nursing homes and they have done three mission trips.

I have known Ben my entire time at Avondale and just like my favourite pair of Havaianas, his friendship has never worn out.

Jamin Binning

As you read this article I will be flying towards a country I haven’t set foot in since my birth; a distant country called Nepal.
My biological mother passed away not long after my birth, leaving my father to try raise the last of his many children. Unable to attend to my early life’s needs, my biological father gave me away for adoption when I was just six months old. Now, at twenty-one years of age, I believe in my heart that he gave me away in love and I know that God had His hand in my life. He gave me an opportunity to have life once again — and not just physical life, but a life that would become eternal through His love and grace.

I am about to embark on what will be one of the biggest adventures in my life; returning to Nepal to discover my biological father, family and homeland. Growing up I have constantly told myself that I do have a purpose in life, even when at times it has been hard to see where God is leading me. After making it out of one of the poorest countries in the world, I have had to realize over and over again just how blessed I am. I know at times we all doubt our direction in life and we just don’t understand God’s time, but the fact is we may never be called to save the world and see our purpose on such a large scale. King David said in Psalms 17:15 “And I — in righteousness, I will see your face; when I awake, I will be satisfied with seeing your likeness”. For David, his purpose was daily; striving to be more like God and adapting His likeness to his own life.

God has a plan for us all. He hasn’t kept your heart beating for nothing. I hold this verse close to my heart through all trials and tribulations: Jeremiah 29:11 reads  “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” God didn’t bring me or you into the world for nothing. My circumstances as a baby would have left me dead, but God won a victory over my life and now each day my purpose is found in Him. I encourage you to put your focus on God and to leave your purpose with Him. Give the control to God and He will find purpose in your life.

“You were made by God and for God and until you understand that, life will never make sense.” – Rick Warren