An Interview with Missionaries to Australia

Katie Back Salmon • Sep 29, 2015

Ray and Marti Williams of TEAM Australia at Missions Place by TEAM in Maryville, TN

Ray and Marti Williams are TEAM missionaries in Adelaide, Australia with a 30-year tenure overseas. Recently, on a stateside visit, the Williamses sat down with TEAM in Maryville, Tennessee, to share their take on calling, authenticity and what it means to be a “mate.”

Often, we hear of people being “called” to missions, which can be quite abstract. Can you articulate how God has called you?

Marti Williams: I personally was called to follow the Lord in career missions as a 14-year-old at a youth rally. And God reminded me of that as I got older. … Sometimes you have to take a step and God confirms it afterwards.

Ray Williams: I see kind of three different categories in the way God calls people, and sometimes it’s a combination. Some people are called to a specific people group or a specific area. …

I’ve seen other people that feel like they are called to partner with a specific organization. You know they say, “I’m so in line with what TEAM wants to do in this world that I want to be a part of TEAM,” and the location and the job description are not as important.…

And there are others that may feel a call to a specific type of ministry. Mine was more type of ministry. I want to see people understand God’s principles and start living like that—whether, I did it in Zimbabwe, [the Middle East] or Australia.

What are some reasons that someone shouldn’t be a missionary?

RW: If holding on to what you have already is too important to you, then you shouldn’t. You need to be willing to let go of almost anything: the location you live in, the lifestyle, your goals, being near family, having your own opinions about things. Because when you work in a different culture, they see the world very differently, and if your way of looking at things is so important to you that you can’t change, then it’s going to be very frustrating for you, and you’re not going to be very effective. So you want to keep the gospel central, but everything else has to be negotiable.

MW: I would also say that, you shouldn’t be a missionary if you don’t feel that God has called you to it. … If you’re there because you feel noble, if you’re there because the church sent you there, if you’re there because you think it’s a good thing to do, it’s not going to be enough to keep you there, because there are times when it gets really hard and you just stick it because God has you there, and you know that you need to be faithful and obedient.

For many who desire to serve overseas, fundraising can seem daunting. What has your experience been through decades of raising support?

MW: We’ve got churches that have stood with us for 30-31 years [since] before we even went to the field. … They’ve watched our children grow up; they’ve prayed us through difficult situations. We’ve come back every home assignment and we go and visit. They’re our friends. …

So if you look at it as fundraising, it can be very much a heavy burden, but if you look at it as friend development and ministry team development, then … it’s not about us; it’s not about what we’re doing; it’s about what God is allowing us to be a part of … and they’re coming along with us as the team.

[The support] will come from the people and the places and the churches that you don’t expect. But then you know it’s coming from God, and he’s raising up your team to stand with you.

Ray and Marti have served on three continents together as missionaries.

We often think of Australia as a Christian nation. What’s the biggest spiritual need in Australia?

RW: Passion. Australia is a very comfortable place to live. … Most people don’t feel like they need God. The weather’s nice, the government’s generous … and yet at the same time, they are searching—especially the younger folks: the under 36, the under 30. Sadly, they seem to have decided that historic Christianity is not the solution, so they are getting into a lot of spirituality that doesn’t have much logic or any tangible roots. They just think, “There has to be more,” so they make up their own.

What is the biggest bridge to the gospel in Australia?

MW: You have to be authentic and genuine in Australia. When you look at a culture and they have a gazillion different words for one thing, you know that’s important in their culture, and they have so many slang words for being authentic or genuine. They have fair dinkum, dinky di, ridgy didge, true blue. …You have to prove yourself as being genuine and authentic, and that takes relationship in order to be able to do that.

They have something in their culture that they call “mateship.”… You know how they say, “G’day mate?” Americans can interpret that as just as “Hi, friend,” but it’s not that at all. … If you get called a mate, it has obligations that you have to meet, so it’s a very significant thing. They take friendship very seriously.

RW: And if you’re ever going to listen to somebody about something important like a relationship with Jesus, then the person you’re going to be most likely to listen to is your mate.

Describe what ministry would like for someone wanting to serve with TEAM in Australia.

RW: You’d have to be willing to come in and work with, and most likely under, Australian leadership. … So what you’d be doing is evangelism and discipleship. You might have some teaching opportunities in a small group setting or preaching opportunities, but we don’t do medical work. We’re not trying to set up big institutions of any sort. We’re trying to go out and connect with people and tell them about Jesus.

With a growing spiritual need and opportunity for the gospel in North America, how do you respond to someone who asserts that you should stay “here” instead of serving overseas?

RW: The tourist literature calls Adelaide the city of churches, but really it’s the city of church buildings. … We just took half a day and went around taking pictures of church buildings that are not churches any more. They are nightclubs. They’re restaurants. They’re daycare centers. There was one that was a lingerie store, a doctor’s office, a mortgage company. And they all used to be church buildings, and now they’re deserted. They’re used for other things.

If you took all the people in the world … and went around and asked them all, “Are you a Christian?” about a third of the people in the world would say, “Yes.” … Another third of the people in the world live close enough to that third, so that they could be exposed to the gospel without anything unusual or unique happening. But a third of the people in the world live in a situation where they could live their whole lives and die and never be exposed to somebody that could share the gospel with them. …

America fits mostly into that first third. Most of the people in America would either say they’re a Christian or be very near someone who was. Australia is mostly in the second third. Yeah, there are some believers there but most of the Australian people have no idea about the gospel. … So I would say, if you want to focus on the third that says they’re Christians but may or may not be, you can stay here. But if you’re really concerned about the other two thirds, Australia is a pretty good place to start.

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Loving Like Jesus Cross-Culturally (Part 1)

By Megan Lunsford • 23 Apr, 2024

When seeking to serve cross-culturally with an authentic love for others, there’s no better example for us than Jesus. If we sat around a table and threw out the question, “How do we love like Jesus?” I think we would have several commonalities as we respond. For example, Jesus loved all people right where they were. He loved those who were deemed the least, those hardest to love, or those who were His enemies. These are all beautiful realities of the heart of Jesus. When we step into relationships, it can be easier to take on the warmer, more gracious gestures of Jesus’ love, especially in cross-cultural relationships. Think about it––when doing life with those who look and act differently than us, we are already out of our comfort zones and would rather keep things as simple and familiar as possible. But there are other facets of Jesus’ heart we often overlook that can transform us and others even more into His likeness. Jesus is love because God is love. Everything Jesus did was out of love; it’s the mere definition of who He is. As followers of Jesus, He calls us to the same: “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.” (1 John:7-12) Every display of love we offer to others is an opportunity for them to encounter the ultimate love of the Father. That’s a pretty big deal! In this article, we’ll look at three expressions of Jesus’ love that we tend to overlook when engaging others cross-culturally. (Next month, we’ll look at three more.) 1. Jesus loved sacrificially. Everywhere Jesus went, crowds followed Him. We even see times in Scripture where Jesus had plans to step away for time alone but those who were hurting found Him and He had compassion on them and stayed with them. Can you imagine rarely having any time to yourself but, instead, constantly being surrounded by crowds of people wanting help from you? Jesus loved sacrificially. He welcomed all who came to Him with love and compassion, never turning anyone away. “When He saw the crowds, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” (Matthew 9:36) In the same way, we can make room in our lives for Jesus to bring sacrificial interruptions which, in His eyes, are orchestrated encounters to transfer His love to others. It can be tempting to be so “on mission” that we are full steam ahead and find ourselves frustrated when the Holy Spirit sends an interruption into our path that we feel we don’t have time for. Or, perhaps, we have scheduled a meet-up but it’s the norm in another culture to be 30 minutes or an hour late. We anxiously think through how it will affect whatever we have planned next. While it’s normal to feel a little stressed, what if the very "interruption” standing in front of you was really a divine appointment sent by God? Or what if that person running late experiences how peaceful and gracious you are in adapting to their culture and therefore, they can encounter a beautiful display of Jesus’ love? To truly represent Christ, we should remain ready and willing for each assignment the Lord sends into our path, no matter the cost or how much we will have to re-route our day. He is always a hundred steps ahead and will work all things for His glory and our good. 2. Jesus loved by discerning each situation well. Think about how many situations Jesus had to respond to on a daily basis. We read in Scripture that there were lines of people waiting to be healed by Him, talk to Him, hear His teachings, or simply touch the hem of His robe. Jesus was fully dependent on His Father to discern each situation before addressing it. “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.” (John 5:19) Another temptation we can have when in a relationship with those God has sent us to is to think we already know the solution or what God wants to do before we’ve even asked Him. We believe we are full of knowledge, so we just pull from the bank we have stored within and go with it. However, when we access what is familiar to us as our default, we risk missing out on a God-given solution that might truly be the key to unlocking whatever challenge is in front of us. What does this look like when interacting with others? We can simply ask, “God, what is on Your heart for the person standing in front of me?” Then we listen and respond as He speaks. When we make it a daily habit to pause and hear God’s heart for each situation before responding, we are guaranteed to be effective in loving those around us. He knows the heart of every person that will cross our paths. Imagine how impactful we can be if we first lean on His wisdom and discernment before moving forward. 3. Jesus loved by speaking truth. Most of us are familiar with the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. If we are honest, this conversation makes us a bit nervous as none of us would be comfortable with Jesus calling out intimate details of our lives that we would prefer to hide. But Jesus went further than just airing her dirty laundry. He offered her the hope of the Gospel and a relationship with Him - a divine fulfillment that could never be found in an earthly relationship. Jesus modeled a powerful example of loving others well cross-culturally. He took the low place and spoke truth, truly out of love––speaking to her heart from His. Like Jesus, our goal in sharing the truths about Him and His Word is to bring hope and satisfaction through Him alone. When we speak truth from Scripture, we are calling others higher into all God has for them. The tricky part here is we should avoid speaking truth if it isn’t first fueled by compassion. If it merely comes from a place of judgment, condemnation, or self-righteousness, it will fall flat 100% of the time. But if it truly comes from love, you are likely to not only win a heart back to the Father but, like the story of the Samaritan woman, even an entire village! If you see someone living outside of God’s best for their lives, ask God to show you your heart before engaging theirs. Once your heart is properly postured, you can speak truth out of an overflow of God’s love and trust Him for a transformation in their lives.

Hospitality, Help, and the Hope of the Gospel

By Suzanne Pearson • 16 Apr, 2024

TEAM Canada provides warm welcome and trusted friendships for diaspora populations living far from their native countries. As TEAM Canada workers Peter and Ruth (names changed) drive from their home to a nearby community center, they pass numerous apartment buildings and townhouses. Most of the families who live there are immigrants. They’ve left their countries of origin due to political unrest, trauma, and other difficulties. They’ve left family, friends, homes, jobs, and personal wealth behind. They search for peace, justice for the oppressed, and rest from fear and weariness. And as they adjust to a new country and a new language, they are often very isolated from others around them. “The sad reality is most immigrants are never even invited inside a Canadian home,” says Ruth. Peter and Ruth and their team try to change that reality. For the last nine years, the team, which includes workers from partner organizations as well as volunteers, has held English classes at the community center. Three days a week, over 60 students from more than 20 countries come together to learn English as well as to fellowship together and receive practical help in assimilating to a new normal. Meeting Needs and Building Trust That practical help may come in the form of procuring furniture, clothes, or dishes for newcomers, assistance with creating a resume and finding a job, or teaching people how to navigate Canadian laws and the medical system. As these tangible needs are met, relationships are built. “We invite them into our homes for meals and games,” Ruth shares. “We take them on hiking trips, picnics, outings, and out for coffee.” This is particularly important in this type of ministry because most immigrants come to Canada from cultures that value hospitality. Conversely, Canadians do not typically prioritize hospitality and consequently many newcomers feel lonely and isolated. Inviting folks to various gatherings and outings allows the team to spend extended time hearing people’s stories, struggles, hopes, and dreams. When she speaks about building friendships, Ruth’s heart for the people she serves is evident. “Hearing their stories, it’s easy to love them, and many have become close friends,” Ruth says. “We recognize the value of steady one-on-one relationships.”