The writing process has been an exciting reminder of all that God has done - come along for the ride! This is the draft of the preface to whet your appetite, more coming!
Photo of CS Australia leaders at the first Easter National Conference at Stanwell Tops, Sydney in 1983.
Christian Surfers History
"Groundswell"
PREFACE
25 August 2010
Seminyak, Bali
The swell began somewhere out in the Indian Ocean.
Several days and hundreds of kilometres later, it rolls up over the coral reefs in the warm shallows, gathers momentum and rises up briefly before collapsing into a breath-taking 6' surf on the beach at Seminyak.
It is a clear sunny day and the offshore breeze is heavy with the scents of coconut, incense and salt. Outside, the lawn is strewn with boardies, bikinis, towels and rashies. An assortment of colourful boards lean against trees and fence posts.
Inside I am standing with over two hundred people, surfers from over twenty nations from every corner of the planet. By boat, plane and even dodgy motor scooter, they have travelled to this, our 9th International Conference.
I look around the room at the sea of faces. It is like a family reunion. Different ages, different colours, different languages, different shapes and sizes. So much difference and yet so much in common; ordinary people in ordinary circumstances trusting God to do the extraordinary.
Earlier that day we had been welcomed by the flutes, drums and gongs of a traditional gamelan orchestra. Young girls performed the legong, a traditional Balinese dance known for its delicate finger movements and complicated footsteps. Ado and his team anointed us with 'holy water' in Jesus' name. Surfers from Nias served us fruit and pineapple juice for communion. It was a happy start to a great gathering, a gathering of the tribes.
Over the next days we would sing, pray, talk and encourage. There were talks and testimonies, mountains of banana pancakes and nasi goreng and in between the sharing and strategy sessions we would rush out to surf the long left reefs and punchy beachbreaks. We heard the testimony of Silas, a Niasan surfer who thought all surfers were immoral, drunk and far from God, until he met with Ado from CS and understood the truth about Jesus for the first time. All this on a Hindu island in the largest Muslim nation on earth. Who would have thought?
Standing there that day, my mind drifted back over the past 18 years, about how we have grown into a true global organization running missions and leadership training all over the world. We've got a surfer's Bible translated into different languages. We even have our own t-shirts! We've met in Hawaii, New Zealand, California, Australia, France, Brazil, South Africa and now exotic Bali. It is a surfer's dream to surf in these countries, but more than that, we've seen another dream fulfilled; the dream of taking the gospel to the surfers of these countries.
What an incredible journey it has been since me and 7 teenaged mates met in the loungeroom of my mum's old green fibro cottage in Gymea, Australia back in 1977, wondering how surfing and faith could fit together.
It's quite a story, and it's about time we told it.
So here it is...the simple story of ordinary people, in their ordinary circumstances, trusting God to do the extraordinary.
This is Groundswell, the story of Christian Surfers.
