{"id":28465,"date":"2019-12-20T13:56:00","date_gmt":"2019-12-20T08:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/10.101.250.8\/news-and-publication\/olympic-stars-journey-to-freedom\/"},"modified":"2023-03-31T12:55:26","modified_gmt":"2023-03-31T01:55:26","slug":"olympic-stars-journey-to-freedom","status":"publish","type":"news-and-publication","link":"https:\/\/www.wesleymission.org.au\/news-and-publications\/latest-news\/wesley-mission-news\/olympic-stars-journey-to-freedom\/","title":{"rendered":"Olympic star\u2019s journey to freedom"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Standing in front of ANZ Stadium at Sydney Olympic Park, Christie Mokotupu effortlessly throws a volleyball in the air. She\u2019s transported back to almost 20 years ago when she competed with Australia\u2019s beach volleyball team in front of a crowd of 10,000 people.<\/strong><\/p>

\u201cEvery time I come here I get these emotions running through my body that I\u2019ll never forget. I was very lucky and blessed,\u201d she reflects.<\/p><\/blockquote>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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At just 17, Christie had the world at her feet. As a young girl, she\u2019d always dreamed of playing in the Olympic Games.<\/p>

In 2000, Christie donned her gold and green uniform and represented Australia in the Sydney Olympic Games. She had a promising future ahead as a professional athlete.<\/p>

\u201cCompeting in the Olympics, I knew it was a huge honour to represent your country. It\u2019s such a rare thing for people to do, especially at 17 years old.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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But three years later Christie left beach volleyball. Burnt out from competing internationally, Christie wanted to experience life outside competitive sport.<\/p>

\u201cI didn\u2019t have time to breathe. I was just exhausted and I lost vision. And at the time, no-one convinced me to stay in it. At 20, I let it go. I wanted to know what it was to live a normal life and be a normal teenager.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>

While a world of choices opened for Christie, not every choice she made was the right one. One reckless decision, taking an ecstasy pill, led Christie down a dark path to alcohol and recreational drugs.<\/p>

\u201cIt was such a quick \u2018yes\u2019 but that \u2018yes\u2019 was a huge decision,\u201d she says.<\/p><\/blockquote>

\u201cI went through this slow, vicious cycle and I tell people it doesn\u2019t happen overnight. It\u2019s a slow thing. It\u2019s one tiny little decision and you end up one day in a weird place.<\/p><\/blockquote>

\u201cThen all of a sudden you\u2019re looking back with regret and you\u2019re at a place of depression.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>

Like many before her, Christie remained silent about her drug addiction. But ten years on, she shocked the nation when she shared her story publicly for the first time.<\/p>

\u201cI kept my battle to myself. It\u2019s a quiet battle. You don\u2019t want to tell people you\u2019re going through things. You want to tell people, \u2018I\u2019m doing great\u2019, but really, I was trying to fight it on my own.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>

Christie\u2019s breaking point came in her own reflection of her role as a mother.<\/p>

\u201cI realised that I was not a good mum. I was letting my son down. I wasn\u2019t a good example to him, drinking, taking drugs. All these things I was doing behind the scenes, which I thought no one could see. But I think our kids can see all, so it was a lie that I wasn\u2019t hurting anyone.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>

Little did Christie know, God had other plans for her life. In that season, where Christie felt she\u2019d lost everything, she found Jesus.<\/p>

Standing in the middle of Sydney Olympic Park, she suddenly shouts the name \u201cJesus\u201d. It\u2019s a declaration of thanks and gratitude for her Saviour\u2014 Jesus Christ. For Christie, her faith was the catalyst for healing.<\/p>

\u201cI was really against the whole church thing but at rock bottom in depression, my sister invited me. The timing was right. As I drew close to God, one by one, things fell away. Alcohol fell away, smoking and drugs\u2014all these things I\u2019d picked up in my 20s. The healing came as I started reading the Word of God. He began directing me to places of recovery and counselling.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>

Sharing her story with the world opened up her life, her son\u2019s life and family members, to criticism and scrutiny.<\/p>

\u201cThat was very hard to walk through. The shame, the condemnation. But that was my journey to go through because after it, God healed the shame and the condemnation. It was incredibly liberating. That is why I want to help other people,\u201d says Christie.<\/p><\/blockquote>

\u201cThrough every decision I made throughout my 20s, my family never judged me. As a family we walked through the hardest part. My sisters, my siblings, my brother, my parents, we\u2019re very close knit. We\u2019ve overcome that together. Thank God that they supported me through it.<\/p><\/blockquote>

\u201cSharing my story, I knew it was going to affect my son. Protecting my son is the most important thing. But I know he looks up to me and he says, \u2018I love you\u2019. He looks at me like I\u2019m his hero. We have a beautiful partnership, my son and I.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>

Two years after sharing her story with the world, Christie was invited to be interviewed by the Superintendent on Wesley Impact! TV, which airs every Sunday on Channel Nine.<\/p>

\u201cI thank God for that opportunity. Because at the time, when people Googled my name, all they saw was my story, my decline into drugs. And it was hard for me. So I\u2019m so thankful for Wesley Impact! TV for giving me the opportunity to share my overcoming story, more than my pain story.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>

No longer weighed down by her past, Christie continues to share her story with anyone who will listen.<\/p>

\u201cI don\u2019t live there anymore. I feel so great that I\u2019m liberated now to talk about drugs. I don\u2019t carry any shame and I want to help other people overcome shame for good.\u201d<\/h2>

Since becoming a Christian and finding freedom from her addictions, Christie has supported people through motivational speaking, at One80TC, a residential rehabilitation centre, and Candifest, a ministry Christie founded to help people overcome their addictions and find hope for the future.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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\u201cI asked God to use me in the best way he thinks I can be used. I have a story to tell. I like public speaking and I don\u2019t think God gave me these gifts and talents to hide them.<\/p><\/blockquote>

\u201cI don\u2019t have all the research, but I tell people I\u2019ve got the life experience. I think that really helps them to connect with me.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>

\u201cSupporting people with drug addiction without Jesus, it\u2019s impossible for me. The only way I can do this is with Jesus.\u201d But at the core of her message and ministry is Jesus.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Christie partners with charities she wholeheartedly believes in. And that\u2019s what drew her towards Wesley Mission. In September, when Christie was walking through Sydney\u2019s streets she suddenly recognised Wesley Mission\u2019s iconic cyan-coloured shirts, worn by our street fundraising team. Passionate about our work with homelessness and mental health, Christie signed up on the spot to become a regular monthly donor.<\/p>

\u201cI love that Wesley Mission has been around for more 200 years. It\u2019s an iconic Australian charity. It\u2019s trusted by the community, so I would encourage people to support it. Give what\u2019s in your capacity and help people less fortunate than yourself.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>

If you would like to become a regular donor, visit https:\/\/www.wesleymission.org.au\/get-involved\/donate\/ways-to-donate\/regular-giving\/ <\/a>to\u00a0discover more.<\/p><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Standing in front of ANZ Stadium at Sydney Olympic Park, Christie Mokotupu effortlessly throws a volleyball in the air. She\u2019s …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":28466,"parent":29561,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","advanced-sidebar-menu\/link-title":"","advanced-sidebar-menu\/exclude-page":true},"ceo-newsletter":[],"move-to-top-of-sidebar":[],"custom-layouts":[680],"exclude-from-nav":[],"news-and-publications-tags":[656],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2024-05-05 20:09:42","action":"change-status","newStatus":"private","terms":[],"taxonomy":"custom-layouts"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wesleymission.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-and-publication\/28465"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wesleymission.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-and-publication"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wesleymission.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news-and-publication"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.wesleymission.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-and-publication\/28465\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wesleymission.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-and-publication\/29561"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wesleymission.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wesleymission.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"ceo-newsletter","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wesleymission.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ceo-newsletter?post=28465"},{"taxonomy":"move-to-top-of-sidebar","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wesleymission.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/move-to-top-of-sidebar?post=28465"},{"taxonomy":"custom-layouts","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wesleymission.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/custom-layouts?post=28465"},{"taxonomy":"exclude-from-nav","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wesleymission.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exclude-from-nav?post=28465"},{"taxonomy":"news-and-publications-tags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wesleymission.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-and-publications-tags?post=28465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}