Chaplain Chat

Luke 15:7 (ESV); Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

The good news of Jesus Christ is an incredible message that we get the opportunity to share and demonstrate to students and families within our school community. We want to celebrate any decisions students make to follow Jesus and support them by linking them into a local church if they aren’t already. 

ACC staff meet regularly to pray for those in our school community and it is such a privilege to be a part of that. If you have a prayer request, or if you know of a student who has made a decision to follow Jesus recently please let me know. Anything confidential will be kept confidential so please specify if you would be comfortable with me sharing your prayer request, or news about a decision to follow Jesus, to other staff or not. 

Chaplain

Luke Wiseman

E: lukewiseman@acc.edu.au

I would also like to commend Dawn Milligan for her inspiring contribution as a Year 12 Student & Duke of Ed Gold Level Participant. Please enjoy her entry below.

My name is Dawn Milligan and I am 17 years old. I was diagnosed in March 2020 with juvenile idiopathic arthritis at the age of 13. Juvenile means I was diagnosed before the age of 16 years and Idiopathic means that the cause is not known. At first, the arthritis only affected my knees, mainly my right knee. But approximately six months after my diagnosis the arthritis had spread around my body. I now have arthritis in my; knees, hands, ankles, back, elbows, and fingers.

When I was first diagnosed my whole life changed. For an entire year I needed to go to regular doctors and hospital appointments for treatment. Due to the appointments, I was away from school quite a bit. Although I was able to keep up with my work, I did find that my relationships with my friends became more distant, which I found hard. The doctors prescribed me with a drug called Methotrexate, which I needed to take with folic acid and steroids. Along with this, I was receiving injections in my knees to try to stop the arthritic pain and blood tests every 3 months to ensure my kidneys were still functioning properly.

After a year taking the prescribed medication, I was losing weight, had difficulty breathing and intense stomach pain. I had unfortunately started to react negatively to the Methotrexate and needed to stop taking it.

I started to go to regular physiotherapy sessions which also included water therapy and have been managing my arthritis by monitoring my diet and taking organic turmeric daily. By keeping up with my physiotherapy regime and continuing with Highland dancing, my mobility has increased and my pain has subsided over the last few months. Living with arthritis at first was difficult for me, especially when I went to school instead of my online education.

I used to go to a large secondary school, and walking to my classes was always a struggle due to the pain in my knees. My arms, hands and fingers would often stiffen up in class, which then made it difficult to keep up with the written work in class. My friends found it difficult to adjust to my physical ability and would often ignore me if I was unable to keep up. This unfortunately led to me not receiving invites when they would go out as a group, which I found extremely difficult. Throughout my diagnosis, there have been many changes throughout my life but the biggest change was how quickly I felt isolated from others.

I changed to Australian Christian College (DE) to help ensure I could take my studies with me whenever I needed to travel and it also helped that I did not need to walk long distances every day. To help reduce my isolation from students, I decided to enrol with the Duke of Edinburgh award and this has helped to keep me busy/active and increase my confidence.

- Dawn Milligan