Simons Testimony and Early Life. It’s a hard thing to think back 30 odd years and sum-up where I have come from to be where I am today. I will try and be honest. For as long as I can remember I have always felt like a dropkick and a LOSER (note that it’s LOSER not loser). As long as I can remember, most of the significant people in my life treated me like I was a dropkick and LOSER. My brother and sisters, my friends, and even my enemies treated me as if I was deficient. (I never really had enemies, it’s just that, people I wasn’t friends with, also treated me like a LOSER and a drop kick). I didn’t feel like I belonged anywhere, even in places I should have felt safe. If you’ve got this far and have been offended I’m sorry, but please keep reading. I said I was trying to be honest so I will. I most definitely did not treat my brother or sisters, or my friends (or enemies for that matter) as I ought to have. I can’t remember exactly what I did, because like most people I was consumed by myself. I do know that I wanted people to like me and lied and cheated, and avoided if I had to, my way into and through these relationships. Something else you need to know about me. I was (or should that be ‘am’) always afraid! I cannot remember a time in my life when I have not been afraid. I think I was not completely afraid when I was growing up in Papua New Guinea but when we moved to Australia I was very afraid. I have been afraid ever since. I hid! That’s how I coped! Something significant changed for me when I went to Uni. I was still lying and cheating and hiding my way through and into friendships, and I still felt like everyone I knew thought I was a dropkick and LOSER. Except, there was this one bloke. His name is David (I will post this in a place where he will be reminded). He moved into a room opposite me at Uni. He was a Christian! I had a group of friends at the time who I was happy to be around because we were all LOSERS. Again, I don’t think we were kind to each other but we gravitated together because we fitted nowhere else. We thought (I thought) it would be cool to attack this Christian. After all, if I was a LOSER, surely he was a bigger loser, and no one wants to be at the bottom! The thing is, David, and many of his friends as it turned out, didn’t actually treat me like I was a LOSER. Despite my cruelty and antagonism over many months, they did something that completely disarmed me. I can say it! They loved ME! I tried to prove to these strange people that they were losers, as was their boss Jesus. It just didn’t seem to work. They kept loving ME! I even decided to prove it from their very own holy book, the Bible. Of course I’d never read it - although I claimed to know all about it! When I did read the Bible, and when I listened to the Christians at bible study talk about their relationship with the Lord, I discovered why these strange Christians were able to love ME, a LOSER. They did so because Jesus loved ME! In Jesus I found a friend I had never had. In Jesus I found a person willing to love ME, and accept me - the LOSER that I am. In Jesus I found a family to belong to - a real family with real brothers and sisters and real friends. In Jesus I could stop pretending, stop lying to myself and others, and start seeing myself through the eyes of my Father. It was a new birth. It has been a new life. This added later after a request.AW I was born in Papua New Guinea and moved to Australia at aged 9. My parents (father) worked as a shipping agent in PNG - something to do with big ships. I’m not exactly sure but I did get to climb all over them, once or twice, as a kid. My memories of PNG are pretty idealized. My mum says it was not the ‘paradise’ playground we remember. It wasn’t always safe for expats and their children, especially as Independence grew closer in 1973. We moved from PNG to Lennox Head on the Coast. I remember the day we arrived in Brisbane because my brother and I got busted throwing hard-boiled eggs out of a high rise building onto the cars below. We weren’t being delinquents (although that is probably arguable) we were just fascinated at the high rises. At Lennox Head we moved into a small coastal house and them up onto the hill behind the Lennox point. I didn’t ever really feel like I fitted that place. We were marked out as different pretty quickly because most expats in PNG were of UK origin. We had accents. Mum and Dad moved from Lennox to Victoria about 16 years ago. Dad died in 2006. Mum lives in Healsville. I have am older brother who still lives at Lennox Head. My two younger sisters live overseas. One in Holland and the other in London. I spent most of my time avoiding confrontations, from year 2 until year 12 when I could leave. It’s interesting to reflect back because I have spent 9 years in PNG, Nine years at Lennox head, a spate of short stays, then eight years in Boggabri and now nine years in Warialda. In fact, I have now lived in Warialda longer than anywhere else. After Lennox Head I moved to Armidale to study Botany and Plant Pathology. I then moved to Sydney to get work and ended up working for the Anglican Youth Department unit I went o Bible College. I have served in Uralla, Moree, Boggabri and Warialda. -- Simon Waller
Posted on: Thu, 09 Oct 2014 07:12:21 +0000
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