The sun is setting on my time in Australia. God has blessed me greatly in my time here. In a month’s time I have made many new friends and visited most of the people I hope one day to serve with as a missionary pilot. I’ve made stops in four of the seven states of Australia, witnessing the beauty of the geographical diversity that makes up this continent.

What’s more, the contrast of the verdant pastures of the South, the dry, salt bush laden deserts of the center, and the tropical forests of North will always serve to remind me of the diversity in the cultures of this country. I have visited with a South African, attended church with English men and women, I flew with a missionary pilot from Northern Ireland, worked on a MAF hangar with a Canadian, and bunked with and witnessed to a Frenchman and two Japanese men. But that diversity is no match for the diversity of the languages represented by the Indigenous Australians. With an estimated 400 languages with no known Bible translation in progress, the greatest diversity in Australia may well be the diverse tribal languages. After visiting Australia and seeing firsthand the need for methods and people to aid in Bible translation, I will continue in the coming years to seek the Lord’s guidance as I prepare to serve in the tribal villages of The Top End and in the skies above them. And so, the short term goal is confirmed. But the long term goal, as Paul says, is that “I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 3:14)