They heard God’s call

Tim Whale’s first contact with Christianity was through a Seventh-day Adventist girl friend. One day she told him she was going away camping for a week, and he offered to come too. He was shocked to find himself at the South Queensland campmeeting. With dreadlocks down to his waist, he was painfully conscious of the difference between himself and most of the other campers. But he was also impressed with how happy everyone seemed, and how much people seemed to enjoy communicating with one another. His heart was touched as one of the speakers challenged the young adults to discover Jesus for themselves. Tim resolved to take up the challenge, and two big camps later committed his life to Jesus.

He and Kessa decided to marry soon after. Tim was baptised and in time became a youth leader in his local church, a ministry he found so fulfilling that he began to think of ministry as a career Р an idea also encouraged by others in the church. And so he came to Avondale, he and Kessa selling their car to fund their removal expenses.

Tim has a passion for youth ministry. In his first year at Avondale he helped lead the Regen program on Sabbath mornings. Later he led the teen Sabbath School, preparing several youth for baptism. While still a student he accepted invitations to present three series of youth meetings at Adventist summer camps and a series at the West Australian campmeeting. He also preached at a youth rally in New Zealand.

Tim graduated from Avondale in 2009, receiving the Graham Miller Memorial Prize for excellence in youth ministry. The last two years of his study at Avondale were sponsored by the Victorian Conference, where he now serves as a ministerial intern.

Emma Weslake is one of the growing number of women called to ministry. Her initial call was to the ministry of teaching. After graduating from primary teaching at Avondale, she taught for four years in Auckland, and then accepted an appointment to full-time ministry in the Papatoetoe Church.

Here Emma developed a ministry centred on small groups, with friendship leading to prayer, Bible study and outreach to the wider community. In time eighty per cent of the church became active participants in the small groups, with significant spiritual benefit to the church. People invited friends from the community to participate in group fellowship and spirituality, and a number of baptisms resulted.

Emma’s growing sense that ministry was the life work to which she was being called received confirmation when the North New Zealand Conference offered to sponsor her to study for the ministry at Avondale. “The biblical and theological studies at Avondale deepened and affirmed my understanding of the Adventist faith,” she said. While at Avondale she developed a small-group ministry in the local community, resulting in two baptisms.

Emma graduated at the end of 2009, receiving the Edna Ferris Heise Prize in Communication. She now serves as a ministerial intern at Tauranga, North New Zealand. Her experience in small-group ministry has convinced her of the power of lay people to advance the mission of the church.

While returning to God after a period of partial estrangement, Orlando Berry felt convicted that he should pay the tithe he owed. The sum was so large he had no means of repaying it, especially as he was having trouble paying his mortgage. Orlando told God that if he was to repay his debts the Lord would need to find him a new and well-paid job. Soon after this he received a job offer with pay and conditions far beyond what he had thought possible, enabling him to repay the tithe and manage his home loan.

Orlando had now become strongly involved in his local church, preaching, teaching Sabbath School lessons and leading in prayer groups. Some months later he seemed to hear a voice in his mind saying, “Orlando, I want you to be a minister.” The message came again clearly a few months later. He prayed, “Lord, if this is not just my imagination, let the retired pastor give me the same message at church tomorrow.” The next day the retired pastor urged him to think seriously about ministry as a career.

Not yet satisfied, Orlando challenged God to have someone else at church give him the same message. They did. Orlando now prayed, “Lord, if you really mean it, let someone with no church affiliation tell me.” Soon after, a person at work said, “Are you really happy with what you are doing? I have a feeling you ought to be doing something else.” “Like what?” said Orlando. “I can see you helping people, standing up the front, encouraging people,” the man responded, and went on to describe the type of work a minister does.” “What made you say those things?” Orlando asked. The man replied, “I’m not a believer, but I just had a feeling I should tell you this.”

For some time Orlando put off making a decision. Then one night he had a vivid dream in which his father, a man of prayer, appeared to him and said, “Why aren’t you doing what God wants you to do?” Orlando still resisted. Some time later, knowing that his wife was uncertain about selling the house and moving to Avondale, he prayed, “Lord, if you want me to be a minister, you’ll have to convince my wife.” When he arrived home the next day his wife said, “Did you ask God to tell me something?” “Like what?” he asked. She replied, “Today I heard a voice in the house so loud it frightened me Р I thought an intruder had got in. The voice said, ‘I want Orlando to be a minister.’”

They decided to put the house on the market and make plans to go to Avondale. Meanwhile Orlando asked for yet another sign. “If you really want me in full-time ministry,” he prayed, “please give me a sign today.” That afternoon a relative told him of a conversation with someone at church who said, “Orlando ought to be a full-time minister.’”