Whose Timetable?

I made the decision to follow Jesus and join the Seventh-Day Adventist Church in 1980. From early on in my subsequent journey I felt certain I would one day end up in the Ministry. Back then that would have meant leaving a young family in Melbourne - my wife and I having divorced - while I went off to Avondale College to study. That I felt was God's way of telling me the time was not right.

In 1989 I started working for the Church in occupational health and safety and then, in 1996 I was transferred to Sydney. The feeling grew stronger. In 1999 I discussed the matter with someone whose counsel I valued. At this stage I had a Diploma of Science (OHS) and a graduate diploma of health education. If I had held a degree I would have qualified for entry into a graduate diploma of theology - a two year program. My friend counselled me to pray about the calling, to apply for Avondale on the basis of my qualifications and see what happened. Given my family situation - I had remarried and had a young child - he advised that if I were accepted into the graduate diploma I should see that as a confirmation of the call and if not, then perhaps I should give the idea of ministry away.

Avondale replied. They would accept me into their degree program and give me recognition of three units towards it which meant almost four years study. A month or so later I was accepted into a graduate diploma of OHS by Newcastle University with advanced standing of three subjects. That left me five to complete, which I did in 2000, the year of the Sydney Olympics.  That was hard work, with three second semester subjects. But I came very close to making a mess of one unit.

Most subjects were assessed on the basis of assignments presented over the course of the semester.  In the second semester there were two exams at a centre in Redfern. On the exam notification letter the exams were listed, but in reverse order. That is, the exam for Tuesday was listed below Wednesday's exam. So, on Tuesday morning, after taking the day off to study believing the first exam was the following day, I had a relaxed breakfast and then for some unknown reason checked the timetable one last time. Then the panic hit. I had an exam at an unfamiliar location in Redfern in a little over an hour and I was still in my pyjamas. Quick change - long pants, tee-shirt and thongs. Grab a few pens, wallet, and call my wife to drive me to the nearest train station - Waitara. I got her to stop opposite the station, figuring it would be quicker to risk all by dodging the traffic rather than wait for the lights to change so she could to turn across it into station dropoff area. Hardly a ‘put safety first’ decision but as it turned I just made the train.

Fortunately I had a map showing the location of the exam centre and I memorised that on the train. Disembarking at Redfern I ran towards my destination, getting ever more drenched by the pouring rain and trying to avoid slipping in wet thongs. I made it, 10 minutes into the 15 minute reading time. Five minutes later I would have been refused entry. And there I sat, with a combination of sweat and rain drops dripping continuously onto the paper. The rain had not let up by the time the exam was over so after I had walked home from Wahroonga station I could not have been more bedraggled. 

As I reflected on that hectic morning I felt assured that I was doing exactly what God wanted me to do. At the end of the year I had achieved the standard required to gain entry to the university's Master of OHS degree which I completed in 2002. This required the successful completion of a research project of my own choosing. I focussed on  what it took to effectively manage OHS and compared this to the current practice in selected denominational workplaces.

I looked at topics such as leadership, total quality management,  management systems, risk management and best practice. As it was only a short work from home to my office I did most of my work in the office after dinner to avoid distractions. There I sat one night with all these different topics running around in my head when suddenly it was as if the lights were flashing and the bells ringing. In that moment all these different concepts meshed into a unified whole. Now I understood how each related to the others.

This one moment changed forever the way I approached my job and it enabled me to see how OHS fitted into the bigger picture of organisational management.

It was not long after this that I was driving north to Yarrahapinni, a Church youth camp at Grassy Head on the NSW North Coast not far from Macksville, to present at an outdoor ministry leaders’ training weekend. Mainly through local churches the Adventist Church runs various outdoor adventure activities for teens, such as bushwalking, camping, canoeing, kayaking and abseiling. Safety management is of course essential to the proper conduct of these activities.

As I travelled alone in the car with nothing for company but my thoughts I was reflecting on one of my presentations and my recent learnings. ‘If only I had completed my Master’s earlier’ I was thinking. ‘I could have done my job so much better.’ Then it happened. It was clear, distinct, masculine, as if someone were sitting in the seat next to me. ‘Whose  timetable are you following?’ It was both sobering and humbling.

If not that same weekend it was not too much later that I made a presentation giving a Biblical basis for the importance of health and safety management to the leaders. I focussed on Jesus's concern for the physical well-being of people as evidenced by His healing ministry and how that concern was demonstrated in well planned activity where priority was given to making sure it was planned and run safely.

It was well received. People came up to me with words like ‘Thanks Ken, what you are doing is real ministry’. They are words I would hear again, especially from those who worked with children and young people. 

Never again did I feel that call to ministry, for in that experience I knew that I was ministering in a unique way to the Church. More importantly, I had been taught a valuable lesson, one I have often needed to remind myself of. It is summed up in these words from Psalm 37:5 ‘Be still in the presence of the LORD, and wait patiently for him to act ... ‘ (TLV).