Toongabbie Anglican Church Blog

Weekly Blurb

‘Nudge’ For Jesus This Christmas

Sunday 26 November, 2006 · Posted by Neil Atwood

A testimony reprinted from a resource published by Anglican Media.

LUKE BEARDMORE, with shaved head and built as solid as a refrigerator, is aptly known as ‘Nudge’ by his mates. Luke says he is a ‘Bra Boy’, a close-knit group of young men in Maroubra. And this may already have readers of Sydney’s tabloid newspaper, The Daily Telegraph, jumping to some false conclusions.

Luke says people have the wrong idea about the Bra Boys. They are just a group of friends who have a few things in common.
Most grew up in the large public housing commission flats in Maroubra. They are fearless and athletic. And what binds them is a love of high adrenaline activities like surfing and Rugby League.
“We are just working class fellas who like surfing together,” says Luke. And Luke is a gun at both. He surfs open A grade in the local board riding competition and played 1st grade Rugby League for the Coogee club.
Like many other young blokes his age, Luke has had his problems with alcohol. But what really made him think more about God lately is that he has been ‘pretty down’.
One of his best mates has been diagnosed with brain cancer. “I was really destroying myself,” says Luke.

Luke has known fellow surfer Dannie Boyd, who is now a leader with Maroubra’s Surfers’ Church, since Luke was a kid. So one day last year when they ran into each other in the surf, they got talking about what Luke was feeling. It’s been a gradual process, but at the beginning of the year Luke came to a Surfers’ Church meeting. Now he can’t get enough God-talk. “I wish we had a meeting every day,” says Luke. “It gets you amped for life.” Luke explains that since he ‘came to the Lord’, God has been working in him, helping him to put his ‘faith into action’.
This Christmas, Nudge will be actively celebrating Jesus’ birthday for the first time as one of his followers.
“I’ve always believed in God but it wasn’t showing in my actions,” he says. “Reading the Word makes me want to be a doer.”

[What can you do to be a ‘doer’ this Christmas?  Can you invite someone to Carols and/or Christmas church? How about inviting an ‘outsider’ to Christmas lunch or dinner? So much we can do to really do justice to Christmas!]

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