DAVID ADAMS speaks with Olympic chaplain, Rev Matthew McBurney…
For chaplain Matthew McBurney, the highlight of the recent Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada, didn’t involve him witnessing a gold medal win.
Rather, for him, the most special moments included the time he spent with an inspirational young US female athlete, Caitlin Compton, who had paid her own way to Canada to be able to compete as part of the Cross Country Team as well as coaching herself and caring for her ill mother at the same time.
MEETING THE LOCALS: Rev Matthew McBurney with a ‘mountie’ at the Winter Olympics.
Not to mention meeting the ‘Snow Leopard’ – 33-year-old Kwame-Nkrumah Acheampong – who made up Ghana’s one man ski team and whose story, according to Rev McBurney, was simply “inspirational”.
The 45-year-old father of five was one of two Australian chaplains at the Games (the other being Nett Knox). In recent years he’s been more usually based in Jindabyne, in New South Wales, where he serves as chaplain for the three nearby ski resorts of Thredbo, Perisher, and Charlotte Pass as well as for the NSW Institute of Sport’s winter development program.
“I am on the mountain at least three days a week in winter, visiting, counseling, supporting and leading Bible study or worship for staff, guests, and athletes,” he says, noting that the job also involves being “first call” for critical incidents and providing post-trauma debriefs and follow-ups. “And every now and then I get a ski in.”
“On Saturday nights we open up our hall for a soup and pizza night with our wood-fired pizza oven turning out home-made pizza and my wife cooking beautiful soup to fill hungry tummys so they get one good meal a week.”
Raised in a Christian home and led to the Lord when he was just 11-years-old, Rev McBurney says God led him into the job at Jindabyne on a journey which started him with him going to what was then his local gym in Taree on the NSW mid north coast and talking to people.
“That led to the gym owner (a non-Christian) putting in a lounge and coffee area as so many people wanted to stay after a work out for a chat,” he recalls.
“His membership grew and he was so happy, he asked if I would like to do something for the high school kids on a Friday evening. We grew a youth group of about 120 kids with an average attendance on Friday of 50 in no time at all. In the meantime, the husbands of the women who came in the morning started coming along as well and a number had motorbikes so we started going for weekend rides so I just kept going from there.
In 2004, he was contacted by the Uniting Church congregation at Jindabyne and asked if he would be interested in talking to them about a job which would involve chaplaincy work and pastoring the church. The rest, as they say, is history and for the past six years, Rev McBurney has been doing just that (he has found out since returning to Australia that the position will no longer be funded meaning he will be moving on in April).
Getting to the Games was an exercise in faith in itself with money for the trip coming in from a range of unexpected sources.
“It was amazing how God got me (there)”, he says.
Part of a team that was rostered on one of two daily shifts, once in Canada he attended a devotional and Bible study each day and church services on Sunday.
“Other than that, we were free to walk around the village and visit with the athletes we knew…” he says, adding that he was involved in counseling athletes, volunteers and officials and had “many conversations about life and faith with them”.
Rev McBurney says he found he was very well-received by the athletes and officials.
“Interestingly, the Aussie team were a bit sort of stand-offish at first as they didn’t really know why I was there, but I don’t push myself on anyone so they grew to be comfortable. The North American and European athletes and officials were very receptive as it seems that there is a stronger faith element in those nations. Some teams like Austria and Sweden, Russia, Italy (and so on) have their own official chaplain, so that was interesting. Team New Zealand were just wary of any Aussie coming bearing gifts!”
Rev McBurney says while the death of Georgian luge slider Nodar Kumaritashvili, killed in a training crash just hours before the Games’ opening, put a shadow over the athlete’s village – “with everyone aware of the fragility of life but not wanting to let their guard down or lose focus before they competed”, the atmosphere at Whistler was “incredible”.
“The Canadian volunteers were the most friendly and welcoming people no matter what the weather. They went out of their way to be helpful and polite. The village was just a buzz with energy and excitement.”
He adds that the whole experience has helped to strengthen his faith.
“In fact the past 12 months has contributed to that,” he says. “I have had to abandon all my supports and efforts and even plans and God has become my all. I have been shown just how much He loves me and believes in me. He has opened doors I never would have dreamed.
“He has sustained me through some devastating times with friends abandoning me and betraying me, a couple of deaths last year on the ski slopes, the terminal illness of a favourite aunt of my wife’s and mine and then this opportunity to be part of the biggest event on the planet and meet some incredible Christians.”
