Who Is Phil Perry?
To look at you Phil, one might be mistaken to think you were, in your younger days, a professional wrestler! If that were true and you were a professional wrestler, what would your name be and what would be your ‘signature move’?
My professional name would be “Adidas” and my signature move would be, as in Monty Python movies, when faced with someone who was not intimated by my growling, to say very loudly, “RUN AWAY!!!”—hence, the “Adidas”.
For those reading who may now be thinking you really were a professional wrestler, what work have you been involved in throughout your life?
My first job was in a bank, but when they didn’t let me play with the money (I only wanted to play with it—REALLY!!!) I worked in a shop—Lavis Electric, they have gone out of business but I didn’t have anything to do with it! As a tally clerk at the steel works, before they got sold to the Brits—I didn’t do that either! I cut grass for a while for different people but it was SO hard trying to roll wet grass into little paper tubes! And for 25 years I worked in different departments in the Commonwealth public service, if you name a town on the eastern seaboard, I probably worked there! At one stage I worked in the (then) new Parliament House. I had a pretty pink badge that let me go every where except the Prime Ministers office—and I didn’t WANT to go there! Those secret service guys have NO sense of humour AT ALL!!! And they have guns, OK?
You're no longer in that line of work. If you don't mind telling us why did you get out of that work?
My father had cancer for a number of years. When it became obvious that the cancer was winning, I asked for a transfer from Dubbo, where I was at the time, to Wollongong, so I could support the family emotionally. My boss, when I got here, had been a Pentecostal Christian, but had abandoned his faith and now hated all things Christian—although he would have denied that. He went out of his way to make things hard for me at work and, when my father subsequently died of complications with the cancer, between emotional upheavals at home and serious unpleasantness at work, I had what used to be called a nervous break-down. It is not PC to call it that today, but I cannot remember the PC term for it! As a result, I was eventually retired on ill health.
How do you spend your time now? In particular, what is your connection with ECU and the Uni of Wollongong?
Well, after being retired, I spent some time doing small “social work” type jobs, I did “meals on wheels” for a while for example, but it was not very fulfilling. Then one day I saw in my church news bulletin, a notice from some guy called Richard Chin, asking for someone to help out doing administrative jobs for something called the “Evangelical Christian Union”. My first thought was who the heck is Richard Chin and is ECU aligned with the Labour Party (it was a “Union” after all). But I could do a lot of administrative stuff, after 25 years of being trained for it, so I put my hand up for it, just to see what it was all about really, and, well, the rest, as they say, is history.
What do you most enjoy about your work serving the team at Wollongong Uni?
It is a real buzz being around such vibrant young people. It is a thrill being able to pretend that I am 18 years of age (again, again—no, it is not a misprint!) right up until the time that they start playing “Ultimate Frizby” or “Touch Footy” (Why do they call it “Touch Footy” when it hurts so much??)
As someone who's not a student at the Uni but who meets lots and lots of students, what tips do you have about how to hang in there as a Christian?
Someone once said to me that if you had a big blazing fire, all the logs feed each other, they all keep each other hot and going, but if you take one log out of the fire and sit it on it’s own, the fire in that log goes out. It might take a time, but it just dies out. The same is true for Christians, we need to keep meeting together to encourage each other, to pray for each other, to care for each other. It is sometimes a struggle to get to the lunch time meetings or to find time to meet up with your staff worker. But you just have to!! Hebrews 10: 24-25 – go look it up! You’ll see what I mean!
How can we pray for you?
My health is an ongoing issue. My nerves are better than when I first became sick, but I have never “recovered”, so if you would pray that I continue in good health. And pray that whatever happens, I can be a good and faithful servant of my Lord Jesus. I will never be a Saint Paul or “even” a Phillip Jensen (am I allowed to say that??) but I get to talk to the staff here at the University, in the cafes, the cleaning staff, some of the staff in the offices, and in places like the post office and although I doubt that any of them know my name, they know what I am and who I serve with all my heart, so please pray that I can so live, as to let them see Jesus in my life, not the fragile clay vessel in front of them (2 Corinthians 4: 7-12).
Interview by Pete Sorrenson
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