My parents migrated to Australia the year before I was born, and were part of an Indian Reformed denomination. In Sydney, Anglicanism was the closest, so my parents from an early stage went to Anglican churches. 

I grew up with all of the benefits of being in church, hearing Bible stories, knowing Scripture, but feeling bored by it. I had all of the precious truths in front of me but never appreciated what I had.

The turning point for me was late high school. I had faithful youth leaders persisting in sharing the gospel with me. It’s amazing how having heard these things over and over, there was one moment when things crystallised and the head knowledge affected my heart.

At a youth camp, we spent time in Ephesians across the week, and I was struck by grace for the first time. I had nothing of my own, I wasn’t the kind of person God wanted me to be, I had lots of sin in my life. 

I realised that week, there was nothing good I could offer God. The idea that he would choose to love me when I had nothing beautiful or precious, not even a shadow of that… I appreciated grace by seeing myself how God saw me. 

I came away knowing that I wanted to be a Christian, and then spent years figuring out how to get my life to conform to the gospel. 

Having lived [in] multiple places, and been to multiple churches, the collection of people along the way has been so instrumental. The thing that was so steady was that they were all Anglican churches. There was consistency in the Bible teaching. The gospel was the gospel. Jesus was front and centre. God worked powerfully through Jesus for my good.

I wanted to give back to the fellowship that I received the gospel from. The needs are ever-present. [My wife and I] were committed to going back to where God raised us and be part of the ministry here in the southwest, in partnership with those already out here. 

I would love for the people in my church to know that God is genuinely life-changing as he makes himself known to us in his son Jesus. I desperately want for people that moment I had in late high school, where facts and truth come to life in the person of Jesus. Knowing God’s personal love to us in him, the significance of that truth and how it changes everything! 

The gospel has real implications for everyone. Everyone genuinely has a better future in relationship with God rather than being distant from him.