by Geoff Robson

For many globetrotting Christian missionaries, the biggest challenge may not be finding their way around the world, but making their way around once they have returned home. With vast distances to travel between link churches, not to mention family members, missionaries on furlough (home assignment) often find themselves in desperate need of a vehicle, but unable to find one without great expense.
But David Burn and ‘Missionary Motors’ are helping to provide the crucial motorised support for missionaries to conduct the local arm of their ministry.
Mr Burn said the prohibitive cost of owning a vehicle for just a few months could greatly hamper missionaries during their home visits. This thought was the genesis of his plan to make vehicles available at low cost to Christian missionaries during their stints back home in Australia.
“It’s been in the back of my mind for about 12 years,” Mr Burn says. “I’ve always supported missionaries, and I was conscious of some who had come back home and had to buy and sell a car.”
A trip to Africa in 1989 encouraged Mr Burn in his planning. The idea ‘simmered’ in his mind until he retired in 2000, when he and his wife, Pat, decided they no longer needed a second car.
“You have to put your money where your mouth is,” he says, and they decided to do just that by offering their own car.
Since then, the trusty Holden Acclaim has rolled past the 200,000-kilometre mark, having been used by missionaries from all over the world. In a couple of short years, missionaries to Malawi, Uruguay, Canada and Peru, as well as from around Australia, have used the vehicle. It is already booked for most of 2004.
Missionaries cover petrol and any fines incurred, and pay a small weekly fee to help Mr Burn pay for insurance, registration and maintenance. The car is used to ferry missionaries between holidays, family and friends, and visits to supporting churches around the country. Mr Burn said it therefore helps in a critical aspect of missionary work. “It takes a big burden off them, not only financially but emotionally,” he said.
Two other cars from Mr Burn’s parish, St George’s, Winmalee, have also been lent to missionaries. “They knew what I was doing, and thought it was a good idea,” Mr Burn says. It is hoped that a committee to formalise Missionary Motors and to coordinate bookings and finances, will be established soon.
“We are praying that more vehicles will be made available, perhaps by people retiring, or giving up their driving licence, or relatives of people who have died,” Mr Burn said.