Go Beyond

It is finished!

What started as a dream one year ago — a dream about traveling across Australia’s Outback to distribute 10,000 copies of Luke’s Gospel — is now finished. And how appropriate to finish this adventure on Easter Sunday.

My friend Jay Lowe and I share a kindred heart about missions, about distributing copies of the Scriptures, and about sharing Jesus with people who live in remote places.

The last adventure we shared was prayer-walking across Bangladesh, from border to border, in January 2023. As we began to pray about the next kingdom adventure, Australia came into view.

Australia is vast by any measure. The majority of the population live along the coast. As you move inland from the coast, the population becomes increasingly sparse. And that is what attracted us to Australia — the people, including the indigenous folk, who live in the vast Outback.

I began by contacting my friend Craig Petty who serves on the Compassion leadership team in Australia. Craig and I met and became friends in Cambodia. I pitched the idea about visiting Australia to distribute 10,000 copies of Luke’s Gospel mainly across the Outback.

Craig affirmed the idea and put me in contact with Geoff Folland, the national director of Power to Change (Campus Crusade in Australia). Geoff also embraced the idea and suggested that we could dovetail the distribution with spreading the word about the new Jesus Film.

The New Jesus Film is currently under production. It is an animated version of the forty-plus year old version of the Jesus Film that is the most viewed film in history.

The animated version is geared to children ages nine to twelve. Missiologists tell us that most people who come to faith in Christ do so between the ages of four and fourteen. The hope is that this film will help a new generation and their families connect with the greatest story ever told.

Geoff put me in contact with Young Goh who is responsible for coordinating everything having to do with the Jesus Film in Australia. Young helped us to put together a plan to serve as ambassadors for the new Jesus Film and distribution of Luke’s Gospel. Since the Jesus Film is scripted from Luke’s Gospel, this plan made good sense.

Over a period of months, we emailed and Zoom-called and prayed and planned until all of the pieces came together. We would arrive in Melbourne on April 1 and journey north along the coast toward Brisbane before turning west toward the Outback.

I asked Pastor Ryan to join us for the first week of our journey to celebrate Australia as the sixth continent in which our missions ministry is engaged and to celebrate Kingsland reaching the $40,000,000 milestone in giving to missions.

And so began our adventure. We left Melbourne with a handful of contacts who agreed to host us and to open doors for distribution. And, as only God can do, every contact introduced us to people in their respective networks that opened even more doors for us all the way into the interior of the country.

An added bonus was being interviewed by Vision Christian Radio in Brisbane for their Sunday morning program on April 13. Vision Christian Radio reaches the entire nation with their broadcast, including the Outback.

We took a detour on our way north to visit Paul and Robyn Roe in Dubbo. Paul was responsible for helping to bring Campus Crusade to Australia and is known as The Outback Historian. Paul and Robyn hosted us for two nights and I was blessed to celebrate my 69th birthday in their home.

The time we spent with Paul and Robyn will forever be etched in my heart. We listened to stories, sang worship songs (and some John Denver as well), and prayed together. Paul contacted several friends who opened up more doors of opportunity for us along the way.

And so our journey began to unfold in ways we could never have imagined or planned. All along the way we were welcomed with open arms and left with the names of others to meet along the way.

Day by day we traveled and listened for the Lord’s prompting about places to stop. We made cold calls at churches and met some of the most inspiring people who are faithfully serving the purpose of God in small towns along our route. All welcomed us and opened doors for us to meet others on the road ahead.

Geoff arranged for Pastor Ryan to preach at Parkside Baptist Church in Sydney. Pastor Matthew and his team embraced us and made us feel at home. Parkside was a breath of fresh air. We were blessed by our time with them. And, the Parkside family took more than 600 copies of Luke plus info on the Jesus Film to distribute.

After Pastor Ryan and Andrew, our videographer, flew home from Sydney, Jay and I made our way up to Brisbane for the radio interview and then turned west into the vast expanse of the Outback.

Once again, God connected us with some amazing people who helped us with our distribution initiative. One contact led to another and then to another. Watching God work in this way was so exciting. We could never have planned any of this in this kind of detail. All along the way we sensed that God was honoring our initiative to get His Word into the hands of people in off-the-beaten track locations.

Jay and I had specifically prayed for opportunities to get the Scriptures into Aboriginal communities but had no contacts. No problem for God. He opened those doors and put us in contact with the right gatekeepers. As a result, we gave more than 2,000 copies to these remote communities of Australia’s indigenous population.

We gave away our remaining copies in Port Augusta and then continued our journey back to Melbourne. Twenty days after we started, we arrived safely in Melbourne late in the day on Easter Sunday. We drove 10,346 kilometers (more than 6,000 miles) across the vast expanses of the Outback and distributed one copy of Luke for every kilometer traveled.

The past three weeks have been beyond anything Jay and I could have imagined. We are grateful for all of the people we met along the way and all of our friends and family who kept us in their prayers.

Only Heaven will reveal the full impact of this kingdom initiative. Our bodies are tired, our hearts are full, and we will return home with unforgettable memories and great expectations about what God will continue to do after we leave.

So, in one sense, it is finished. Jay and I finished what we set out to do. But in another sense, it is just beginning. Much of the seed sown fell on good soil. And that will be the start of something good in hearts and lives across the Outback.