The Great Adventure by Steven Curtis Chapman

When we came up with the idea to 'blog' our journey, we discussed what would be a good title for it. Then we remembered that one of Teaghan's favourite songs recently is Steven Curtis Chapman's 'The Great Adventure', she likes the part that goes "saddle up your horses..."! We thought it was very appropriate for our journey, as it is a God adventure that we're going on!

Here are the lyrics for the song:

Started out this morning in the usual way
Chasing thoughts inside my head of all I had to do today
Another time around the circle try to make it better than the last
I opened up the Bible and I read about me
Said I'd been a prisoner and God's grace had set me free
And somewhere between the pages it hit me like a lightning bolt
I saw a big frontier in front of me and I heard somebody say "let's go"!

Saddle up your horses we've got a trail to blaze
Through the wild blue yonder of God's amazing grace
Let's follow our leader into the glorious unknown
This is a life like no other - this is The Great Adventure
Come on get ready for the ride of your life
Gonna leave long faced religion in a cloud of dust behind
And discover all the new horizons just waiting to be explored
This is what we were created for

We'll travel over, over mountains so high
We'll go through valleys below
Still through it all we'll find that
This is the greatest journey that the human heart will ever see
The love of God will take us far beyond our wildest dreams
Yeah... oh saddle up your horses... come on get ready to ride

Life of obedience

Missions is part of who we are. We'd answered the call, and looked forward to one day being on the field.

But we've often talked about the possibility of: What if God has other plans and decides to call us to stay in Oz instead? How will we feel then? For so long, we've had our hearts set on going.

After much discussion and heart-searching, we admitted that we'd both be very disappointed. It'd be like something's incomplete. But then we asked ourselves: Isn't life about living in obedience to God? God does not say that being a missionary is the highest Christian achievement, nor does he say that if we were to stay put that we're any less of a Christian. Yes serving cross-culturally involves a life of physical and practical sacrifices, but at the end of the day, all it matters is that you've lived a life of obedience to Him. Wherever that may be. All he wants is for us to follow him and be obedient to him.

It made us feel much better having 'nutted' that one out. That no matter what and where we are. God will use us to serve Him.

Whenever wherever

Pete was in year 12 when he made the commitment to serve God whenever and where he calls, even if that's overseas. It was a growing conviction that God planted in his heart since high school through the faithful examples of missionaries who shared at church over many years. I (Pete) still remember the moment in the backyard of my parent's house those many years ago when pondering on life after Year 12 and what it means to trust Him that I made this promise. I remember feeling scared because trusting Him may mean serving Him in positions and places where I would be out of my comfort zone. But at the end of it all, it was the realisation that my life was in His hands that enabled me to make that promise.

Jo later made the same commitment during Uni, when the Doulos ship came to visit. At the end of one of the talks, the speaker asked anyone to stand who was willing to let God use them whenever and wherever. I (Jo) stood, though with much apprehension. When God calls, he calls. I knew it was God speaking, cos I felt this strong compulsion to stand and commit myself, though I was scared at the same time and didn't want to stand. I still remember clearly the shivers going up my spine as I stood there wondering what I was getting myself into.

Pete was keen to explore going to Asia. Jo was keen to go to Africa. Pete didn't mind Africa, Jo didn't want to go to Asia at all... so we settled on Africa :o) Now we're both equally passionate about using our gifts to serve God in Africa.

We went on a 7 week short term mission to Ethiopia before we were engaged. Pete was stationed at rural Makki, and Jo at the capital of Addis Ababa. The trip opened our eyes to the 'real world' of missions and we came back to Oz, keen to return to Africa in the future. In 2005, we took a group of teens to Kenya for a 3 week mission trip as part of the mission program offered by Pacific Hills Christian School - the school at which Jo was teaching kindergarten at the time.

It has been over ten years since God has planted the conviction in our hearts to serve Him overseas. Since then, we've been working out this 'calling', and in the process, got married and had two kids. We feel the time has come to take some decisive steps. We know that ultimately, it is God's will whether or not we end up where we think we are going and it is His timing when we get there. So we commit to Him our plans and look forward to going on this great adventure with Him!