This afternoon I was playing with Joel in his room and he turned around and asked me to leave. “Go out of my room Mum, I want to play by myself.” I laughed as I left the room but it got me thinking. That could be taken as highly offensive in most other places and with most other people but this was Joel. And this was Joel’s room. You see, Joel likes to spend a bit of time playing alone. He likes playing with others as well, but sometimes he just wants to have full access to his toys, to move them into the right places and to enjoy them on his own.
A few months ago I was asked to leave Deakin University by someone in authority there. Her issue wasn’t with what I was doing but with who I was. I wear a lot of different hats - I’m a Mum, a wife, a friend, a mentor and a pastor. She didn’t like that last one. I haven’t yet tracked down the rule book she is following but I decided not to contest the issue and have been keeping my distance since then. Why are these two stories related? Well, when Joel asked me to leave the room, it actually made me look at this situation through new eyes. It made me think of all the other things God has been doing on campus the past few months that haven’t involved me. I was keen to be there, just like with Joel today, but Joel had other plans and God has had other plans too.
To be honest, it hit me hard to not be on campus for these months. The old saying “You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone” rings true. I constantly find myself thinking about different students I’ve made friends with and wondering how they’re doing, praying for them, facebooking them and thinking of practical ways to support them. The rest of our team have felt the same, and we ended up creating a facebook group to keep this sense of community alive. UniCulture was birthed out of this time. Our catch phrase is Connecting Cultures, Creating Community. Since then, a club on campus called Deakin Cultural Diversity Club has asked us to help them run events. When I’ve finished writing this newsletter I shall go back into Joel’s room and see if he wants to play again. Tomorrow, I shall walk back onto campus and see if the time is right there as well…