Br. Frank O'Shea acceptance speech at the Australian High Commission

“Your Excellency Madam High Commissioner Jenny Da Rin, and invited guests, good morning!

Let me just say a few words about why it is a ‘Good Morning’. I left Australia in 1983, then moved to Tonga, and in October 1994, I came to Tanzania. That’s 30 years on the continent. Why? And for what? Utterly simply, really—LIVING MY VOW OF OBEDIENCE. None of this was my plan, and after all these years, just saying yes has morphed into an OAM for Service to Social Welfare.

So what do I make of all this? Over 40 years and now in my fourth country? One thing I make of it is: see what happens when you have no plans. Plan, and God is the first to laugh.

Last Saturday, I was invited back to Arusha, to the school I served in for 13 years, for the occasion of opening a time capsule we buried in the ground in 1999. The words inscribed on the concrete lid read, "Contents To Be Brought into the Light of Day by the School Administration in 2024." I recalled to those gathered last Saturday that the idea of the time capsule came from a young volunteer at the time. I remember how he asked what should go in the time capsule to speak to the school in that era, and I confidently proclaimed, "Put what you like in there. I can’t be bothered; I won’t be around to open the bloody thing."

Yes, this is my life. Nothing planned, no time frame, leaving it all to my Maker. So I return to where I began… Good Morning. Yes, it is a Good Morning. I can borrow from the Kenyans in Mukuru slums who love saying, “God is Good” and I have to reply, “All The Time!” These words say it all for me this morning.

So to finish… I can repeat the much-trotted-out phrase, ‘Life is a Journey,’ and it has been a good journey because it has not been of my making but God’s. That comes alive most when I live beyond myself… BEING Brother for the World! In some way, this is captured in the words used today for this Order of Australia Medal (OAM) for Service to International Social Welfare. I am truly grateful to Your Excellency, Madam High Commissioner, for agreeing to gather us here today. Thank you. And thanks to all my friends, colleagues, and of course, my orchestra kids. HAVE A GOOD DAY! Today, you have all helped make mine good.”

Br. Frank O’Shea OAM