Go Beyond

When European explorers set off in search of a land located below the continent of Asia, they stumbled across a landmass they called Terra Australis Incognita, translated Unknown South Land.

Perhaps because Terra Australis Incognita is a mouthful, a naval officer and cartographer named Matthew Flinders coined the term “down under.” The nickname stuck and, to this day, folks from outside of Australia refer to the massive continent as “the land down under.”

The gospel reached the land down under in the late 18th century with the arrival of an evangelical Anglican clergyman named Richard Johnson. He was the first to preach the gospel on Australian soil in Sydney on February 3, 1788.

Interestingly, John Newton, the writer of Amazing Grace, was Johnson’s mentor. He encouraged Johnson to take the gospel to Australia and the South Pacific and called his young protégé the first Apostle to the South Seas. Johnson remained in Australia for twelve years.

I will begin my own journey to Australia in a few hours by way of Papua New Guinea. I will fly from Houston to Papua where I will take part in the dedication of the mobile dental clinic underwritten by Kingsland’s 2023 Vacation Bible School offering. This clinic will make it possible for our partner there to provide dental care to people living in remote locations.

From Papua I will make my way to Melbourne via Jakarta where I will connect with my good friend Jay Lowe. Jay and I walked across Bangladesh in January 2023. We have traveled together to some of the remotest places on the planet to share Jesus.

Jay loves adventure but loves Jesus even more. He is a former Guinness Book of World Records holder for driving the lower 48 states in record time. He is also the father of Sean Lowe, the bachelor on ABC’s Season 17 of The Bachelor. Jay had the honor of officiating his son’s wedding to Catherine Giudici on national television.

And now, we are off again — this time on an adventure down under to distribute 10,000 copies of Luke’s Gospel. We are also working with our friends at Power to Change (Campus Crusade in Australia) to serve as ambassadors to announce the coming of the new animated version of the Jesus Film. Geoff Folland, national director of Power to Change, and his team have provided us invaluable logistical support.

In advance of our trip, I had the honor of sharing a little about my story with Dr. Tina Waldrom on her the Evangelism in Australia podcast. Evangelism in Australia exists to train and equip believers and churches for evangelism. Tina is passionate about evangelism and about reaching Australia with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I will post real time updates on my Instagram account as we journey through Australia. We are intentionally driving to and through smaller towns on-and-off-the-beaten path.

My pastor, Dr. Ryan Rush, will join us for the first week of our journey along with Andrew Probstfeld, our Kingsland Films director. We will, in part, celebrate Kingsland reaching the $40,000,000 mark in missions giving and setting foot on our 6th continent. Our work among the nations now spans the entire globe both north and south of the equator.

Excited to journey to the land down under to work with our new partners and friends to share the greatest story ever told. Thanks for your prayers and I hope you will follow our adventure.