Holding on to your Call.

(The following is a Talk I gave to Deep Creek Uniting early April, 2003.)

Although I was Christened as a baby and had a few months of Sunday school when I was 12, as well as having had Religious Instruction during both my primary and Secondary School years , I really came from a non Christian Background and so when I finally , at 29, accepted that there was a God and that Jesus was his son and the Bible was His words to us and that I was a sinner in need of His forgiveness, I still knew nothing much about this God I now accepted as mine.

I don’t know about you but I was not happy with my limited knowledge of the one I now claimed to follow; and so I set about learning as much as I could about this God that I now called Father. So I started attending a Regular Bible Study and regularly read my Bible as well as attending all the seminars about prayer and the Bible that I could.

During this time I felt the Lord calling me to Missionary service. At first I resisted this call! Not because I didn’t want to go but because in those days I thought being a Missionary was something special and I wasn’t really sure if it was God calling or simply my pride as a new Christian.

Eventually my wife and I decided that it was God calling us and not our own desires and we approached a Mission society offering ourselves for service, expecting to be accepted almost straight away as the need for Missionaries was so great. Now of course that did not happen and it was a bit of a shock to us to say the least.

How we were led to that particular society is a long story in itself, but we did feel that God had definitely called us to Africa for 20 years or so with them, which is why we approached them and said here we are.

However we never heard from them for a long time and when we checked up with them we found that they apparently had lost our original application, and so we had to apply all over again. During this second approach, we were told that it was Missionary policy that all applicants have hat least one or two years of Bible collage experience behind them and they suggested we go to a Bible Collage in NSW for two years.

Now we were happy to go to Africa for 20 plus years but not happy about going to NSW for two Years. However we felt sure that God had called us to that Society and if that was what they wanted then that was what had to be. Others in our Church were not so sure and wanted us to go to BCV out at Lilydale.

Anyway we applied to NSW and much to my joy but utter amazement we were knocked back, as there, the wife must also do the course and they felt that with 3 small kids, Martha would not cope. Personally they totally misjudged her, but at least we got out of going to NSW. For a while at least! And ended up at BCV.

Now I don’t believe in doing something just for the sake of going through the motions of fulfilling their requirements, so I started looking at what I would do there and the only course that appealed to me was a 3 or 4 year course. Now it was bad enough having to do two years but to spread it out to 4 was pushing it a bit. Never the less I decided to apply for it but was told that as I didn’t have my Matriculation Certificate (Now the VCE, I believe!) Anyway whatever it was, I didn’t have it, so I wasn’t qualified for the course I wanted to do. There were two others I could have done but not the one I felt strongly about.

We were told that as I was a mature aged student that I may be eligible to try the first year and see how I went, but they weren’t sure. So we ended up at BCV a week before the year started still not knowing what course I would be doing. To cut a long story short I did the course, passed the first year and graduated 3 years later with a Bachelor of Theology.

But still things were not made easy. Half way through the course, we were told that this was great but now the Mission wanted us/me to have some practical Church experience, so during our last year at Collage I was helping the Minister at Wandin Uniting Church where I preached for the first time. When we finished at BCV we went, finally to NSW, to be Associate Minister at the Wagga Ashmont Baptist Church. Soon after our arrival there, their was a mass departure of the leadership and although I was supposedly the Associate pastor learning from others above me, soon I found I was the only one in leadership, with half the Elders and Deacons we started with.

It really wasn’t my fault, they all just took the opportunity of a new Pastor to leave. Anyway, we were there for 12 months and it was a sharp and difficult but ultimately a good learning curve. The mission wanted us to get some Church experience and believe me we got it in spades during our time there. Yet we still look back at that time with fond memories.

During our time there the Mission finally accepted us for Missionary service in Madagascar. It had only taken some 6 years and a couple of applications to get that far. So we returned to Melbourne for a few months expecting to head for the Mission field within 12 Months. Again it is another long story that I won’t go into here but it was two years later and to a completely different part of Africa that we finally went to.

During our time in Transkei and South Africa, we had our own litany of travails. The Apostle Paul lists his in second Timothy 11. Well ours may not be as impressive as we have never been whipped, shipwrecked or imprisoned but we did have a stone thrown through the car windows hitting the wife on the back just missing her head. Our house was petrol bombed twice. The Car was stolen, never to be returned although we did see it once. I have been mugged at knife point and had at least 3 pick pocket attempts, the fence cut and the dogs let out in an attempt to break into the house. There are a few other incidence, but these were the main ones.

Throughout all this we felt strongly God’s protection for us there and rather than being hindrances to our ministry, these attacks against us actually helped our ministry as people saw that we both believed and practiced what we preached about our trust in God and his concern for all who believe and follow him.

We did not stay there the 20 plus years that we expected but ended up leaving after only 12 years as God again made it clear to us that our time there was at end and it was time to leave there.

And so, 4 years later, here we are with you tonight. Still following God’s call for us. It is no longer in Africa but in darkest Croydon, but God is still calling and we are still walking in His call to us. It hasn’t always been easy, but it has never been too hard, and there have been many, many good times too. It’s just that the good times don’t make as good a story as the bad things do they?

To sum up, I would encourage you to make the most of every opportunity to learn as much as you can about your father God and be as involved with your church as much as you can and follow God’s call at the speed He calls you. If you have to make detours, even to NSW, to get the needed experience, do so. Don’t rush God’s call to you, but don’t drag your feet either.

Thank you and good night