“Where should we go next?”

As we enter the latter half of the year, preparations for Summer missions are well underway. We spoke to Julie Calvert — Ministry Coordinator, Camping and Missions, Southern Region — about her own missions journey and why she continues to be so moved by missions today.

“I’ve been working with SU for about six years now. But I’ve been volunteering with SU for about 30 years,” says Julie.

“My husband, Pete, and I went on our first mission in 1994 at Port Elliot… We loved it. We both had something to offer, and felt that it was a really cool ministry to be a part of.”

The couple went on several missions after this until they had their first children. Julie then took a step back for a few years. But not for as long as you might think.

“When the kids were old enough, I think they must have been three and five, there was somebody that came to church and said, ‘There is a family mission starting. And they need people.’

“Within me, there was like a leap … it was God’s work … you don’t ignore something like that …” recalls Julie.

The mission they ended up attending, Tumby Bay, was an eight hour drive away.. But this didn’t deter Julie and her young family.

While at Tumby Bay, the Team Leader had a question for Julie and her husband. Had they considered Team Leading themselves?

“He put our names forward … So we ended up restarting the Port Vincent mission,” says Julie.

“We did that for three years, and handed the leadership over … And then we heard about Moonta. It grows to 5000 people over the summer, which is a massive opportunity … maybe we should go there next? So that’s what we did.”

They stayed for another three years in this position before handing over the leadership and heading to Kangaroo Island and starting a mission there.

From Kangaroo Island Julie and her husband pioneered a mission in Mannum, a low socio-economic town where her sister lived and her brother-in-law was a school teacher.

If you’ve read this far you’ve seen just how far Julie travelled from that first mission to now. But with so much need, and opportunity, how did Julie and her husband know where to go next?

“Often it was while we were running the missions that we were at. Then I’m thinking, ‘Oh, where should we go next? And God would show me, or people would cross my path to lead me and help me,” says Julie.

While Julie’s mission journey may look simple on the page, none of it was easy.

“There’s so many hard things. It’s hard to gather a team. It’s hard to get the community interested in being a part of what you’re doing ….[Initially] there’s no trust between you, and it takes lots of perseverance and persistence and lots of prayer and support by others. But God’s been faithful. What can I say?” says Julie.

As with any ministry, the act of service invariably blesses the servant as well as those being served.

“It’s a God given passion. It’s part of the way that God’s made me and the thing that he has called me to,” says Julie.

“It was hard work, but the benefits were amazing. I’ve seen people so reserved come on a mission team and then leave almost a different person because they’re out of learning to serve in that way.”

One of the aspects of mission Julie has most cherished is the ability to not just bring her family along with her for the ride, but to involve the whole family in the experience and community of mission. .

“It’s a really great, unique ministry for families because every person in the family gets to participate….So for my kids, it was influential in their faith growth, and they both serve in missions now. The skills that they have and use in their churches have a lot to do with how they’ve been growing up through missions.”

Julie’s story is just one of hundreds, even thousands of stories, of the impact summer missions bring. Perhaps you have a summer mission story? If so, we’d love to hear from you. And if Julie’s journey has encouraged you in any way visit su.org.au/missions to discover summer missions near you.

You never know where just taking the first step could take you!