Life Support

Many of you know that Rent is my favourite musical, and in fact, many of my non-Army friends were met either directly through Rent (the Aussie, West End & Broadway productions) or through friends who were friends of people I met through Rent.

I love many things about the musical - mostly that it is raw and real - but one of the ideas I got through Rent was that of "Life Support" meetings. Life Support meetings were established in the USA to help people either infected or AFFECTED by HIV/AIDS, and as Jonathan Larson (the Composer & Creator of Rent) wrote:

"Life Support's a group of people coping with life"

For a while after Rent finished here in Australia, I would meet often with friends I met through the show - either fans, or cast members, and we would talk about life, and how we were "coping" with the various things life throws at us - good and bad. They were my own little life support group. My friends who I loved and who loved me no matter what.

Yesterday, I met with most (no Perri & Josh sadly!!!) of the group that I went away to Queensland for the National Youth Ministry Convention with, for a debrief of the conference with Dave Collinson (2Love Territorial Youth Secretary). It was such a great opportunity to all catch up again, and to share some of what has happened since or as a result of the Convention. Dave asked us to do our "high's & lows" from the conference (which he clearly stole from Heather)and it hit me that my biggest High from the conference, wasn't anything the NYMC did - it was spending time with a bunch of great youth leaders from around our Territory. It was sharing with them our highs and lows, our fears and our excitement. That was the best thing about Queensland for me.

And that was the best thing about yesterday. The chance to show our new land, to pray for the future, to hear about what people are up to and what they need prayer for. To hear Dave's vision for the Territory, and how we can be a part of that. I had my very own Life Support meeting yesterday - a group of Youth workers coping with Youth work sharing with and learning from each other.

I pray for many more opportunities to do that - with all sorts of different people. And I pray that for you also!