Purpose & Destiny - PoL's Story

Last month was a great one in church of discussing purpose & destiny in our theme 'Beyond,' so i was inspired to share a little bit of how i discovered mine.

I never had an interest in media in yr 11 or 12, and at age 17 i'd never operated a camera, so when i came to the city to study at uni i started a major in journalism & did a minor in film & video.. mainly because the unit was practical which meant i wouldnt have any exams!

As soon as i got my hands on the cameras i was hooked, i loved the creativity they offered and the ability to construct my own personalised work through the editing i was learning. So after my 1st year of uni I changed my course to a major in film & video.

Coinciding with this i'd been introduced to riverview by my sister Bridget, our family was raised Catholic so we were very familiar with being in church, & i loved the energy of riverview & it's relevant/humourous edge, so i quickly decided it would be my home church.

After attending for 6 months Bridget introduced me to Phil Baker & told him I was studying media, Phil's 1st reaction was to suggest i join the video crew at church. Inspired by his advice i signed up and became a volunteer straight away, giving my weekends to serve on camera.

I had grasped a good understanding of editing at uni & wanted to contribute more to the church, so i jumped at the opportunity to come in & edit during the week. Riverview had bought an edit suite.. but believe or not did not have an editor to use it! so put the word out for volunteers to come in. I responded and started helping out, along with one other person. her name was Joelle Malone.

So we began mid-week volunteer editing at church, sharing a computer & editing promos/baptisms/intro videos.. whatever they needed. It was funny because i looked more forward to doing that than the uni projects i had to complete! I loved media but also knew there was very little work in perth, so i started to feel anxious about my future.. what was i going to do when uni finished?

I really enjoyed editing for the church but never felt it was something i could make a career out of, there didn't seem to be a job opportunity & even if there was i would have been reluctant to settle for church employment. I began making my own plans to head to sydney to get involved with fox studios, but all the long my leader Adam Meredith kept speaking over me that those who stayed planted in the house would flourish. It sounded poetic and inspiring but i was still unsure of what i was going to do with my life!

In 2002 one of our Pastors let me know he had a great surprise for me, he'd been flying overseas & while he was reading a magazine on the plane he was shocked to discover a picture of me! I had been at the fremantle markets shooting a project, which was unusual because its the only time i've been there in 10 years. While i was there a photographer must have turned up & taken a shot of me and my camera, which the pastor had now discovered during his flight. The odds of such a thing happening were so remote that i could only interpret it as a message from God.. "Get ready because one day you and your camera will be going around the world!" It didn't seem like an odd conclusion to come too, given that of all the magazines i could had appeared in it was the QANTAS in-flight magazine.. which travels all over the world.






So there it was, i felt like God had revealed a massive part of my destiny to me, i guess you'd say i received that christian phenomena known as "the call," but still didn't know how i was going to make it happen. I came to a crossroads when i broke up with my girlfriend who'd i'd been with for 3 years. it was a tough time & i wanted to run away & follow my initial plan of relocating to sydney. At the same time Adam had offered me part time work at riverview as an editor. Joelle and I had pioneered new videos - churchnews & God stories, which the church wanted to play regularly, so our volunteer work had created employment!

It was a very hard decision though, i genuinely felt that accepting the church job would mean sacrificing my dreams of global camera work, but Adam just kept on proclaiming that those who stayed planted in the house would flourish. I finally gave in & submitted to what i thought God wanted me to do, i began working at riverview.

Since making that decision & putting God first its hard to describe how amazing & fulfilling the last few years have been! I was feeling so good about my decison that i shared a God Story in 2004 during the month of volunteering, a lady saw it on churchLIVE and called the church to find out who i was.. she invited me to come to India to shoot a documentary with her, which i gladly accepted! 2 years after that i began editing our television show to send it around the world, & even went to Rwanda to shoot another doco.. the prophecy God had shown me about my future was being fulfilled!





It's only when i look back that i can see how cleverly He pieced it all together, but then relied on me to make wise choices. Why did I change my degree to film & video? So i could bring a gift into God's house.
Why did Riverview purchase an edit suite without having an editor? God was making room in His church for Joelle & I.
Why were we the two who responded? To discover that we loved working together, shared the same dream, and have the chance to fall in love and become husband and wife 4 years later.. which is the greatest blessing out of all!

So there's a snapshot of how i came to be where i am today, God does have a great destiny & purpose for each of us, and one of the great joys & mysteries of life is the journey to discover it!


The End