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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Bridging Dissonance: Finding Connection in Music and the Gospel

By Emily Sheddan • 18 Jul, 2024

TEAM worker Luke Standridge and his fellow musicians use music to build connections to faith in Japan. In music terms, dissonance creates movement or even suspense in a song. It invites tension. That tension is what helps grab our ear’s attention and the interchanging of these notes with pleasant melodious parts is what makes music such a delight. In a similar way, God is using music to grab people’s attention and catalyze Gospel impact in the largely unreached nation of Japan. TEAM Global Worker, Luke Standridge moved to Japan in 2019 with no clear direction on how he was going to use his passion for composing music while doing ministry. However, after Luke got involved with a local church and began developing deep friendships, the Lord opened unimaginable doors for Luke that in time, coordinating his creative skills with sharing the Word. “People Need to Come to Japan!” Growing up as one of ten kids in a family that was heavily involved in ministry and missions, Luke never considered that it would one day be a part of his own journey. In 2016, via a Japanese language learning class in Indiana, Luke and his brother had the opportunity to travel to Japan. Hearing, learning, and using the language in the context of Japanese culture was the goal. While it was Luke’s first international trip – even his first trip on a plane - it was also his first time hearing about the spiritual condition of the Japanese people. “And just through that, God did a huge 180 change on my heart,” says Luke. “More people should come here as global workers. People need to come to Japan!” The call God was laying on Luke’s heart is echoed when looking at the spiritual landscape of Japan. The nation is home to the second largest unreached people group in the world. It is one of the most difficult places for the Gospel to take hold and grow. Japan is also home to a deep and rich culture that prizes creative arts from pottery to ink to music to anime – a fact that would help Luke find his niche in life and ministry. God’s Guiding Hand In the short three-month timespan of that first trip, Luke found that opportunities came naturally to share about life, and people’s curiosity for Christianity grew. “I left Japan knowing I just had to come back,” Luke shares. “Even if I didn’t get back to the same area, I knew Japan was where God wanted me to be.” The Lord is good all the time and all the time the Lord is good. His plans do not fail. Luke returned to Japan in 2019, and less than a week after arriving, he was put in touch with a renowned composer in Japan. The composer saw some of Luke’s music and invited him to help write the music for a beloved in-country animated show. But God wasn’t finished yet! Fast forward a year, and more connections and opportunities allowed Luke to help with music for Pokémon - a franchise that has brand recognition around the world and was being developed into a TV series in Japan. Luke recalls how the Lord began using these connections in the production world to open doors for Gospel conversations. One night while having dinner in downtown Tokyo with famous artists and composers from all around the country, Luke was asked about his ministry-focused visa. This was a rare opportunity in a setting with people otherwise uninterested in Christianity. Luke shares, “The whole time I could see God’s hand in guiding the entire thing.”

Connecting in a New Kind of “Neighborhood”

By Lorena de la Rosa and Suzanne Pearson • 13 Jun, 2024

Through creative arts and other forms of innovative outreach, “The Neighborhood” is creating connections to the Gospel and the love of Jesus. CONNECTION. It’s a common word with powerful implications. Dictionary.com defines connection as a joining or linking together; a relationship between people or objects that unites or binds them together. God has created each of us with a deep need for connection with Him as well as connection with others. Hebrews 10:24-25 speaks to this, as the writer exhorts, “Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” This God-given need for connection lies at the heart of a creative and innovative ministry in Japan known as “The Neighborhood.” TEAM Japan global worker, Kelly and her family created The Neighborhood as a place where connections are formed through creative arts, educational opportunities, and simply just providing a space for people to be together. A Family Calling The journey to the creation of The Neighborhood began over 5,000 miles away from Tokyo, in California where Kelly, her husband Jeff, and their five children were living. The kids were the first to sense God’s calling to missions, and asked why their family wasn’t serving in this way. How Kelly and her family came to TEAM is a God-story in and of itself. “God placed a TEAM Japan worker at our lunch table the same week that the kids posed that question to us,” Kelly recalls. “We had never heard of TEAM and so we thought, ‘let’s check this out.’ After that, God just kept confirming that we were supposed to be here.” After a period of fundraising and with much excitement, the family of seven moved to Japan in 2014. For the first five years, Kelly and Jeff served as a part of other TEAM ministry initiatives, but they began to sense a stirring for something new. Creating The Neighborhood Kelly and her family truly have a deep gift for hospitality, and regularly opened up their home to others they met in Tokyo. They saw a great need for people to have a place to gather and connect, and they wondered what doors the Lord might be opening for them to meet that need. “About a year before we were to return the States on home assignment, we were just really thinking about our future in Japan,” Kelly says. “We saw a need for people to have a ‘third place’ – a place that’s not home and it’s not work. They didn’t have a church community or any other place where they could meet people and just connect.” Kelly goes on to explain that in Japan, the culture is such that people don’t generally invite each other into their homes, but as her family did so, people embraced that opportunity. “This idea formed in all of our hearts of a student ministry center – a place where we can create community and learning,” says Kelly. “It was born out of what we were already doing in our home, but seeing how we could expand it and have better space.” God’s Provision What happened next is a true testament to God’s provision. Kelly, Jeff, and the kids returned to the States and began sharing their vision for The Neighborhood with their supporters and churches who responded generously. Upon returning to Japan, the search was on for the right space. “We had a Christian realtor that we told our dream to, and he just went looking for it,” Kelly recalls. When the realtor found a 5-story apartment building, he said, “It’s kind of out of your budget but it has what you need and want.” The Lord provided the funds and the family moved into the space in November 2019. They now occupy all but the ground floor, with living space for their family as well as classrooms, areas to study or hang out, and guest rooms for exchange students or others who need a place to stay overnight. The first floor is occupied by a pizza shop – a welcome amenity for the many groups and students who visit The Neighborhood. “It’s very convenient!” Kelly says with a laugh. The Neighborhood began to see lots of activity right away until the pandemic hit in early 2020. During the height of the quarantine, Kelly and Jeff used the time to redecorate the space and plant gardens outside the building. Then as the restrictions eased, they invited individual students or families over for meals and fellowship. It wasn’t until March 2023 that The Neighborhood was able to fully open again as intended. Kelly shares that despite the setbacks of COVID, the Lord continued to provide the funds to pay the rent.