So, I went skydiving on Saturday – all to raise money for the great cause of Christians Against Poverty – they provide financial education and sustainable debt relief to people right here in Australia (check out my previous post for more details, including how you can support them for my Dive Against Debt.

The skydive was absolutely incredible. I’ll let my friend and dive-mate Rae explain it, then scroll down for the video.

We boarded the small plane which could take up to 8 -10 divers at a time. We sat on the floor with each person leaning his back in between the legs of the one behind him. After take off and the initial 4000 feet I was able to relax and I enjoyed the flight during the remainder of the climb, which was about 15 minutes.

At 14000 feet a red light was flashing, indicating that we were about to reach the drop zone. My tandem, Bob, then strapped the harness which I was wearing to that of him and we were ready for our jump. By now the aircraft was flying over the drop zone and a siren sounded and the door was opened. There was a huge gush of wind and it was cold. There is a difference of 20c in the temperature at 14000 feet. The experienced skydivers jumped first, which gave me my first clear view through the open door out to the nothingness of air and blue sky. Panic engulfed me. I turned and yelled to Bob that I had changed my mind. As Bob was shuffling me toward the door I found myself desperately trying to twist my body in the other direction. I vaguely heard Bob shout at me, cross your arms, chin up, arch your back. It’s difficult to hear to each other because of the rushing wind, which is just as well, because at that point fear had taken over and as we lunged out past the wing of the plane I screamed “I love you Bob!”

Bob activated the drogue chute and even though we reached a speed of 220kph in 10 seconds there was no relative motion, (physics, they tell me) so it didn’t feel like I was falling. He tapped my on the shoulder to indicate I could now spread my arms open wide. Touching nothing but air you feel the exhilarating rush of adrenaline as you hurtle through the sky.

This was an experience of a life time. I had time to appreciate the view and think about what I wanted to remember the most. First I thought this is unbelievable, I’m actually really here, really doing this, I am skydiving. Then I laughed and thought “I’m not flying I’m falling with style.” It’s really intriguing, because you actually feel in you are in control. But I guess that’s just the adrenaline that has sharpened your focus, slowed time, and heightened your senses. Poetically speaking, the smooth collage of color below maybe where you live but this is where you are right now and you want to stay here forever. The free fall continued for about 1 minute and although my ears really hurt, (physics again!!) I enjoyed every second.

Suddenly, there was a huge jolt. Bob had released the main parachute and our rate of descent suddenly slowed to 20 feet per second. The mad rush of wind had suddenly transformed into a peaceful calm. So, there I was hanging under a canopy at 4000 feet up in the sky. Bob then gave the toggles of the parachute to me and I tried to steer it. You pull the left handle you turn left, right handle you turn right. Pull both together you break the descent. He helped me turn around so that I could see my friend Tim, who had jumped after me. Slowly my ears adjusted to the new volume and I could hear the flapping of that magical fabric above my head. Keeping an eye on the landing pad, we glided and turned adjusting direction to stay in close range to the target. So gentle all the way down.

As gravity reasserts itself I see the ground coming at me and although it’s faster than I imagine it’s still not enough to worry me. Bob quietly instructed me to raise my legs out in front of us and at a mere twenty feet above the ground he pulled on the toggles to slow our descent and gently sat me on the terra firma of the earth.

I dared to defy gravity, I dared to defy my fear and I have emerged victorious. And I begin to wonder, would I do it again?

And here’s the proof that we actually did it:

Would you consider supporting Christians Against Poverty? Please donate to them online today (choose a $10, $25 or $50 donation – or another amount of your choice). Just mention “Dive Against Debt – Tim Malone” in the comments. Thank you so much!

“My life was black with no hope for the future. I could not provide for my children and felt that I had failed them as a mother. I would punish myself by inflicting cuts and burns on my body. I couldn’t take the suffering anymore and attempted suicide as I felt a burden to my children. It was my role as a parent to provide for them and I had failed them in that. The pain I felt when they told me they were hungry and I knew there was no food in the cupboards ripped apart my very being. I could see no way out except through suicide…. I no longer live in darkness. For the first time in my life I see colours in my world….For the first time in my life I believe I have a future. Through CAP, I have been given a second chance at life. I want to live!”

That’s a quote from a client of Christians Against Poverty, that was sent to me once I decided to “dive against debt”. And it’s not an isolated story. I’m going skydiving this Saturday to draw attention to the work CAP does with people – right here, in our own society – who are struggling with unmanageable debt… and all of the personal consequences that come with it.

I got out of credit card debt myself recently. From the flow-on effects of three months of unemployment after moving to Melbourne at the end of 2009, I had managed to rack up about $7,000 in debt. This is a pretty small debt – but to someone who was brought up to spend responsibly and save abundantly, it was a burden over me for almost 11 months. I avoided purchasing things I wanted but didn’t need (a good lesson, actually!), and in some cases I avoided purchasing things I probably did… almost.. need (such as a bed). But I never went hungry. I’m not in a relationship. And I don’t have children. No-one was relying on me to provide for them, and I was in a share house with four other people where the split bills meant relatively cheap living for each of us.

I got debt easy.

But I’ve got a friend who has had to default on a loan, and has debt collectors knocking and searching. And CAP has clients like the one quoted above who are under a cloud of depression, can’t afford to eat properly, have to hide from collectors, and one previous client (now debt-free!) who used to hide the mail in the cupboard without opening it – she was afraid of what demands would be inside. People in debt tend to be ashamed of themselves, knowing that it was their choices that got them to where they are.

Started in 1996 in the UK – by a man named John Kirkby who had just £10 in his pocket – Christians Against Poverty has now spread across the world, opening in Australia in 2001. It’s a charity that provides professional debt counselling, financial education, and other practical help to release Australians from poverty. CAP helps anyone, and all of their services are provided for free.

CAP don’t provide cash handouts. They empower people to help themselves out of poverty, and teach vital budgeting skills that will last a lifetime. CAP operates through a growing network of local centres, each of them run in partnership with a local church.

And CAP’s vision – which I found out after deciding to support them but just makes what they do all the more exciting and effective – is to “answer the national problem of debt in Australia by having at least one CAP centre in every major town and city by the year 2021″. [CAP website]

This Saturday, the 13th November, On Saturday 20th November, I’ll be diving against debt to raise money for the vital work that Christians Against Poverty does. Will you please support me?

NOTE: I am not asking you to pay the cost of my skydive (I am covering that myself), and neither are you paying for cash handouts to people struggling with debt. All money raised goes direct to the Christians Against Poverty Australia head office in Newcastle for the purposes of running their programs free of charge to people in debt.

All donations $2 and over are tax deductible. Please donate responsibly and don’t use money you don’t have, particularly if you are struggling with debt. Are you in debt? CAP can help you out.

Skydiving photo by Flickr user divemasterking2000.

Well what a, uh, three and a half months! I’m a bit of a workaholic so I need to be rather careful. When there’s enough work to literally keep me busy 72 hours a day, prioritising (something I’m not very good at) is important, to get that down to 8 hours. It usually ends up at 9 or 10, but sometimes more. And that’s not taking into account the fact that that 72 hours a day is based on a week of 21 days. I’m seriously not exaggerating.

It’s only that much because I’m passionate about what I do. Because I’ve so many great ideas about new ventures and new and better ways to do what we do, that I want to implement them all at once.

Now if you don’t know me, or you haven’t read far into this blog before, I’m the manager of 1WAY FM, Canberra’s Christian radio station. At the moment we’re planning for Share-a-thon – it’s our annual appeal for funds to our listener base. It runs over three days, and last year we received $55,555 from our listeners. This year, we’re going beyond $55,555, and asking our friends to partner with us for a stronger reach. We haven’t set a ceiling, because we want to see how far we can go. We want to reach out to Canberra in a bigger and better way than we are at the moment, and there is so much that needs to happen for that to happen.

Planning a Share-a-thon is a big job. Being new in this job, I knew very little, and have been learning as I go. I’ve learnt now that to plan an intensive three-day campaign, you need alot of time. More time than I gave myself and my team! But we are going to make it. We just need to ask our God to bless us and the weekend and move in the ways that only he can for us to receive the financial help we need.

We have recently dropped our advertising rate for new sponsors, to help attract those new sponsors, and we’re spending some time out visiting local businesses to outline the benefits of getting themselves on air. Once this new income comes in, oh boy are there plans to spend it (and to use it to make more as well). We need to grow to a size where everyone in Canberra actually knows we exist, and there’s a lot of changes to make to get there!

Suddenly moving to the helm of a radio station – especially at this time of year when a plan is needed for the year ahead, when a new board has recently been appointed that has only really had one meeting so far, and when you really haven’t got any experience managing a radio station yet – isn’t easy. I knew that. But when God decides to answer prayer instantly, it makes it so much easier – easier knowing that he really is in control of it all.

We were considering some program changes. The sort of changes that some people would appreciate, and that others would be ticked off by. But the sort of change that I, at least, thought was where we needed to head.

I started rethinking it when I was reminded that alot more thought needs to be put into these sort of things (I should mention there were time-related reasons why, if it was going to be done soon’ish, it should be done now) so that they can be more well thought through and that other people, if needed, can be consulted.

Then we were praying this morning. That God would show us how to move the radio station forward this year, and that we would remember to ‘check’ things with him first – rather than doing what we believed was right. And the phone rang. While we were praying. We took the call and told the caller we’d call them back afterwards – when that was done, they made a $1,100 donation. Now that on it’s own is huge. We don’t usually get donations of that size outside of our annual Shareathon appeal.

Then he said that he’d donate an extra $1,100 if we kept on air the program that we were thinking of dropping… just like that. No prompting – it just so happened that this listener enjoyed the program, and that he realised something was missing from his life while he was up in Sydney out of the reach of our broadcast. For some reason, he felt the need to let us know his appreciation!

How’s that for answered prayer? It wasn’t the answer I wanted to hear – because I thought I was right to go the other way – but it was an answer that showed, without any possible doubt, that God had things in his control. And that’s reassuring.