When I would come up with a crazy idea I would road-test it with Helen by saying, ‘I have this brilliant idea. You’d better sit down.’ Helen would usually roll her eyes, fold her arms and remain standing.
 
When I’d share some ideas with colleagues at work during the 90’s while I was on the staff of the Department of Evangelism, Chappo would say, ‘Dave, you’re just a delayed adolescent.’
 
I would answer by saying that there’s nothing delayed about it. I hit adolescence on cue and enjoyed it so much, I decided to stick with it on the forward journey into adulthood.
 
I am half way through surfing 100 beaches in 10 days. To describe what I am trying to do as surfing would embarrass the purist. But I have flung myself into the task with board and body at 50 beaches (so far) with a team of able bodied and not so able-bodied boys and girls ranging in age from 17 to 62. Locals have met us at many of the beaches at the top of the hour for prayer and some have hit the water with us.
 
We have surfed with surfboards, surf-skis, body-boards as well as some good old-fashioned body surfing. We have enjoyed local hospitality, made friends and shared stories about what the Lord Jesus is doing throughout the world as Sydney Anglicans, and their friends, partner with Christian leaders in Africa and Asia to train pastors and resource communities caught in crippling cycles of poverty.
 
A range of reactions and reasons are put to me about my motives for such a venture.
 
• Am I a delayed adolescent, as I hear the words of Chappo echoing from years ago?
 
Possibly.
 
• Am I avoiding the 9 to 5 routine of the office?
 
Guilty, as charged.
 
Sort of, anyway. I do confess staring out my office window onto Sydney Square occasionally dreaming up ways of escaping from the office.
 
• Am I trying my hardest to work out ways of meeting people, building understanding and sharing the story of Anglican Aid by going to where people are at rather than ‘sitting in my dingy little office, where a stingy ray of sunlight struggles feebly down the between the buildings tall (apologies to AB Patterson)?
 
Now we’re closer to the mark. I can spend a week in the office, having a great time with my wonderful team at Anglican Aid, praying for and discussing our work, sending and receiving endless emails to and from beneficiary partners overseas and benefactor partners around Australia. I can hurry off to meetings in windowless rooms and crowded cafes. I do all this and love it, in a limited sort of way.
 
I can also take my office to the suburbs of the city and the fringes of the Diocese, preaching, praying and promoting the very worthwhile work of our very own aid and development agency.
 
Each year I have committed myself to an ‘extreme’ venture as one way of doing this. Last year we rode 2,500 km to smash cycles of poverty. This year we are surfing 100 beaches to break waves of poverty.
 
‘Extreme’ is a term relative to age. Next year golf might be the theme. The year after it might be lawn bowls.
 
We are 50 beaches down and 50 to go. We started with four Sunday services in the Ulladulla parish last Sunday week where I preached on one of the “Jesusbrings” themes, “Jesus brings justice to the oppressed.”
 
It’s a question worth asking and I think we should all thank the “Jesusbrings” architects for putting it on our agenda.
 
The first beach was Bawley Point, the southern most beach of the Diocese where three locals met us for prayer. The 50th beach was Bulli where, once again, three locals met us for prayer.
 
At beach 49, after our prayers on the hour at 3pm at Woonona Beach with one local, we made our way down to the water. A ‘stranger’ in board shorts and a towel greeted us near the water’s edge. He introduced himself as Nick Rheinberger, the morning show presenter on ABC Illawarra. Earlier in the week, on the Tuesday, between beach 13 and 14, around Bendalong, he had interviewed me on his show as we drove along. I invited him to join at one of the beaches later in the week. He said he would try, and true to his word, there he was, with tape recorder in hand for another pre-record interview.
 
“I have a hard and an easy question for you,” he announced with tape running. “How can you believe in a loving God when there are so many people suffering in the world?”
 
“You do start with the hard ones,” I replied and then proceeded to give him the most helpful answer I could muster at that moment. He said that he would play the interview as a follow up to the first one in the coming week.
 
Each night we have presented at meetings organised by local Anglican churches. At Dapto Anglican last Thursday night 80-90 blokes turned up for a men’s seafood smorgasbord. At Sussex Inlet on the night of our first 10 beaches about 40 locals turned up for a sausage sizzle at St Martin’s followed by our presentation. Last night (Saturday) another 40 came to the home of one of our surfing team at Engadine for a Bali themed night.
 
We have prayed and surfed our way up the coast to help highlight the plight of orphans and vulnerable children in Bali and their need for education, for children in south west Ethiopia where the child mortality rate is as high as anywhere in the world for lack of safe drinking water and an understanding of simple principles of sanitation and hygiene.
 
We are raising awareness about the need to provide pastors across Africa with theological education and we are helping to put some of India’s poorest in flood-proof homes.
 
Another 50 beaches beckon us this week, from Bulli to Barranjoey. We do the Shire beaches on Tuesday, the Eastern Suburbs beaches on Wednesday and the northern beaches from Balmoral and Manly onward on Thursday and Friday.
 
Join us at the top of the hour for prayer. Come for a surf or a swim and join us again at night at one of our local presentations. All the details are on our website. 
 
Above all, give generously on the website to share in the great cause of breaking the waves of poverty that engulf needy people throughout the world.