My Graduation speech – By Debbie Arnold – Canberra

Debbie Arnold’s Graduation Speech

Good Evening Special Guests, ladies, gentleman and fellow students. Thank you all for coming to celebrate with us tonight.

We are here tonight to take part in our graduating ceremony after successfully completing 2 years of study; that rolls of the tongue VERY easily but for those of who have made it through; it has been a significant mountain to climb.

For me the interest in the course came after a horrible experience with a Psychologist.  It wasn’t nice, and I won’t go into that tonight, but I can tell you that I knew from that moment that our world needed more Christian counsellors. That was in 2007. Shortly after that I was talking to a lady in my church, telling her about my experience and she handed me an AIFC brochure, telling me that she had just started the course.  That same brochure stayed in my handbag for 5 years, it even swapped handbags with me….

Each year I would think about enrolling but there was always a reason why I didn’t; we just did not have the finances to commit or I didn’t have the time to commit or we were moving house… always something.

Debbie Arnold – aifc graduate

But you know what it’s like when God has another plan; when he makes it so obvious that you just can’t shake it off…..  to make a long story short I had once again decided that I was not going to enrol for 2011…  Next year would work better.

But this time God had another plan… at church beautiful lady in her 80’s came up to me.  She pressed an envelope into my hand.  She said I have been waiting for you to get back from holidays.  God told me to give this to you and I feel that the need is really pressing now.  Bless you..  She kissed me and walked away.

My initial thought was “this is to start the course”.  No I thought that can’t be true…  I don’t need money from a pensioner …. I was embarrassed at my own thought that this could be money.  I put the envelope into my pocket until I got home.  Lord, I said at home…  if this is money I will know that you want me to start this course this year, even though I think I’m too late to enrol.  With trepidation I peeked into the envelope and there was a collection of notes… $5 bills, $10 bills, $20 bills all piled in there in no particular order….. I added it up…  How could this amount have anything to do with the course?  It didn’t make sense to me.  Maybe I was misreading His direction.  I reached for my handbag and pulled out the bedraggled AIFC pamphlet; I rang the number.

Yes I was too late to enrol for Brisbane, but if Canberra was an option to me I could enrol that day, it was the last possible day.  Canberra was actually my preference as my family was here..  That part was great, but I still couldn’t see how THAT amount of money related to me doing the course.  I was told that the enrolment forms would be faxed to me and I had to fill them out and send them back immediately.  I was watching the fax come through and there it was, plainly for me to see….  The cost of the first year’s text books was exactly the amount that Joan had pressed into my hand.

The reason I wanted to share that with you tonight is this:

1. God values this course.  He values Dr Bruce and Nellie’s Litchfield’s commitment to excellence in designing and bringing this amazing Christian Counselling Model to his people throughout the world.
2. God believed in me…  He believed that I could start and finish this course.
3. God will even use the most unassuming people to bring his plans into fruition.

I have done many different courses and changed career throughout my adult life but this is the first time that my motivation was not self-serving, not money orientated.  I shared with my class that first day that I had no idea what direction this course would take me, I just knew that God wanted me here and He wanted me to focus on my commitment to learning and finishing.

And that was just the beginning.  Then the fun started.  Every term the work slowly increased.  I loved what I was learning.  The more I learned the more I wanted to learn.  But the going got tough.  Family commitments, time constraints, health issues; the things we all faced took its toll and at times I thought I just couldn’t do it.  That’s when the support of my tutor and my husband and family and friends got me through.  And on top of that was the reminder that God brought me here, He wouldn’t start me doing something that I couldn’t finish…  I plodded on.

The support from our tutors has been instrumental.  Dawn and Ella for our first year, thank you; and Dawn and Vivian for our second year, thank you.  My tutor for both years, Dawn, I thank you for pushing me when I needed it, for supporting me when I needed it, I thank you for your candid willingness to share your vast knowledge mental health as a Doctor and a therapist.  I feel that you went above and beyond the requirement of bringing teaching material to us.  The support during our home study groups has also been great.  I have made life-long friends with two women I would never have met otherwise.  Each time I came away from study days feeling empowered.  My study partners graduated last Friday night in Brisbane.  I know I have gained life-long friends as have my fellow students here.

So here we are, some have continued onto the GC, others have used their Advanced Diploma to get them into university courses, others have entered the work force….  There are so many branches, so many options from doing this training.

But of all the new opportunities available to us now, I really feel that what I have gained most is the insight and personal growth which is having a great positive impact on my own private relationships – as a mother, as a wife and as a friend.

Congratulations girls, we did it!   As I said earlier we have managed to climb the study mountain, we have reached one pinnacle, yet there is the whole Alps ahead of us.  Now we are armed for the journey.

Thank you and Bless you

Article & Image courtesy of:  aifc Canberra Graduate – Debbie Arnold