Your Story
My Story
Candidates Ryan and Suzie
are preparing to serve in South
Asia… something that teenage
Ryan thought God understood
wasn’t an option! Here, Ryan
looks back at the journey God
has taken him on and the
impact that walking with others
has had on his own story.
“I’ll go anywhere you call me
Lord… except India!” So went my
passionate (if not naive) response
to the missionary call before me.
As a 16-year-old country boy who
had never travelled but had seen
pictures on the TV, this was the
one place in the world that scared
the life out of me. Accustomed to
my space, everything about the
subcontinent kind of freaked me
out. So at this mission meeting
and this line-in-the-sand
moment in my life, “Anywhere but
India,” was my compromise. But
it’s ok to have boundaries isn’t it?
Fast forward almost 20 years,
as the new pastor in a country
church at my first deacon’s
meeting, an interesting proposal
came before us. The missionary
committee, with some extra
finance in their budget, were
seeking approval to support some
cross-cultural workers heading to
South Asia with Global Interaction.
(Not quite my ‘off the table’
location, but in the same region.)
Off to pioneer a new fish farming
project, Anthony and Jacqueline
(former Global Interaction
workers') seemed a good, downto-earth
young couple our church
might connect with. “Our only
hesitation,” said Joy from the
missionary committee, “is that
no-one in our church actually
knows them.”
What our church was unaware
of at this point, is the part that
Anthony and Jacqueline had
already played in the lives of
my wife, Suzie and I. Only a few
years earlier we’d met Anthony
and Jacqueline at Bible College.
Then both single (although not
fixed on that status!), ‘Ant’ and
‘Jac’ had impressed us both from
the outset. A big-hearted, 6ft 4
larrikin with a unique turn of
phrase, Ant had come across
to Melbourne from Tasmania.
Having been challenged to use his
aquaculture qualification to serve
God, Ant was one of only a few
who knew his pathway post Bible
College - his focus was on South
Asia! Jac, on the other hand, had
come to college from Western
Australia. Just a tad over 5ft and
much gentler in personality than
Ant, Jac’s desire to serve God in a
cross-cultural context was no less
resolved. From the moment they
met, their pathways converged.
Ant and ‘Sparkie’, as Ant called her
(because sparks flew!) would go to
South Asia together.
Over the next few years at
college, we became close friends
with Ant and Jac. Although
sensing a different path for
our lives at this time, we were
inspired by their journey and
prayed with them often, not
realising how God would shape
our hearts through their journey.
Just a few years after that
deacon’s meeting and with a
partnership between Kyneton
Baptist Church and the Global
Interaction team in South Asia
well established, Suzie and I
visited Ant and Jac to see the
work first-hand. We were amazed
by what we saw God doing, and
deeply moved by the need for
Jesus in this least-reached region
of the world.
Over the next few years, we
returned to South Asia numerous
times. What has unfolded in us
is a deep love for the people of
this place and, despite my earlier
‘boundaries’, a belief that God
is now calling us to serve Him
there! I’ll admit it, this part of
the world still freaks me out a
little at times. But it’s incredible
how God can change our hearts.
Because mostly we’re excited
by the prospect of serving God
amongst this people group. And
actually, now there’s probably no
place we’d rather go!
resonate · issue 35 · page 6