Schoolies Week

Some of you are asking yourself, "What is schoolies?"  I'm glad you asked.  The American equivalent to schoolies is grad night.  After Aussie students finish year twelve at school, they have an entire week known as schoolies week.  During this week, students congregate at certain places usually near the coast to party.  The largest schoolies parties were down on the Gold Coast a few hours south of here.  There were also some schoolies parties here on the Sunshine Coast as well.  All through the week, there were reports of rapes, ecstasy use, and extreme over-consumption of alcohol.  It is to the point where there are stations set up around the parties to pump stomachs when people have too much to drink.  Basically, it's a not week you would want to have your kids be a part of.  Of course, it's not all drinking, drugs, and sex.  Some kids go to just hang out and play sports, listen to concerts, and have a fun time with their friends before they move on to the next phase of life.  As a DTS, we were able to use this as a time to talk with the schoolies and develop relationships with them.  We were also able to tell them our stories of how God had changed us.  It was a very practical thing to do with the DTS.  It helps students understand that it's not really about shoving religion down their throats, so to speak; but it's about showing them God's love and being an example of what God has done.  I think most of the schoolies we talked to think that being a Christian is about following rules and not having fun.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  We serve an eternally creative God who actually invented fun.