Article Noel Carpentar Alumni.jpg

Through the years of high-school, my close friends and I were plane mad. We couldn’t get enough of them – plastic models, posters, movies, air-shows (anyone remember Skyrace Tasmania?). Then, of course, I wanted to get my pilot’s licence, because that was the logical next step! However, sometime after becoming a Christian near the end of Grade Nine, I remember consciously making the decision that I wouldn’t pursue getting my pilot’s licence. For me at the time, my conviction was that as a Christian, I couldn’t justify spending that amount of money to get a licence that would just have been used for fun (not that I had THAT much money back then!).

Fast-forward about five years and two different occurrences changed my mind about being able to justify spending a large amount of money on a pilot’s licence. The first prompt was while attending a young adults Bible study and hearing a guest speaker - who was working as an engineer in Nepal -mention how he believed that God could use someone’s interests and passions to serve him by putting these things to good use in a cross-cultural context. This comment stayed with me, and not long after, when I was lent a book about the history of the mission aviation organisation called Mission Aviation Fellowship, I had an ‘ahh’ moment. Maybe, through my God-given interest in aviation, there were opportunities for God to build his kingdom using aviation as a tool. But, where was the money going to come from?

I was just starting my first full-time job after finishing a university degree and was shortly getting married and buying a house – money wasn’t going to be easy to come by. However, to make a long story short, God intervened, and while doing some voluntary computer teaching at a small school in Yemen, I was offered a short-term contract to work for the United Nations Development Program as a project manager. Working just five months in this position, being paid tax-free in US dollars and with an exchange-rate of US$0.50 = A$1.00, it quickly became apparent that God was providing the means for me to soon begin flying lessons with the goal of being a pilot serving cross-culturally through mission aviation. Through God’s enabling, I am blessed to have been a mission aviation pilot for more than ten accident-free years – all praise to him!

Noel graduated from the University of Tasmania in 2000 with a B.Sc (Hons.). He is married to Catharine, and they and their three children have lived and worked in Arnhem Land and Papua New Guinea as members of Wycliffe Bible Translators Australia.

Since graduating from my Bachelor of Behavioural Science at the end of 2014, a lot has changed. My husband Aaron and I moved to Sydney the January after, primarily for the purpose of him undertaking a theological degree at SMBC.

I managed to secure a full-time job (my first actually - was kind of hoping I might get away with always being a part-timer!), working as the Event Coordinator for Geneva Push (the Australian Church Planting Network). This has been a tough year full of ups and downs in the role – feeling as if I’ve often found my feet only to lose them again! But I am really pleased to be finishing the year feeling very positive about next year, having learnt a lot and motivated to give it my all.

So by the end of January 2015, we had packed up our very first rental property together, road-tripped from Hobart to Sydney, moved our car load of possessions into an apartment at the college campus, I had started full time work and Aaron had started learning ancient Greek…We are now one year down, and two to go up here in Sydney. We have had a wonderful time so far, and love living in Sydney, but are so looking forward to coming home for the holidays, and our desire to return to Tasmania after Aaron’s graduation to work in ministry has not wavered.

I actually plan to complete a Certificate 4 in Pastoral Care with Chaplaincy Australia in 2017 and very much hope to find work as a school chaplain in Hobart the year after. It’s taken me a while to realise this might be a fantastic way for me to use the skills and knowledge I learnt in my degree for gospel work in Hobart. If you are a current student, or graduate still thinking through what to do next, I encourage you to ask yourself how you can use what you’ve achieved at uni to further the Kingdom.

Rachel Johnstone graduated from UTAS with a Bachelor of Behavioural Science in 2014 and is currently working as Event Coordinator for Geneva Push. 

Graduating from uni and starting full-time work is a pretty big change. There are great things about both stages of life and there are challenges as well. I really enjoyed my time at uni, learning heaps, spending lots of time with friends and being involved in Uni Fellowship. Starting work as a nurse was a huge change. It was great to be able to use what I’d learnt over the course of my degree, but there was still a considerable amount for me to learn, especially as I was in theatre which requires a very different set of skills to general nursing. I loved the challenge though and really enjoyed all that I was learning, as well as working with a team of people. One of the challenges to working full time is having a lot less disposable time. I found myself with much less time to spend with friends and family and it took more effort to be actively involved in faith and ministry during the week.

Seeking to be a ‘real’ Christian at any stage of life is a challenge. To be someone who follows Christ, in thought, word and deed is always a struggle. We have to fight against our culture and our desire to be accepted by it, the distractions and desires of everyday life and our own sinful nature. This is the case whether studying or working, but I think entering full-time work in a secular workplace made this more obvious to me. At school and even studying at university it was very easy for me to remain surrounded in a ‘Christian bubble’ with close Christian friends, a church community and Uni Fellowship. Upon entering the workforce however, I was suddenly spending most of every day, for most of the week with a large variety of people, nearly all of whom are not Christians. This has challenged me to see how being a Christian makes my life different to the people that I work with, and to not be afraid of being different because of following Jesus. It has made belonging to and being involved in my local church vital.

Being committed to a church where I could hear the gospel, participate in Christian fellowship and be inspired for mission became really important to me when the rest of my life was no longer saturated with ‘Christian-ness’. It made me realise the importance of having Christian community to be refreshed and inspired by, to go back out into my workplace living for Christ. I was part of a church-plant, Vine Christian Church, about 10 months after starting work. This meant getting more involved with church than I had ever done before, and doing life with a small bunch of people passionate about starting a new church to reach more people with the gospel. This brought the many highs and lows of vision setting, maintaining momentum and close community that come with church planting. It has helped me to grow in many ways, and to be more passionate about living out and sharing the gospel with the people I work with.

I still find it a challenge to be really open about my faith at work. I still have to work at even mentioning I’m a Christian sometimes, let alone sharing what that means for my life, and there are plenty of times I’ve missed opportunities to bring it up. It does get easier though, the more I do it and I’ve found most of the people are pretty happy to talk about faith and religion, as long as it remains abstract. I’ve had a few really good conversations about some pretty big topics, though there’s always more I wish I could have said. I work with a pretty large team of people, with lots of comings and goings, so getting to know people well can be hard. I’m still working on developing friendships that are deep enough for me to be able to share the gospel meaningfully. With all the different people I work with and look after I see such a huge need for them to hear the gospel, and I know part of that is the task God has given me. So while it is hard to be a Christian in the workplace, and to seek to share the gospel with those around me, there really is no better challenge.

- Maddy Swart graduated with a Bachelor or Nursing in 2011.

I have lived in Tasmania since I was born. But in February this year my family and I moved from Hobart to Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA. I had secured a job as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Horticultural Science department of the University of Minnesota. After being here for seven months, it almost feels like home. In those seven months, the one thing that has turned out just how I thought it would, if not better, is my work. My bosses have been fantastic. They are not merely interested in using me to generate data, but they are really taking the time to develop me as an academic. Everything else, however, has been a challenge. By nature, I tend to worry; I over-analyse things; I imagine every possible outcome and focus all my mental energy on the worst case scenario. So all of the hurdles we had to overcome were a significant source of stress for me. First there was our visas. I left our applications until the last minute, which caused me to worry that we wouldn’t get them in time. Then there was acquiring a car and figuring out the messy world of car insurance in the US. Then there was the fact that, due to our visa type, we were getting taxed much more than I had anticipated. So, I worried about our finances. Actually, finances have been my most significant worry since we got here. We’ve never had much money, but relocating to America has shown me that I found security in support from the government and knowing our families were close by, just in case things went horribly wrong. Now we’re on a different continent, we don’t have that luxury; it’s just us and God. 

Through all of this, I have finally taken to heart the words our Lord spoke so many years ago: ‘Who of you, by worrying, can add a single day to his life?’. All my thinking, all my analysing, all of the brain power I devoted to these things, brought me nothing but stress and mental anguish. Through every single one of these situations, God has been reminding me that he is in control, and I am not. I cannot control the world by thinking about it, I cannot change situations by endlessly thinking about them. God has taught me, through my circumstances, to stop trying. I have slowly learnt to trust God’s omnipotence and accept from his hand whatever he chooses to give me; I now believe, much more deeply than I ever have before, that God is working out all things for the good of those who love him, including me.

Through our relocation to the USA, all the things that I have previously used to find security, whether it be money, friendship networks, family, even Church (which are all good in and of themselves) have been taken away; I have been, and continue to be, stretched, molded and shaped into the person God wants me to be. God has used my circumstances to teach me to find my security in Christ alone. I praise God for all the troubles we have faced!