JUNE 19: Dave Lovell Q+A (CNSW)

Q. Where do you live & what's your local surf break / community?

We live in the Sutherland Shire Sydney. I serve with the Cronulla CS crew on the comp team. Surf at cronulla and support the Cronulla sharks (Everyone who visits comes to a game).

Q. Any recent significant relationship / family news?

Our at home family is shrinking and our extended family growing. Our second daughter Carly is getting married in July.

Q. What do you love about being a Regional Coordinator in CS?

I love my role because it links my love of God, the heart he has given me for people and my passion for surfing.

Q. How have you grown as a leader in your time within CS?

Yes I have grown as a leader, firstly in patience (leading surfers you need tonnes ,Ha). But mostly in service and inquiring of God first and foremost.

Q. What importance do you place on leadership within CS in your region? 

CS leadership is vital as it births vision, brings unity and strengthens mission. Good CS leadership serves, disciples and provides spiritual mentoring.

Q. What challenges do you face in your role?

Time is my biggest challenge, I have a fairly constant 60 hour week between work and CS commitments. On top of that family and home priorities. I have learnt that there is no equation between hours put in by me and what God can do I just need to be strategic and be guided by him. What I have seen Him do with faith and a willing heart is mind blowing.

Q. What are your current hopes and dreams for 2019 and beyond? 

Succession planning raising up the next generation of leadership.

Q. For those that would like to support you and your role - what do you need and how would their support make a difference? 

$5K a year would help me sponsor at least 2 young leaders a year to go to our Newswell leadership training school. Sponsor groms who can't afford to get to regional camp. Provide updated resources for the missions such as new  beach tents screen printed with CS logo etc. As well as assisting me with travel expenses to national team meetings and mission visits. At present I pay for everything out of what the Lords blesses me to earn.

If you’d like to connect more with Dave about supporting CS Central NSW pls contact:

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 0418 412 103

JUNE 19: NATO AND BETH BENNETT Q+A (NTH NSW)

Q. Where do you live & what's your local surf break / community?

Port Macquarie – North Shelly 

Q. Any recent significant relationship / family news?

Beth has started work again this year coming off maternity leave with Hazel. She has started in a new role at our local GP practice and is working casually in emergency. Also, for the last year I have been working in the community adolescent mental health team here in Port covering a maternity leave position and at this stage it’s looking like I will be staying on in this role. It’s been such a blessing working normal hours mon – fri and such a great opportunity working with some of the most vulnerable and at risk teens in my local community.

Q. What do you love about being a Regional Coordinator in CS?

I love being a part of the National Team. Also being in a position to empower other leaders and encouraging them to serve in their surfing communities as they live out their lives striving to walk as Jesus did gets me pretty pumped.  

Q. How have you grown as a leader in your time within CS?

I have learnt the importance of putting my family first in ministry and amongst the business of work, family and CS the importance of keeping God first, because without him it’s all just my own silly ideas and effort – a lot less effective and a lot harder. 

Q. What importance do you place on leadership within CS in your region?

Leadership on a local level is so important, without solid leaders investing into their local surf communities/churches , effective local missions don’t exist. This year a big focus has been on the importance of Godly character as leaders, just not gifting and personality. 

Q. What challenges do you face in your role?

Trying to manage family, full time work, local and regional CS and trying to fit in the odd surf/fish gets challenging at times. Also having enough time and financial support to travel to other missions and staff attacks can be difficult. Another big challenge for us locally and as a region has been finding enough leaders that are willing to step up and lead/serve in their local surfing communities alongside CS.

Q. What are your current hopes and dreams for 2019 and beyond? 

We are hoping and praying for God to raise up Godly leaders to step in to existing missions/ starting new missions throughout the region. Hoping to see missions started up in Bonny Hills, Lennox and Kingscliff in the not too distant future. 

Q. For those that would like to support you and your role - what do you need and how would their support make a difference? 

Receiving more financial support would make a massive difference in enabling us to visit leaders within our region, attending National staff attack meetings and for general regional expenses eg trailer rego, regional camp, leaders training weekends etc. At this stage we are hoping for $250/ month into the regional account.

If you’d like to connect more with Nato about supporting CS Nth NSW pls contact:

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 0401 219 409

NG19 SNSW: BLAKE

I’m a new leader (started in 2018) in Christian Surfers at Stanwell Park NSW. It’s so good. Me and the 8 other leaders are like a little family minus the parents - so it’s always fun. But we keep it real. Being accountable, God centred and loving, are a few things that we aim to do as CS leaders - on Wednesday nights when a million high energy gromits show up - and in our normal lives. 

I heard about National Gathering and got hyped. Pretty much hoping for a bunch of people who liked to do the same things as me and live for the same King as me - I wasn’t let down. I made friends for life! From all over Australia! The crew on it was like this: chill, loving, welcoming, encouraging, and all the other good things that God blesses us with as we follow in his plan.

This mountain-top experience was made complete by the love and community that everyone shared, the challenging and highly emotive talks by Jono, and the waves, but most of all Gods clear presence - He did incredible things in Philip Island that weekend. Ask someone who went and they will surely tell you of something amazing. 

I was able to take all the love and joy I experienced and bring it back to my fellow leaders who couldn’t make it, and all the grommies who come every week to CS. 

There’s every reason to make CS national gathering 2020! Yewwwww

- Blake (Stanwell Park)

NG19: JOHNO - TEACHING SESSIONS SUMMARY

When I was first told the theme of conference (Own it) I took some time to think about how this looks. The three topics that came out of my pondering on “Own it” were

Beginnings: both CS and personal

Simple Gospel

I will go

I wanted to focus intentionally on the beginnings of our personal faith as Easter is a great time to reflect on this. The beginnings of CS in Australia is a great testimony of God stirring a small group of late teens to embark out to form CS. The desire is wonderful and truly inspiring. Today CS is an international movement. ‘Every surfer in every surfing community has the opportunity to know and follow Jesus.’

My second session was about the simple gospel, about being aware of a changing environment here in Australia, where society might be preaching a message of the irrelevance of Christianity but individually people are seeking, many knowing that there must be ‘more than this’. I challenged us to not be intimidated by culture but to come back sharing the simplicity of the gospel and stripping away the superficial.

My last session, ‘I will go’ really looked at not allowing our circumstances to prevent us sharing the gospel but rather seeing the importance of our daily lives in providing opportunities to share the love of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

For me the Sunday dawn service and baptisms were a highlight and such a powerful proclamation.

Bless ya. Mark J.

NG19 WA: MATT GORDO

National Gathering is always a great time to reflect and see what God has done and is doing through the CS crew in our country. It is a time of empowerment where we are equipped to go back into our surfing community with fresh vision and a overflowing spirit. God really challenged me about a few things regarding my past performance. I was set free and really believed that past mindsets and failures were swept away and have a renewed mind about the things God wants to do with us in CSWA. " He must increase; I must decrease" John 3:30

WA Crew at NG19 (plus some extras)

NG19 SA: DAVE & NAOMI

We love Gathering!!! This year’s gathering at Phillip Island only saw a small group of SA frothers attend but what an amazing time we had. Coming together as a collective group to hear what God is saying to us and to hearing the amazing stories from around the world inspires you to go back to your surfing community and make a difference! And what a difference we make. The weekend following the National Gathering was the Southern Surf Festival held at Middleton Point. We had the privilege of serving at this event which is run by Surfing SA and the community. The festival incorporating all aspects of our unique and inclusive surf culture, from board swaps to surf art to food vendors and stall vendors. One of our leaders in the South Coast had a stall as he and his wife make jewellery out of old skateboards. (Check it out, it’s awesome… it’s called Once Board https://www.facebook.com/OnceBoard/). And of course there was surfing, lots of surfing!! (Juniors state titles, long board, short board, knee board, twin fin, single fin and club event).

We had the honour of winning the Surfing SA Christine Cox Memorial Award for 2018. This award for the contribution for the work we have done for Surfing SA and the surfing community

We had an amazing team of people Saturday and Sunday from 7:30am to 5:30pm helping set up, being a presence and supporting the festival throughout the day and then helping pack down at the end of each day. On the Saturday night we were invited to the presentations where we had the honour of winning the Surfing SA Christine Cox Memorial Award for 2018. This award for the contribution for the work we have done for Surfing SA and the surfing community. Well done everyone on the great work you are doing in serving our surfing community.

1 Corinthians 15:58; Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain.

Here’s a snap shot of the Southern Surf Festival…enjoy watching…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43yXHTZD7NU

NG19 TAS: JOSH

Over the recent Easter break i had the opportunity to get along to my first National Gathering for CS Aus hosted this year by the Vic crew down at Phillip Island. I’d heard a lot of good things, but still being relatively new to the CS scene, was keen to find out for myself what the big event was all about. I wasn’t let down! Things kicked off on a high on the Thursday as I arrived at camp and Tommie Pipella (CS Vic) and i reconnected and zipped over to Flyns for a super fun session with a handful of the CS crew. But it just got better with amazing workship led by Lucasand Ash B, some great times of fellowship and in particular being able to hear how God was using CS right around the county to reach surfers. The big take-home was of course being challenged to “Own it” by Mark “jono” Johnstone as he encouraged us and me on a personal level to be bold in sharing the gospel back home here in Tassie. All in all a great event and one that’s left me pumped for the year ahead and seeing God work through our local hub.

- Josh Phillips

Tassie Crew at NG19

NG19: LUCAS & VIC UPDATE

It was totally awesome to host the 2019 national gathering here on Phillip Island  Vic! So blessed by amazing weather and grateful to amazing crew who ventured to the deep south. We are glad you were rewarded I had a couple of conversations with some of the local crew who I thought might be a bit annoyed on the fact there was so many surfers out over Easter. But their attitude was the total opposite! They said how stoked they were that there were such great people out in the water all hooting each other and creating great vibes. The joy and pure stoke of being a Christian Surfer is visible and contagious! We are so grateful to be part of such a wonderful family!

NG19 NNSW: HARRY / MINNIE

MINNIE - PORT MACQUARIE:
This was my first national gathering and it was one of the best things I’ve ever done. I only started Christian surfers this year thanks to my friend Hannah who dragged me along one Sunday morning which turned into every Sunday morning and managed to drag me to Phillip island too. I felt a pull to go to Phillip island for gathering even though I didn’t know much about gathering or God I just had this feeling. I knew going to national gathering would change me but not to this extent. On the last night of gathering and the last night session, I went outside with a couple of friends as they helped me pray and tell God I’m ready for him to lead me to a new place and build my life. I trusted in him and was excited to start this new journey with him. Not only was it so good to get to know and love god but with amazing people who immediately turned into beautiful life long friends. A community, a family. It’s people like this that I want to surround my self with, they made me realise who I truely am. I can’t thank everyone enough for welcoming me into the CS family. So thank you!

HARRY - PORT MACQUARIE:

I’ve always been surrounded by Christians. I’ve been blessed to grow up in a Christian household with two loving parents who are both devout and passionate about God. But despite the saying the apple never falls far from the tree, I guess I managed to prove it wrong. You see despite being having the path to God before me, clearly paved and in place, I chose a road far more frequently traveled. I chose to walk a path I thought would lead me best. 

Life has a unique way of cutting fairytales short. Like getting tape jammed in VCR, my once smooth sailing film no longer wanted to play. My once self dictated path to fulfillment, had met its end. The cause of this disruption. Christian surfers. Despite both being two major parts of my life, surfing, and Christ, I had never made the link between the two. In hindsight, I am forever thankful to God for working through Christian surfer, to guide me back to God.

Christian surfers national gathering this year was another huge step in my journey with Christ. Taking place on Phillip Island in Victoria, myself alongside 150 or so other long-haired yahoos, gathered to worship our creator and relish in the unreal waves he produced for us. Whilst I could ramble about the hollow slabs and hand numbing beach breaks for some time, I think what is more important is the work that God did in my life. 

National gathering not only stirred my heart but also opened my eyes to the community of surfers from all walks of life, who shared the common passion to worship and know God. This, alongside the immense amount of love and kindness I felt was shown by every Christian surfer, made me realize how God works through each and every one of us.

Easter Sunday came around and this was probably shaping up to be one of the biggest days of my life. I was already feeling emotional waking up that morning, seeing how the past few days had rattled me spiritually. So of course, when I decided that that day was the day for me to get baptized and wear the Jesus jersey, there were, of course, some waterworks. Thankfully I was able to pin the blame on the salt water.

So where to go from here, Now that CS gathering is behind me and I’ve found a renewed love for Christ? I think its a battle each and every day. A spiritual battle that we can only win with the creator f the universe on our side. One in which I feel ready to face, with the confidence that those who have faith in Christ, have their names written in the kingdom of heaven.

North NSW Crew at NG19

NG19 QLD: CORY

National Gathering 2019, what a time to be alive. This was my first year to conference and it was such an incredible experience. To be encouraged by some of the most faith filled frothers on a daily basis was such a highlight, backed by some powerfully raw (off script) teachings. It has without a doubt inspired me and spurred me on for what incredible works God has in store for the Sunshine Coast and greater CSA community in 2019! A huge thanks to all that made it happen & all that made it the experience that it was. 

QLD Crew at NG19