How I Became a Christian Missionary

I have often looked back and asked myself how I became a Christian Missionary. I have been a full-time missionary now for 10-years (since January 1999), and it is something that I never would have thought I would be doing.

I’ll save my testimony for another post, and just focus on what happened after I decided that God had better plans for me than I could even have for myself.

Shortly after deciding to follow after God’s plan for my life in November 1997 I caught up with a friend named Tyler Rousell, who had just completed a YWAM Discipleship Training School in Mexico. He spent about 2-hours telling me the "short version" of his YWAM DTS and some of the things that God had done in his life over the six-month school.

For me, being a fresh Christian, a YWAM DTS sounded like a great way to "figure out who God is". Prior to that I had always wanted to go travel to Australia with another mate, so I started to look at how I could do a YWAM DTS in Australia.

After finding a YWAM DTS at Reef to Outback in Australia to go to I booked a one-year open ended ticket because I figured I might want to travel for a bit after I completed my Discipleship Training School. My plan (notice I didn’t say "God’s plan") was to be in Australia for 6 – 12 months, then head back to Canada with a clear vision of what I was to do with my life.

I got to my YWAM DTS after also completing a YWAM Niko with YWAM Calgary. It was a very intense time of realizing just a tiny bit of what it meant to live in accordance with God’s will. Somehow during that time I had also agreed to come back to Reef to Outback to join staff for the next Discipleship Training School in January 1999.

The first YWAM DTS that I staffed was another very intense time (I don’t think I have ever heard of a YWAM DTS that isn’t intense to be honest) of learning more and more about God, biblical servant leadership and what it means to make Jesus Lord of my life. Again during this school I promised a mate, Dave Giltinan, that I would come back to staff the next Discipleship Training School at Reef to Outback.

To be honest, if I had not made that promise to Dave I would not have come back to Australia to staff the July 1999 YWAM DTS in Australia. I went back to Canada in June 1999 after that first school that I staffed and wasn’t too keen on heading back to Australia.

Prior to leaving Australia to head back to Canada we had been involved in outreach with the YWAM base in Darwin, Australia. On the back of the toilet door there was a picture of a frog with the following verse on it:

• James 5:12b says "let your yes be yes and your no be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation" (bolding mine)

As I was considering not coming back to Australia God kept reminding me of that verse and the picture of the frog and of the promise that I had made to Dave. I came back to Australia for nine – months to staff another Discipleship Training School and help establish a media ministry at Reef to Outback, at least that was my plan.

Three months into the July 1999 Discipleship Training School I was leading an outreach in Ingham, Australia. While leading the outreach I was asked if I would leave the outreach and go to YWAM Lausanne in Switzerland to do a GENESIS School and bring video conferencing back to YWAM Australia. I was given 48-hours to make the decision and it meant a two-year commitment to continue working with YWAM in Australia.

After a lot of prayer, and not too much sleep, I made the decision to go to do the GENESIS School in Switzerland. After that I pretty much stopped trying to figure out my own plan and realized that I was here until God said otherwise, which was the opposite of how I had been doing it before.

Since then I married a beautiful Australian woman (who was actually a student on the July 1999 DTS that I almost didn’t staff), bought a house, had two amazing kids and completed 10-years of ministry with YWAM in Australia.

Now we are on a new journey as we look at moving to Canada to work with with YWAM Calgary and with the YWAM International Chairman’s Team. We don’t have an exit plan to stop our work as Christian Missionaries, we are here until God says otherwise…