The Big Year Out

Thanks for your patience. Here are the cost components of The Big Year Out for South Australia:

Program Cost: $2500 – this includes the Discipleship Intensive at Victor Harbour, weekly program and resources, and end of year retreat.

Mission Exposure Trip: $2800-$3000 – we will be participating in the About Face overseas program, and the final cost will depend upon the destination, of which we will have some choice.

That means an overall cost of $5300-$5500.

There is an instalment plan, so that payments can be made in stages throughout the year (details available soon).

Also, scholarship assistance is available from the Gled Hill Trust for an amount of up to $1500 per applicant. You are also encouraged to talk to your minister about support from your congregation.

For more information contact Craig Mitchell on 0417 323 088.

At the end of the hectic stressbomb that is year 12, and despite being asked by everyone I know, I still had no idea what I wanted to do with my life – let alone what God wanted to do with it. Not wanting to get caught in the school-to-uni deathtrap without a direction, I decided to take a discerning year off… some minor study, some work, and lots of room to think. Then I heard about Big Year Out. It seemed like a big commitment, to give a year to God. But I had time on my hands and encouragement, so I eventually registered.

I can honestly now say, partaking in the Big Year Out has been one of the best decisions of my life. It’s difficult to try and summarize what it has been like or means to me. However I can confidently say that the Big Year Out has been instrumental in transforming and expanding what was my sheltered, white middle-class experience of Christianity into something more passionate and authentic. Read the rest

The Big Year Out was literally one of the greatest and most transformative experiences of my life! Like nothing before, it taught me the value of ongoing Christian community and how important and life-giving it can be. It allowed me share my faith journey with people my age whilst being guided by those further along the path, whose invaluable pearls of wisdom still pop up in my mind all the time. The mission exposure trip to the Philippines has left a permanent imprint on my psyche and continues to inspire and challenge me to be a be more, do more and love hardest. Finally, regular service placements showed me how easy it is to touch people’s lives as the hands and feet of God, and reinforced that I had something crucial to offer. as a young Christian, RIGHT NOW.

All of these aspects made the Big Year Out a life-altering journey that, with God’s help, has changed me forever. I can’t recommend it enough.

Ellen, BYO 2008

Photo: Ellen and Pete did one of their BYO placements at Minda, a centre for people with disabilities. They are pictured here with the members of the Minda choir, Tutti.

A key part of the Big Year Out is the mid-year cross-cultural exposure trip, designed to immerse participants in another culture and to experience what life and faith are like for Christians in that culture. The BYO trip to the Philippines in 2008 was a life-changing event for those who went.

In 2010 we will be linking in with About FACE – the Uniting Church’s national cross-cultural exposure program, for the mid-year trip.

About Face runs from 26th June – 17th July 2010, and will offer several trip options – indigenous communities in Australia, and visits to partner churches in south-east Asia and the Pacific, and south Asia. Depending on the size of the Big Year Out group, we will participate as one group, or as two or three smaller groups visiting different locations. Participants will have a choice over whether they go to an overseas or an Australian location.

Costs for the mid-year trip are approximately as follows:

$2,000 for the indigenous placement within Australia
$2,800 for a placement with one of our partner Churches in Pacific and SE Asia
$3,000 for a placement with one of our partner Churches in South Asia

More details about overall Big Year Out costs will be posted shortly.

We’re excited and ecstatic that the Big Year Out will be starting in 2010 in Victoria. It is being co-ordinated by the Uniting Church’s youth ministry unit, in particular by Adrian (Age) Greenwood, the Young Adult Discipleship Educator and host of morepraxis.org.au.

The Application and Registration forms on this website now contain Victorian contact details. For more info about plans for BYO VicTas email Age.

Victorian BYO participants will be joining with SA participants for our Discipleship Intensive, February 22-26 at Victor Harbour, on the coast south of Adelaide.

The Big Year Out is coming again in 2010. We had a ‘gap year’ ourselves in 2009, but in 2010 it will be happening again! Over the coming weeks you’ll be hearing from previous BYO participants, seeing photos and video, and learning more about what’s in store.

The Big Year Out is a ‘gap’ year for young adults with a focus on Christian discipleship. You can do it part-time or full-time. The part-time option allows you to work, study or sleep in your remaining time.

The Big Year Out involves
- a week-long discipleship intensive at Victor Harbour (22-26 Feb)
- one day a week of community life, personal and spiritual growth, and learning about faith, culture and service
- one day a week of Christian service in an agency, school or church with people who are disadvantaged or marginalised
- a three week cross-cultural exposure trip in July. In 2010 we’ll be linking with the Uniting Church’s national About Face project – you can choose to visit the Philippines or an Aboriginal community in northern Australia
- a 30 week spiritual formation program a daily exercise and a weekly group reflection
- meeting with a mentor every few weeks
- an end of year retreat

Last year’s BYO participants say that their lives were transformed by this experience. Watch this space for their stories.

Details about the program cost for 2010 will be here shortly.

Have a look here and see what The Big Year Out is all about…..

Parkin-Wesley on YouTube

Also, some new photos of this year’s Philippines Trip at out Flickr page.

Recently the group of us on this journey we call the Big Year Out travelled to the Philippines for a mission exposure trip. One of the steps in preparing was to obtain an Australian passport, which led me to the question of what it means to be an Australian citizen. As an Australian citizen there are certain rights the government guarantees for me including voting for whichever candidate I like in fairly run elections, a fair trial if I’m accused of a crime, worshipping whichever God I choose and openly speaking out against government policies. I’ve never really had to think about this too often – at the last election the biggest danger in my way was the crowd of party workers armed with how to vote cards. 

In the Philippines things are very different. I try to keep up with events in the world and so over time I have seen so many stories of famine, war, government abuse and corruption. When you see these stories you realise that outside your living room is a messed up world, but in this fast-paced world of images and multimedia it’s all gone by the time the sports bulletin comes on. Going to the Philippines was eye-opening because when you look out the car window and see children doing what would be called slave work in Australia, there is no sports bulletin coming up to hide it out of view again. On just about every street even in the richer areas, you see people living in dodgy little ‘houses’ with less structural integrity than a shed here. On the side of the streets you can but for them it is just about trying to survive. It’s something you experience rather than just see because a report on TV or in a newspaper cannot fully capture the smells, the sounds or any more than a small rectangular view of the sights. But the most amazing aspect of what at times felt like a Foreign Correspondent report come to life was to meet the people who are the story.

Read the rest