Friends That Take You Places
Last year I was invited to speak at a Worship and Creative Conference at a church, just outside of Manila in The Philippines. Although seemingly random, it wasn’t.
A long-standing friend of mine works at the church as a Youth Pastor. We first met in 2008 when he studied at Hillsong College, where I was working at the time. For the last four years we have met up when he attended the annual Hillsong Conference in Sydney. Our conversations—always rich and lengthy ha!
A year prior this same friend told me that his church was starting a conference on worship and creativity and it piqued my interest. He outright said that I should come and speak. I quickly laughed it off with a ‘Yeah right…’ Nothing came of our conversation and truthfully, I wasn’t expecting anything to happen.
When we met in July of last year, he said that I should definitely come and speak in 2020, which I was open to, it just seemed a little too far off to give it much more than a nod and a smile. Three weeks later, everything changed.
It was around this time that I was working out some leave to go to Queensland as I needed a writing retreat for a looming deadline. I looked at my work calendar and saw that my manager was away for a week in August and thought it would be good for us to be away at the same time. It just so happened that the week my manager was off, my friend’s church was running the creative conference. I mentioned the timing to another friend of mine who said, ‘Why not go check it out, show your support and do some writing while you’re out there?’
So, I messaged my friend in the Philippines and said, ‘Hey, I might come visit for the creative conference.’ Within a beat he replied saying, ‘If you’re coming, you’re speaking.’ Then he asked me to pitch what I would talk on. I cheekily pitched two ideas. Moments later the director of the conference asked me to speak at one session and on a panel and within a matter of days my leave was approved and my flights and accommodation booked! But it didn’t stop there…
I had this nagging feeling, this repeating nudge that said, ‘Prepare for a second session.’ I wrote a few bullet points down to appease the inner voice, then told it to leave me alone because I thought it was terribly presumptuous to think that I would be asked to do a second session. Ten days later, I was asked to do a second session. WHAT?!
Two weeks passed and I landed in Manila. My friends took me around the sights, sounds, smells, the ridiculous traffic and ALL THE FOOD. I’m 400 kilos heavier now. The conference itself was incredible—the people, hugely passionate and kind and eager to learn, grow and hone their craft. And I will go into the details of what I spoke about in a future blog…
But here and now I wanted to highlight the kindness of two friends that were deliberate in championing me. One showed encouragement and support through suggestion and the other handed me an opportunity to speak at a conference. I never dreamed of having these kinds of people around me, ones that would help open doors into my future; friends that take me places. But man, I am so grateful for them. So let me encourage you to be deliberate about the kind of, kind people you surround yourself with—they may open doors for you, doors that take you places.
