Safely in His Hands
24 Aug 2023
LISTEN – All to Jesus, I surrender, all to Him I freely give.
For Sally and I our vision and calling to ‘GO’ into Australian Indigenous Ministry was set even before we were married in 1992. Sal was in her early-30’s and I was 29. With our sense of call safely in God’s hands, we did life, had two children, became leaders within church communities and we both worked. Sal was a teacher of the deaf and I worked as a carpenter/ builder and then finally as a TAFE teacher.
WAIT – In His good timing
During the next 25 years the door never opened to allow us to see that combined vision and calling become reality. In fact, we finally reached a point where we believed that we had got it wrong.
In 2015, God released the handbrake, and the rollercoaster ride began. A multitude of God events propelled us along that two-year ride, finally culminating with us becoming part of the Pioneers team in Arnhem Land. By this time, Sal had retired at 62 and I had just turned 57.
OBEY – Blessed are all who fear the Lord, who walk in obedience to him. Ps 128:1
This releasing of the handbrake and the renewal of our calling to indigenous ministry in Australia was promoted by a short-term mission trip to Myanmar at the beginning of 2015. In response, I attended Sydney Missionary and Bible College, and it was there that we got to know and become more involved with Pioneers Australia. In preparation for the mission field, we attended a range of pre-field trainings including Orientation Week, a language learning course, a security course, the perspectives course, and Community Health Evangelism (CHE) training in Arnhem Land with the new Pioneers Arnhem Land team. We began to live out our vision to go to Indigenous Australia as we drove from Sydney to Arnhem Land in October 2017, in obedience to God’s calling to mission. God id faithful to His calling.
Ed and Sally Hawkins | Pioneers workers serving in Oceania
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