Hank. Jim. Mary.
On day one in Australia, we arrived off of our plane after (probably) sixty hours of flight travel, as we went from Atlanta, Georgia to Denver to Los Angeles to Shanghai to Singapore and finally the Gold Coast of Australia. It was a unique experience, and one that I hope I never have to repeat in my lifetime. By the end of it, everyone on my squad had their ankles beyond swollen, enough to make an elephants’ legs look like sprigs.
But we got to Australia, and I couldn’t be more cheerful. This place is wonderful (though too hot for my liking). My squad and team settled down in Byron Bay, Australia, which is an eclectic mixture of jurisdictional religions that seem to blend together. They have a sense of searching and desperation here that is quite unlike any other I’ve seen before, while the place is juxtaposed by its breath-taking beaches and serene, laid-back attitude.
My small team (Tyler, Taylor, Megan, and Ari) and I had some time to go get dinner in the evening, so we walked down the pine ridden grass toward the B.P. station where we just started asking some locals where we could get some good local food. Then, out from behind us, this man with a half-American, half-Aussie, accent asks us if we are “that American Christian” group.
We whipped our heads around, whether in shock or disbelief (I still don’t know), and told him yeah. We asked him some good places to go and he gave us some good locations to check out. But, then we thought together – as if we are already a telepathic team – that we should ask him if he’d want to join us. “Yeah,” he replied. “Do you want a lift there?”
Well…alrighty then.
After that we went into the beachfront of Byron Bay and just hung out with the man, Hank. He took us around the place – waving to half the people there – and showed all five of us the small town while sharing his life story (which it is completely awesome).
God, in His own way, demonstrated to my team and I His immeasurable provision. The whole time on the plane we contemplated how we might best approach “doing” ministry. And, yes, at Training Camp we learned “life is ministry and ministry is life.” So on day one when we were trying to figure out our feet, and God put Hank in our lives to minister to us.
And so it has been that way every day since. Jim, the next man to approach our team, has been an equally measured blessing. He, in his long brown hair, and sixties floral t-shirt, approached us as we were sitting down and Tyler was jamming away to the guitar (something he’s incredibly good at) on the corner of a bank on the sidewalk. Instantly, in a very calm manner, we began discussing the idea of love and the different doctrines that we share, as well as the similarities. He knows his scripture extremely well, and that gave us an avenue to even investigate what he believes, as well as what we believe. We go back and forth talking, and engaging some of the deeper questions of life, and what comes next as a result of all this. In the end, after four hours of conversation, he asked us to meet again. And so we will.
The following day, my team and I put ourselves out there and served at a local community homeless food centre, cooking food and everything that goes with keeping a clean and efficient kitchen. Making a fruit salad for people I’ve never met might seem like a mundane ordeal, however it was through that I was able to meet Mary, a wonderful Irish-woman my mothers age, and Sandra, a woman from France, and Alice, a great woman from South Korea. Talking with the two of them while I cut various fruits, vegetables, poultry, and meat, I re-imagined why I was there in the first place. I listened to each of their stories, and by the end of it by just serving with a joyful heart, Mary said in her thick Irish accent, “I have a rule here. You can’t leave without giving me a hug.”
The impact of these three people can’t quite be measured by my words here, as God has employed them to minister to me as I frighten at the prospect of…well just talking to people, especially about the Good News. God has encouraged me by placing the people I’m on the squad and team with, as well as telling me that all I must be is obedient, willing, humble, available, and teachable and He will do the rest.
