Mount Magnet, a dusty gold-mining town on Western Australia’s remote Great Northern Highway is a long way from the Indian city of Dehradun, nestled in the foothills of the Himalayas.

But Surendra Wesley, who grew up in an orphanage in India, and his New Zealand wife Ma’yan are up for a challenge.

Surendra and his family are moving from Dehradun in India to Mount Magnet in Western Australia to take up work pastoring a remote and scattered region.

The young couple is preparing to swap life in one of the world’s most populous countries to one of the least populous, to become missionaries in a place that sweeps from the Great Sandy Desert to the Indian Ocean.

“God does not always tell you why, but he does call you to serve him… to bring about his purpose,” Surendra says. “The mid-western region of Western Australia is so big and there are places and people who need to hear and know about Christ.”

Surendra and Ma’yan heard about Mount Magnet, six hours drive from Perth, while Surendra was completing a Master of Divinity at the Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Dehradun. It was there he met Peter Barnes, minister of Revesby Presbyterian Church, who was lecturing in church history and visiting his son who had been on the mission field in Nepal.

Mr Barnes arranged for the Wesleys to go to Mount Magnet for two weeks, and they realised this was where God was calling them. Both have lived in Australia before and have experience in rural and outback environments.

Mr Barnes said the Wesleys were the right fit to take up a position with the Presbyterian Inland Mission in the needy region and notes that “anyone working in Australia is a missionary”.

“You really need someone who is flexible and can live anywhere,” Peter Barnes said. “There are so many towns out there with no Christian ministry.”

Australian Presbyterian World Mission and the Presbyterian Inland Mission (PIM) are seeking to raise support to bring the Wesleys and their daughter Gabriella to the town later this year.

The family will live at Mount Magnet but their ministry will extend to small mining communities, Indigenous settlements and stations.

“From a very young age I had, and still have, a great desire to be a pastor,” Surendra says, adding that “by the grace of God I had an excellent Christian upbringing and education”.

“After my graduation my wife and I talked about working in Australia, since it was a familiar territory for both of us. So we both started praying and God opened the Mount Magnet opportunity for ministry. We are both very excited about it and cannot wait to begin.”

The previous PIM pastors at Mount Magnet, Bert and Penny Pierce, have recently retired after many years.

Mr Pierce says the need remains for communities to be given the opportunity to hear the gospel.

“It is our task to be available to them as God’s servants who are willing to witness to them and be examples, extolling eternal life on the narrow path,” he says.

The Pierces experienced the highs and lows of remote ministry life at Mount Magnet.

“Church attendance was often nil and I found myself writing Sunday sermons but no-one coming to listen,” Mr Pierce said.

During this time they continued to visit outback stations, serving people who were isolated from their nearest neighbour by hundreds of kilometres. They were delighted at seeing their flock expand at times.

“Indigenous ministry suddenly took off and I found myself preaching to some sixty people in our backyard and attending services in other places,” he said.

The Wesleys hope to keep this work going.

“What Paul did was to go places, preach the gospel and establish churches,” Surendra said. “Bert and Penny have done this and we would like to carry it on forward.”

For prayer news visit www.pim.org.au