Childhood Spent mostly in Darwin where his family moved when he was 3 years old, but some of his high school years were spent in Melbourne attending boarding schools. Paul loved horses and owned 7 of them when he was a kid and he had a paper run that grew to be quite a big business for a boy of his age. He was quite the entrepreneur! His dream was to be a Vet.
Teenage Years Expelled from school, he went buffalo shooting to pay his way back to another boarding school, but got expelled from there too… drugs, alcohol, depression, loss of identity, bad relationships with family, broken dreams.......had his 20th birthday at a jail where he was being questioned about drugs.
Saved The year Paul was 20, Jesus saved him!! Who would have thought that knocking on doors to sell encyclopaedias would be the first step of a transformed life!! After running for his life from a town where drug related problems were leading him into dangers, Paul ended up in Brisbane at the home of his childhood friend. They took him in when he had nothing and his friend’s Dad gave him a job selling encyclopaedias. A long way from selling drugs but it was a good change. His seventh sale ended up being in the home of some missionaries just back from the mission field and they shared the Gospel with him. God had been preparing Paul his whole life to hear this message and a few months later, Paul (after buying a Bible and going back each week to this missionary’s home for bible studies) drove his car along the Beaudesert Rd in Brisbane screaming at God to leave him alone, punching his dashboard and cursing God while he pumped the accelerator to high speeds. But God didn’t let Paul go......that night, all alone at his friend’s home, Paul trusted Jesus as his Saviour and was re-born. Transformation of his life began almost immediately.
Why Be A Missionary? “So Paul,” someone asked, “Why did you decide to become a missionary?” “I think because of ignorance,” Paul laughed (anyone who knows Paul knows that contagious laugh), “People asked me how I knew I was ‘called’ into missions, but I just heard that there were people groups who had never heard of the Saviour, and the Lord says, ‘GO’ in the Bible......so I went.” And that just about sums up Paul’s missionary life. God tells him what to do and Paul does it – or tries to most of the time. So as a young believer of just 1 ½ years, with very little background in the Word, Paul went off to Bible College and missionary training and soon had his young bride at his side who by the way was the daughter of the missionary he sold the encyclopaedias to, the first person ever to explain the Gospel to Paul.
Life on the Field I guess 23 years on the mission field makes one somewhat of a seasoned missionary and that is what Paul has become. But it hasn’t always been smooth sailing, in fact far from it! I think of the Apostle Paul who in days of old caused an uproar in Ephesus and quite a stir in many of the places he went. Well… there has also been quite a hullabaloo where this Paul has gone. Sometimes the hullabaloo has been because of his own blunders but much of the hullabaloo I think has been from the roars of the enemy fighting back as the Gospel has gone out with power. God has given Paul the huge joy all these years of being His co-worker, of walking hand in hand with Himself: God’s Word, God’s Power, God’s Plan......and Paul’s mouth and hands and feet.
1 Timothy 1:11-12 'According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, with which I have been entrusted. I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service.'
