24 years ago I stood before my session at The Salvation Army's Officer Training College in Melbourne and sang "Just where he needs me, My Lord has placed me, Just where he needs me there will I be..."
I'm not sure that I really understood what I was saying! Nor did I ever imagine that my promise would take me to the places and require me to make the choices I have. You see I believe passionately and completely that God has - through my life experiences, through the models of my parents, through the studies that I have completed and through confirmation of my wife and daughter - asked me to be available; to go and to leave!
Let me be honest: I love travelling, I love flying, I love immersing myself in other cultures, I love being able to help others, I love being part of a life-transforming experience in a persons life. But I really don't like being away from Sandy and Alexis as long as I am at times.
But you know what: I will continue to make the decision to go as long as I can and when/if I am asked because WE believe that this is exactly where and what God made US to do. It is not a choice we make because we're trying to get away from one each other, or trying to frustrate our leaders, it is a choice we make because we know (through accident of birth and no merit of our own) that we are so privileged and have so much.
Emergency Services work is, for me, simultaneously the most amazing privilege and the most painful decision. God, just where you need me, there will I be.
