When Geoff and Julia Williams take a road trip with their caravan, their itinerary isn’t focused on the best views or most exciting destinations. Rather, any holiday is planned around places where they can support Bush Church Aid field staff.

One of these locations is Cobar – a mining town about three hours west of Dubbo. It’s home to BCA-supported priest-in-charge the Rev James Daymond and his wife Brittany, who want to reach everyone in their 45,000-square-kilometre parish with the gospel.

Only trouble is, when Mr Daymond wants to do what he calls “outreach visiting”, he needs to have others with him. That’s partly for safe ministry reasons but also, he says, because it’s “really important from the wisdom point of view to go out two by two to encourage each other – and that’s what Jesus had his disciples do”.

Given the size of Cobar shire and parish (the usual description is that it’s two-thirds the size of Tasmania), there’s also wisdom in not spending hours alone at the wheel every time you want to call on someone.

This is where people like the Geoff and Julia Williams come in. The couple attend St Thomas’, North Sydney and are BCA Nomads – a group of mainly retirees who purposely include volunteer ministry support in their travels. This can include anything from looking after kids camps at the field staff conference to getting on the tools or taking field staff out for a meal. 

The Williams have been doing this for more than 12 years, and they love it. 

Evangelism and the lost

“We really have a passion for evangelism and the lost, which is what we do in our own church as well, so working with James is great!” Mrs Williams says. “James wants to make sure he’s had every opportunity he can to meet people at every station – no matter how remote – and in the township, the businesses and the people who are living there, to talk to them about Jesus”.

Town visiting isn’t complicated, but properties can be 80, 100 or 250 kilometres away. That calls for a packed lunch, folding chairs, snacks and coffee – plus plenty of time on the road to chat before arriving at someone’s home, where they always pray before knocking on the door.

On the couple’s most recent visit in March, they travelled with Mr Daymond to an area in the south of the parish, near Lake Cargelligo. They had a memorable conversation with a man unable to work since a serious accident some years before, who admitted that on some days he was glad to be alive, while on others he wasn’t.

Says Mr Williams: “James, in his way, got into the gospel and the hope of life. We had a conversation for about 15 minutes and then I said, ‘Would you be interested in having a Bible?’ and he said, ‘Yes’. He hadn’t read a Bible in 40 years! James also offered his ministry card to chat [in the future] and he took one.

“Giving [that man] a Bible was the best part of the visit for me, and also just knowing that you’re an encouragement to James with his vision for the gospel.”

Adds Mrs Williams: “The thing for both of us is having some purpose and meaning in what we do. We’re not just travelling for our own benefit. Spending time with James or other field staff families gives so much more meaning and purpose to travelling”.

Two hours to church?

For his part, Mr Daymond is tremendously grateful for people like Geoff and Julia Williams, who are helping to make his goal of knocking on every door in the parish a reality.

He says there are always difficulties in helping people take the next step towards faith, and it’s always hard to get people into a church building – no matter how close or far away it might be. 

“When do people from Katoomba come to St Andrew’s Cathedral?” he adds with a laugh. “I suppose some might do it on the train… but it’s very different to someone just travelling across their suburb! 

“In evangelism, you don’t expect kingdom values while you’re still trying to bring people into the kingdom. We’re trying to provide practical alternatives, like putting things such as sermons on Facebook, which people can access on remote properties. We also refer them to other resources such as Bible apps.”

While Mr Daymond works on ways to support people from far away, there are also encouraging stories close to home.

“I visited a lady in town last winter, who has started coming to church with her children,” he says. “She was already reading the Bible but had never been to church. She read the Bible one-on-one with one of our BCA nomads... learned things she had not heard before and really looked forward to coming back. 

“We were just gobsmacked that she’d never been to church before, and we had that privilege of being the first people to welcome her. Then you realise it was the first Bible reading she’d heard in church, the first sermon, the first Christian songs she had ever sung. It was just such a privilege.

“Yes, the fishing is slow, hard work, but I think it’s such essential work, because the people are out there – we’re just creating a bridge to meet them. 

“Could you imagine if every parish in the world did this? Every church doing this in a methodical way over a period of years, and then going around a second time and a third time. There’d be no part of the Earth that wouldn’t be covered!”