The Real Nicole.

 It's been 200 days since restrictions came into place for the Covid19 Pandemic and i've been in various lockdown restrictions. I've been in a mood  for about a week now. I want to be really clear straight up, I think the restrictions are completely necessary and I am grateful that I have been kept safe and healthy from what is a very contagious virus and im thankful that by these restrictions i've been able to keep vulnerable people around me safe.  The thing is, i've just had enough. In Melbourne, things really suck and it's still a while until things are going to get better. We have done an amazing job going from 700 cases a day to 14 a day. But its been a long 6 months. And with new clusters and little outbreaks around the place, its still long from over.  Its been a long time of being alone, of not seeing friends or family, its been a long time of not being able to do things such as shopping or exercising the way you are used to. A long time of checking you...

I want to start by saying, if anything I say is triggering to you. Please stop reading and seek help. Mental health is a massive jerk.  There isn't really many other ways to put it. Mental health ruins lives, families, and communities. We have a problem in Australia. You see, too many people are dying from suicide every year. Heck too many people are dying each day due to suicide. Where is God? What is the hope for the future? And why the heck aren't more people training and trying to understand mental health situations. Now don't get me wrong, we have done a fair bit over the last few years to reduce the stigma of mental health, but we still have so far to go. The past 4 years of my life have been a massive eye opening experience to me about the mental health of my peers, friends, and people I meet even in day to days interactions. I have spent countless hours texting young people in crisis and ensurin they have someone safe to listen to them. I have spent too ...

So with the trantition of many new young people into my youth group, i decided to write up the values and in that the vision of what kind of community my youth group will aim to be as we get new people in.  this is what ive come up with... Being a part of youth group is an exciting thing and can be lots of fun, but in order to make it fun for everyone (adults included, because if the adults aren’t having fun, they will stop coming and there won’t be any youth group) there are a few rules we need to try and remember.  ·          All belong and are welcome to attend youth group.   This means that you can bring your friends who are youth aged (Yr7-Yr12) and it also means that we don’t discriminate against or bully those who are attending. ·          We use language which is inclusive and will not offend others. This means we consider what we say and how we say it and don’t use swear ...

The last few weeks at youth group I've started to transition year 6's from the local primary school I work at into youth group. These last few weeks I've noticed something. I seem to be thinking differently to most people in the room at youth group.  I love 10-14year olds. And I love having them at youth group. They are probably some of my favourite people.  It's fascinating really,  year 6s tend to think they are the most important person in the room, they aren't aware that things have been operating before them and will in the future. Other youth hate them, they label them twelvies and are annoyed by their bouncy, loud and energetic attitudes. Other adults get tired by them, they seem to want to have a conversation with them and this of course doesn't happen in a mature way.    Me? Why do I love them so much?  I love them because their energy can be turned into evangelism, their loudness can be turned into leadership and their bouncing can be ...

One thing I've really struggled with since being Is Naracoorte is making friends. Don't get me wrong I've got some mates. But every week at church it's a real struggle to know who I should sit with. I pray that youth will come and not have their family with them to sit with. Often I sit alone. It's not nice. A few years ago I wrote for the New Times (Uniting Church SA magazine) about being a young adult in church and not being treated as an adult because its the church you grew up in and older members of church don't really realise you have grown up because they remember you as a kid. I thought when I moved churches and started in leadership I would be treated as an adult. But I still find that difficult in my new context. Not because people are horrible but I think because the age gap is big. Most of the church congregation is 40 years old and older. In fact I think there are maybe 5 people aged 20-40 in the congregation. Then there are youth.  Now these ot...

So I'm a  youth pastor right, it's something that sometimes I say out loud and it still blows my mind. It's something I always wanted to be and I am that now.  I don't know if I'm doing a good job, i thonk I'm doing alright, I might not be as cool or successful as some of my other youth pastor friends but I feel like I'm doing alright.  Last week I went to NYMC Encore which was a day conference for those in youth ministry.  It was a great day and totally worth  coming back the 400kms  to adelaide for the day, I got to see my friends, my family, my support network. But I heard from God too. Both on a personal level and also for my ministry.  One question I am left with after the conference is about young leaders.   Now I would consider myself a young leader. At 21 , I am young, I have been blessed with many leadership opportunities well beyond my years, but in still a young leader . I'm still leading about who I am and my style of lead...

So I've been in Naracoorte for 2 months already! It's been a pretty crazy 2 months. In the time I've lived in 2 houses, got another part time job, and been to the mechanics 3 times. But let me explain more about what I've been up too.  So on February 1st I packed my belongings in mums car and set off on my own for the 4 hour drive. When I arrived I had no idea what was gonna happen. It was pretty scary driving away from home because this was home, family, friends and familiar environments but I felt called and I was excited but probably more nervous at that point. 400kms later I arrived at Naracoorte at about 3pm and drove straight to the Ministers house- I didn't even know where I was going to live that night or long term.  Youth group was at 7pm that night. Nothing like being thrown straight into it! It was a welcome party night and was heaps of fun hanging out and meeting youth and leaders too. That night I got attacked with streamers, water guns, perman...

God called me and I answered, and that is while I'm here now. its been a crazy journey to get here. The beginning of the story starts here... In late December of 2012 i was first time leading of CE Camp and had an awesome group of 16 year olds.  On of these girls was from a country area.  She told me of the struggle it was to be a christian teenager in the country because she was the only one her age and the youth group was just an occasional dinner or something at the ministers house with her younger sister and a few others.  I left that conversation thinking that someone who was passionate about youth should really go out to the country and support them and care about them because that's what they were passionate about rather than that was a need to address.   About a week later (Jan 2013) i was at Beach mission and talking with the Minister of Naracoorte UC who was on the team. I was talking about the plans i had that year to serve in my church with ca...

It's been a long time since I've blogged. My life has experienced a lot of changes recently. Last year I really struggled with study and life, it got the better of me and I ended up spending a lot of time curled up in a ball crying. One thing I really learnt in that time was that I really did wanna trust God wholeheartedly and follow all He had planned for my life. I also realised that I had a wider support network and friends than I thought and that these people were prepared to stay with me no matter what I faced.  The biggest thing in my life probably ever was that I got a job as a youth pastor and moved out of home and 400kms away from where I had spent my whole life so far. I moved to the country.  The story isn't as easy as that though, God totally blew my mind with the way He revealed himself to me and its kinda been a crazy adventure. - I'll give you the whole story in my next post! Also over the summer i was involved in CE Camp as a leader as well as B...

I have this friend. She is great. One of my best friends I'd say. Probably my closest friend. Why? Well I meet her at the start of this year when she started attending at my church. Funny story actually when we first met we joked around quite a bit, I thought she was great. I was talking the the youth pastor about how awesome she was - he knew her from a previous church - he was like she's great, be her friend and get her to youth lead with you. Now my youth pastor was only joking when he told me to befriend her so she will be a youth leader. But that's exactly what happened not like that though. The first night we lead a small group together was awesome, I loved having someone who just seemed to so naturally bounce off what I had to say and finish my questions. We were Bert and Ernie the youth ministry world. We road tripped to Sydney for hillsong together and it was some of the best fun I've had. She encouraged me, laughed at and with me, danced with me, support...

As a youth leader, slum city was something I wanted my young people to get involved it, I thought it would be a great experience and something they could share with their non-Christian mates. I didn't expect to be so challenged for me personally and to come away with an experience that has profoundly changed and shaped my thinking. Slum City is a 24 hour simulation that occurred in Civic Park over the 40 Hour Famine weekend (17-18 th August). Participants gathered from local churches and the age range varied from year 9's to the Mayor of Tea Tree Gully Miriam Smith.  About 30 people were a part of the slum and Ross, Dan, Bradley, Josiah, Georgia and myself represented Hope Valley.  During the 24 hour period our phones were taken away from us, we were fed a basis meal of rice for dinner and a piece of bread at breakfast, and there was nothing like sports equipment, access to the playground or playing cards to keep ourselves occupied and we had to participate in a range of...

In the April holidays i travelled by bus to the country, to visit some friends but also to explore what ministry looked like in the country particularly for young people.  As i sat on the bus for 5 hours i was getting really nervous, i knew God had called me to explore this but i didn't know how to explain this feeling and i didn't know what others would say about it.   I listened to a few podcasts as i sat alone on the bus and this podcasts were all about following God's plan for our life and stepping out in faith.  I didnt't know thats what it was about when i chose them so that was really reassuring.   I also had a bible verse that i had written on a piece of paper that i happened to find as i was packing, it said,  " You crown the year with Your goodness, And Your paths drip with abundance." It's the NKJV of Psalm 65:11 This verse helps me now as i look back on the trip i made, how scared i was and how i was following God's call to ex...

About a month ago we took our youth kids on a night hike.  I am so fortunate to live in such a beautiful place that within 30mins we had walked from our church in the suburbs into the foot hills and were beginning to climb the hills.  As i had thought about the evening earlier in the day and as we gathered as leaders to pray before the youth arrived, i felt a real sense that we needed to take up the idea that "noone walks alone". What did that look like though? Did that just mean physically that everyone had a walking buddy or was there more to that phrase.  As i prayed and reflected i thought about many different things, firstly the physical aspect of the fact that many youth would be coming and not actually have anyone to walk with and the importance of them not walking alone.  But i felt like it was more than that, i felt like this "noone walks alone" was meaning more than just physically walking. I felt like it was calling us to think about the conver...

The world is so over sexualised i would say its pretty much impossible for a young person to go through day without seeing an image of someone suggestively selling a product on billboards, in magazines or for people to be involved in or over heard a conversation on the bus, in the school/uni yard, on tv, on the radio etc which exposes them to ideas which they shouldnt be involved in.  It makes me sad that so many young people are settling for the first person they meet and think that its a normal and expected thing for them to sleep with their partner. I've had many conversations with young girls since ive started youth ministry about what they feel like they have to look like and do in relationships etc.  It breaks my heart so much to hear girls say that sex is something that they feel like they need to engage in and be open to if they ever want to be liked by guys and friends.  It makes me sad that people aren't being told why they shouldnt engage in many ...

  Last Friday, I was given the opportunity to preach at youth.  This is my message from that evening.   Have you ever built a house or done renos on your house? Turn to the person next to you and share about if you have ever done some building work. Or the building work you want to do if you could do anything to your house.   When Sam and I were little we used to play with our lego. We would build a whole town on Sam’s car mat. It would take us a couple of hours to build the shops and police station and school, and mansion at the end of the street. These houses were amazing they would be mansions not just with an exterior wall but with internal rooms and interior doors, a 2nd storey with staircase, even occasionally a 3rd story, we used to just build more and more on the more people we would find in our lego box or the more we would realised the kinds of rooms they could have, a gym would be added, a craft room, toy room, roof top car park and b...

Im a youth leader and the youth intern at my church, this means I get to do some really exciting things but also some really boring thing. Each week I spend one day in the church office, doing admin tasks such as updating the database with contact details, write letters, make the youth program, call places to book things, organising many of the details for youth camps.   I also have to write studies for our youth group and write devotions.   Part of my role as a youth leader is to have a bunch of fun while looking after, caring and contacting the youth im responsible for.   Each week I hang out with youth in small groups and talk about whats going on in their lives, talk faith and have heaps of fun.   I contact my girls most weeks to remind them of details for events and catch up and there are a few youth who I mentor so I have deeper conversations with about whats going on in their lives and support and encourage them in their faith.      I ...