During their time in the EU, William and Betty Steele-Smith were challenged to serve God in a church outside Sydney.  So Will signed up for a rural scholarship and was sent to teach science in Taree, a town of about 20,000 people in Northern NSW.  I interviewed them about their experiences living there this year.

What has been a highlight of living in Taree?

We came here wanting to be intentional about making friends and it has been great to be able to invite people over for dinner and enjoy community together.

How has your time in the EU equipped you for a lifetime of Christian service?

Our time in the EU has helped us be good members of a church.  Our church has a large group of people who come irregularly so being at church every week and being young people there has been a great encouragement to others.

The EU also forced us to identify ourselves publically as Christians and be able to articulate our faith.  It has helped us to resist being like the world.  Instead we ask God to do big things and make decisions that might not make sense in the world’s eyes.

Why Taree?

Betty: I had always considered teaching in a rural area because I wanted to be a great teacher and knew that a rural school would be tough and would help me become the best. At uni I was challenged to have a kingdom perspective rather than just a selfish perspective and felt that through serving God’s church outside of Sydney I could use the skills I had learnt to help people who didn’t have the wealth of resources we have in Sydney.

Will: At Ancon I was challenged to consider serving in a less resourced area so I signed up to the rural scholarship program and let God choose where we would go. God sent us to Taree.

Please pray that God would continue to flood his church in Sydney, Australia and beyond with EU graduates to grow his church.