60 in 60 #20 Fusion

 

60 in 60 #20    Fusion 

I am reflecting on the last 60 years, and writing 60 blog posts in 60 days. 30 about people and 30 about events, places, experiences and entities.

 

From my late teens on I had discovered I liked working with kids through volunteer camp leading with the YMCA (Ch. 14 of 60 in 60). After my time overseas, 1982-84, I came home looking for something and found Jesus. The confluence of Christianity and ‘career’ was a key marker in my journey. I hadn’t realised I was looking for faith and belief but once I did it changed my life and gave me a sense of purpose and vocation.  

 

The next sliding doors moment was a result of curiosity. 

 

When I was working at the YMCA in Bentley there was a little old weatherboard house on Albany Hwy in East Victoria Park with an intriguing sign above the door: ‘House of Zoe’. I drove past it each day and often wondered what went on inside. There was a common joke that it was a brothel but I didn’t believe that. 

 

Finally one day I decided to check it out and that’s when I met Rose Diprose, team leader of Fusion Perth. I had never heard of Fusion so I was surprised to learn that it was an Australia-wide Christian Youthwork organisation that grew out of Sydney in the seventies under the leadership of a man called Mal Garvin. Zoe is the Greek word for ‘life’, thus ‘House of Life’. Rose introduced me to the other team members and explained a bit about Fusion’s philosophies and approaches to youthwork. I was all ears and felt an instant connection. Fusion represented an authentic Australian character, unlike other models that drew on American style youth ministry. They invited me to join them for lunch and over the next few months I visited more often and found out more about their work in nearby high schools and the local community. 

 

I was attracted to their way of working which was based on making genuine connections and relationship building and was keen to get involved. 

It was early 1988, the year of Australia’s Bicentennial. The Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, had declared there would be no prayers at the opening of the new Parliament House in Canberra. Christians from around the country took this as a challenge and began organising what became known as ‘The National Gathering’ and invited Christians from across the country to come to Canberra, join hands around the new Parliament House and pray for Australia. 

At the same time, World Expo 88 was about to be staged in Brisbane and I had picked up a pamphlet calling for volunteers to join the team at ‘The Pavilion of Promise’, a Christian presentation at Expo.

I had also found out that Fusion ran a six-month course offering a diploma of youthwork at their training centre in Sale, Victoria.

 

A plan and a timeline began to take shape in my mind and I put the idea to Carolyn.

We could take the train to Melbourne, go to the National Gathering in Canberra, buy a car and drive up to Brisbane and spend six weeks volunteering at Expo then head back to Victoria to start the Fusion course in the mid-year intake. Considering we had only recently become parents to Zachariah it was a bold plan and a brave decision by Carolyn to agree to it. It's fair to say that not all of our respective parents shared our enthusiasm or saw the vision of the adventure quite the way we did but we were excited and determined to go for  it.

 

The train trip was relatively smooth and a couple of days later we departed for Canberra with some Fusion crew from Melbourne. The Gathering was a fantastic event. 40,000 people came from all over Australia to declare their faith and to pray for the nation. An all night concert and prayer vigil was held on the hill joining old and new Parliament Houses and there was a great sense of unity and purpose throughout.

 

We returned to Victoria and spent a few days at Dad and Julie’s farm in Maryborough while Dad helped me buy a car, a Kingswood station wagon which was perfect for our needs.

We set off for Queensland with our toddler snuggled in amongst all the luggage. 

 

The Pavilion of Promise teams were rostered on in 3-week blocks. We spent the first block at the training centre near Indooroopilly and the second block billeted with a couple who lived a few suburbs away. Expo was huge and exciting and being able to work within it was great fun. The PoP training was led by a wonderful bloke called Bob Adams who happened to be the leader of Fusion Brisbane. 

Legendary friends Noel and Steph Kara

Down South Gospel friends Stu and Deb Robinson

We met some great people while we were on the Expo team, the most important of whom were Noel and Steph Kara and their little boy Isaac. Many years later we started going to their church, ‘Down South Gospel’, when we moved to Busselton and they remain good friends over 30 years later. Noel is a Maori surfer and Steph is a beautiful singer and muso and they both have wonderful hearts for people and God. Carolyn and Steph are kindred spirits and our daughters, Sophie and Toni are very close, especially now as they are raising families of their own. Noel had a near-fatal motorbike crash in Bali several years ago which has curtailed his surfing but he retains his energy, passion and sense of humour. 

I loved my time at Expo and learnt a lot about communicating with people as well as riding the roller coasters after my shifts were finished!

Toni and Sophie, with Arrow below.

 

After Expo we made our way south to Kilmany Park, an old property just outside of Sale in Gippsland to begin the training with Fusion. The two resident lecturers were Bruce Dutton and Martin Woods, both great communicators and experienced operators. I developed a close relationship with Marty and he became a valued mentor for a few years afterwards. There were 14 students in the course, the most memorable of whom was Dave Scheerhorn whose dry wit appealed to me greatly. We all lived onsite and there was a great emphasis on community building and group dynamics. We ate, played and prayed together and had the benefit of a range of guest teachers from around the country.

Our cohort at Fusion, 1988. Carolyn pregnant with Sophie with Martin behind and Bruce in the middle

In the schoolhouse, Dave next to Carolyn at the back.

 Along with youthwork and Biblical studies there were practical experiences. For me these included the DJ-ing on the Captain Moonlight radio station, lunchtime activities at the local high school and playing volleyball against the prisoners at Sale Gaol each Friday afternoon. The inmates welcomed us but also tried to intimidate us in order to win. One day they hit the ball out but claimed it was in. I called the ball out, retrieved the ball and gave it to our server. The hulk on the opposite side of the net looked me in the eye and said, “Are you the king?”. I said “No” and carried on with the game, hoping I hadn’t made myself a target and wondering what the ramifications of being identified as the king might be! 

Kilmany Park, the original estate. The small building in the foreground was the schoolhouse.

What Kilmany looked like during our time there. I believe it is now a Reception Venue.

Some of the history of Kilmany

Our time at Kilmany gave us a great chance to spend time with Auntie Ev and Uncle Ken who lived at Leongatha in South Gippsland. I was into silk-screen printing at the time which helped support us financially. I printed and sold T-shirts in Sale and Auntie Ev contracted me to print windcheaters for people they met while leading Marriage Encounter weekends. 

Our last visit to see Auntie Ev and Uncle Ken, a couple of months before she died

 

After finishing the course in Sale we returned to Perth and I took up a 12 month placement working with the Fusion Perth team which at times included Adrienne Inch, Russell Armstrong along with Rose and the new team member and soon to be husband, Andrew Braun. Rose and Andy are the epitome of hard-working, dedicated and faithful workers in the Fusion movement. I love their down-to-earth approach and their practical spirituality. 

Rose and Andy Braun and two of their three daughters, on a visit to Ocean Grove.

 

My work with Fusion centred on presenting seminars in local high schools and running ‘Great Escape’ day trips on weekends, fun action days for teenagers followed by community meals and a simple faith message geared towards young people. 

 

Two further opportunities opened up via the Fusion/youthwork network. 

 

The first was connecting with Laurie Haynes and Scripture Union- SUWA and the second was picking up a couple of days work a week coordinating the Chip Inn drop-in-centre at Warwick Church of Christ. 

After a less than impressive first meeting where my low-energy early morning appearance at a team briefing had him thinking I was one of the “resident youths” on the program rather than one of the leaders, we hit it off and began working together regularly. I loved partnering with Laurie running Warriuka Rafting camps. We took groups of high school outdoor ed students white water rafting on the Avon River, abseiling in the old quarries outside of Perth and caving around Margaret River. Laurie and I would start calling out “EMUUUUUU” to one another as we neared Emu Falls, the second largest rapids the kids would negotiate. Each night we camped beside the river, the kids cooked their dinner on Trangia stoves and then we gathered around the campfire to reflect on the day, tell stories and share our faith in an open forum, answering kids’ questions in a comfortable user-friendly atmosphere.  Warriuka camps would culminate at the spectacular Bell’s Rapids in the Avon Valley just outside of Perth. The late Tom Shackles had designed and built the fantastic two-person rafts the kids paddled and many long days were spent rafting and shooting rapids through the winter months when wetsuits were essential and campfires especially welcome.

Laurie and Sonia Haynes, the first time we'd seen them since they sailed their yacht around the world!

At the Asian Cup with Travis and Beau.

 

Laurie married Sonia and I told a few stories at the wedding about his less impressive exploits in the outdoors which is ironic because he was brilliant in leading outdoor adventure programs. Our careers have intertwined a few times since those early days. Some years later he became chaplain at Rockingham High School, an area I had done youthwork in and not long after that, I got the job as chaplain at Carine. While we were both school chaplains we worked together on the Wilderness Intervention Program, which I hope to write about in a future chapter. Fast forward another ten years and Laurie had qualified as a psychologist and the family had moved to Busselton, the same coastal town in south-west WA that Carolyn and I moved to in 2004. Like most of my Western Australian mates, I don’t get to see him very often but at some critical times in my life, Laurie has been there for me and my family, a fact I am deeply grateful for.

 

I will write more about my time at Chip Inn in another chapter but suffice to say here that my training with Fusion was a major influence on my work with teenagers during those years.

 

As our family grew our links with Fusion grew as well. By then Fusion had bought an old electricity workers’ village in Tasmania called Poatina and relocated their training centres and national administration there. Carolyn spent a week there doing their Foundations Course and was followed after he finished school by Zach. He went on to do the full six-month certificate 4 course that I had done at Kilmany Park but his placement was a little more exotic than mine. Fusion’s vision and influence had grown and spread internationally by then, with work happening in Britain, Greece, Albania, Japan, France among other places. Zach’s placement was in Britain and he spent 18 months learning and working with the Fusion crew around Oxford and growing dreadlocks. 

 

My links to Fusion these days are limited to providing financial support to Rose and Andy Braun in Perth and Martin and Jenny Woods in Japan. We catch up with Rose and Andy on occasional visits and enjoy hearing about the happenings in the lives of their three daughters Matilda, Jesse and Kiralee. I also had a recent reconnection of sorts with Bruce Dutton in my position as a referee for a mate who was applying for the job of Fusion CEO.

 

One of the most significant things I took from my time with Fusion is the value of debriefing and reflection. Bruce was fond of saying “We don’t learn from experience, we learn from reflecting on experience” and I have used the praxis model of action-reflection that Fusion modelled as a tool in all of my work with people since.