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Mateasers in a sweet spot

8:08pm Monday, 10th May 2010

Geoff and Robyn explain why they are
missionaries in Malta

“It’s a boy! I think we’ll name him Geoff!”
I was born in Australia into a Maltese Catholic family. One lot of grandparents lived across the road, the other set lived one house away. We were right into family and right into food. When I became a Christian, I heard of Paul the Apostle’s shipwreck there.
A few years later, my minister in Canberra advised me: “Go to Bible college in Sydney and work with Ray Galea, who ministers to Maltese and Mediterranean people.”
I said, “I don’t even know if I want to go to Bible college, let alone minister cross-culturally.” But two years later, that was me.
About that time (around 10 years ago), I met Rod and Karen Morris, who were with Church Missionary Society (CMS). They opened up a book called Operation World, which has prayer points for every country. They turned to the Malta page and read this: Pray that people from Maltese backgrounds in Australia will be converted and go back to Malta to share the gospel. Karen said, “That is what we are praying for you, Geoff.”
Years later Robyn and I were knocking on CMS’s door and wanting to go to … Malta. They said it would be hard to send us there. “We have no links there, and have no research on the Church in Malta.” CMS didn’t want to put us somewhere where we would drown.
Later that week I called Dean Ingham, a CMS missionary in Italy. I told him, “Malta is off the map, so we are going to start getting excited about opportunities in another country.”
Dean said, “I have just been talking to Andrew from the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES) and he asked me if I know anyone who wants to start a student ministry in Malta, because we need someone!”
IFES had just been to Malta. They had talked to local pastors, got some good evangelical contacts and seen the needs at the University of Malta. CMS and IFES then agreed to send us there.
We started Malta’s first university Bible group in October 2009. My passion is to see students reaching students for Christ. I became a Christian the same way, through an IFES group in Australia.
The amazing thing is that one student can now say the same thing about IFES Malta.
The group here in Malta is small, but we pack a lot of punch, especially with the gospel in our hands. The members are keen to invite their friends to the weekly Bible study. Five non-Christian students have taken up the invite and two have become quite regular.
As well as working with IFES, Geoff and Robyn serve in church-based ministry with the Evangelical Baptist Church.
A version of this article appeared in CMS Checkpoint magazine in Autumn 2010.