Hervey Bay-Glendyne

Well for the 2ND week of our road trip after Airlie we headed off for 12 hours to Hervey Bay. During our time on the road we had to say goodbye to our fellow Frontiers DTS who are now presently in either China, India or Libya. Once we arrived in Hervey Bay we set up camp for the night and just scoped out the town. The next day we also just hung out while our leaders got all of our contact information for the following week, we also got to attend church at one of the Baptist Church's in Hervey Bay. The next day we all separated into our outreach teams and went to different schools. The Malaysia team throughout the week went to Maryborugh High, Grandville, and another high school while team Vanuatu went to the local Hervey Bay High to work (paint the Chaplain's office) while our Australia team went to Glendyne. Glendyne is a school ran by the Baptist Church where all the kids have been kicked out of every other school and so the government sends them there. Most have had hardcore drug addictions and have been to rehab (some still struggle) where a lot of the girls have been abused by parents, boyfriends, mom boyfriends etc. There are only a few courses available to them and not that many teachers. A lot of the "teachers" there are not yet qualified but Glendyne hires teachers who are working on their degree or are a trades person or even just athletic. Only 100 students are enrolled in Glendyne and only approximately 40 show up on a daily basis. The purpose of the school is for the teachers to show lots of love, care, and compassion to help the non-sociable kids become social and therefore get jobs once graduated. Their classes are either Maths, English, Science, Hospitality (this is a trade), Metal Working, Wood Working, Life skills, and Art. The kids who come have the knowledge of a 7Th-8Th grader even though most of the kids are around 13-19 so these classes wouldn't be intense for regular kids but for these kids even that is a struggle. So our daily routine started at around 8:30 a.m. Ashely, one of the youth workers (former YWAMer), would pick us up in a troopie and then take us to the school. Once we arrived we would split up and we'd go find a class we wanted to join according to what genders there were in the class. So during the week I usually went to Life skills. In this class they have a climbing wall, high ropes and low ropes. What you did is you would get a harness on (like the ones at Luseland Bible Camp) and they could either go down the flying fox (a big zip line) or go on the other side where you had to walk across this rope about 30 meters high while using ropes that are in patterns to get across without falling. They also have this big obstacle course that resembles something between football camp and army training lol. The class was taught by Andrew a retired rugby player who came to Australia to play rugby then once he retired he came to Hervey Bay to drive a tour bus then got involved with Glendyne which started only 5 years ago. He was such a amazing teacher, his purpose for this class was for the kids to gain independence by setting up the equipment, belaying and climbing therefore gaining trust in fellow classmates and confidence in yourself. It was really cool to watch the kids run everything, at camp we would never be able to run the wall like they do because they ignored so many of the safety precautions etc but the students worked well and were very helpful. Another class that you could choose from is Art. Now this class was a gong show, the past week was stenciling where they had those exacto knifes and it wasn't uncommon for some of the guys to have a exchange of words and threaten each other although never carried out. The kids can't really be disciplined that much and it takes a lot for them to actually be suspended because they have been kicked out of every other school and they really don't care much. If they suspended for the things a regular school did no one would be there. I was so surprised with the tolerance and love the teachers had. In a normal public school and even in a lot of the "christian" schools most of the teachers do not have the patience with us but these teachers had such patience and love for them. I not once saw a teacher snap even though kids would be swearing (wow did they ever!) and some kids would be so rude and cruel to the teachers but they would just love on them. The teachers had respect to some degree but they also took a lot with that. Another class was hospitality where the girls would go and make the school their lunch. Lunch was around 11 as the school ended at 1:30 because of the attention span of the kids and the school wants to encourage them to start getting into the work force to start getting back in society. Lunch goes around for about 30 minutes where we would usually start a game of soccer then they have two more classes. One day when playing soccer the bell went but the teachers saw the kids were interacting positively so they let us play throughout the afternoon, in fact Andrew came and played even though he had a class that were watching "The Benchwarmers" to learn about bullying. Maths (yes with a s), English, Science, etc were the same as they would have back in Canada except its very basic and the kids can't do that much in one class. So this is what we did during the day from Monday to Thursday. ON Thursday Ashely the youth worker who was only 19 years old decided that we should take the girls out to McDonald's and talk to them and direct our conversation to future plans etc to find out what the girls want to do and to encourage them and make a plan for them to get started on. About 8 girls showed up to McDonald's and so Ashely bought us all ice cream and we hung out. Earlier that day one of the girls really opened up to me and told me about her life. Her mother's boyfriend had raped her for 10 years and so her body internally is wrecked. She's been pregnant 2 times from 2 different boyfriends but both have been miscarriages because her body cannot carry out a full term pregnancy. One baby was 5 months 4 weeks and the other 6 months and 2 weeks, she had to give birth to both. She was so open with it and told me all about life without me even initiating any form of deep conversation which was weird to me but it was a experience that really opened my eyes to the hurting kids there at that school and all around the world for that matter. She showed up to McDonald's so that was good, she wants to be a marine biologist or go to University for Art. After McDonald's (Mackers is the Australian term) we all went to the part and hung out there then afterwards we dropped them all off and went to bed. On Friday we went back to the school for our last day. When Ashely was driving us there she mentioned that a lot of the girls were sad that we were leaving and that this week there was definitely a breakthrough. A lot of the girls wanted to go to Youth Group in Hervey Bay and the bible studies that the school runs on Sunday's. The teachers and Ashely have worked so hard to get the kids involved with them. They usually go on trips on the weekends to Brisbane, Gold Coast, and to several amusement parks in Queensland. Ashely also frequently will take the girls out for ice cream and pay for it out of her own money, for the school stuff on weekends the kids are also funded by the church. Also during holiday's the school runs camps where they all tent at the school or other places and have different activities. Coming up they have a motocross camp which is a big thing at their school. Well on Friday the morning was the usual but in the afternoon they had options of what they could do. Most girls went to a classroom where a professional beautician came in to wax, tint etc their eyebrows or to do anything the girls really wanted. Most of the guys and some girls went to the motocross area just 1 km away from the school where they have a few bikes and you get to ride them around. Then others went to play golf or stayed at the gym where Simon from the pacific islands ran the guys in a big workout. Simon won the heavy weight title in Queensland a few months ago and is huge. He volunteers at the school and trains afterwards. Me, Corina, and Susan went to the motocross and watched everyone out there. I wasn't brave enough to ride though while Will and Luke went golfing and Megan got her eyebrows waxed. It was so much fun to just chill on our last day with them. Then at around 1:30 our bus came to pick us up from the school so we waited and said goodbye to all of the students then headed off to Brisbane. The week was such a good, tiring, growing experience. It was so different to see all of these tough kids who have had such rough pasts come to a school that loved them so much. It still shocks me how these teachers do it but they did. It was really good to see how the church has influenced these kids lives. A few girls have made commitments since coming to this school and during the week I talked to a guy named Samuel who came out of rehab for his 3rd ish time, has a 17 month baby, and thankfully has completely changed. He now wants to be a addictions counsellor for hardcore drugs and he believes God helped him change his life around. He doesn't have a big understanding of God but he is definitely learning and the school has been such a support for him. A lot of the girls there at the school have best friends that are really strong Christians. A lot of the youth at the church meet up with the same girl throughout the week and encourage them greatly. When we went to McDonald's a couple of the girls' friends from the church picked them up and dropped them off so they could come. It really showed us a model of how much we need to reach out to the sick and homeless because most of these kids live on their own or with guardians who would have no good influences if not for this school. So the week at Hervey Bay really taught us a lot through us just being around and spending time with them. Well this next week we are back in Brisbane making our last preparations for Outreach. On Saturday both the Malaysia team and Vanuatu team are leaving for their countries and our team will be leaving on the following Monday or Tuesday. So it will be a rush to get all of our workbooks and reports done so we can go on outreach. I cannot believe that we are on our final 9 weeks before leaving. All of us have been avoiding the fact that we are only together as a team for 3 more weeks before the school ends. But two of our leaders are getting married so we are all planning to come to the wedding in Winnipeg. Well thanks so much for your continued support. I would just like to ask you to continue to pray for our outreach team as we go and as one of our leaders had to leave the country because his visa expired but he should be coming back soon. And I would like to ask you to pray for Glendyne school as on our outreach we will be going there to help run a camp, so pray that our relationships will not die from now to then and that the kids will go to youth group and the bible study as they have planned to do. Thank-you so much!
Daneille