Seeking to create safe, inclusive spaces to explore life, faith and spirituality
We believe every life finds greater clarity, purpose, belonging and wholeness when seen through God’s Story & lived in loving community After working as a chaplain in a Christian school and seeing little engagement with God in the lives of the students, my prayer was “God, how can we present your Word in a way that wi
ll capture their attention and see real transformation?”
Then in 2014 Travis Johnson (now director of AccessTheStory) brought a team to run a camp for our senior class where we journeyed through the whole Bible story together. This is what I’ve been praying for,” and I knew from that moment that this is the kind of ministry I needed to be involved with. After the camp I was able to team up with Travis and the team from AccessTheStory and be involved in a number of experiential events that they have run; as well as be trained to run them myself. We’re really excited about what God is doing through AccessTheStory, and are thrilled to be seeing these experiences happen in Queensland. We’ve found this to be a powerful approach that helps people own their faith, grow in their personal relatonship with God and become more actively involved in God’s Mission of Restoraton. Since then I have also had the opportunity to use what I’m learning to facilitate various discovery-based story experiences including using this approach to zoom into the stories of different Bible characters and present their stories using the methods learnt with AccessTheStory. We are seeing some great impact in people’s lives already. We’ve also have the opportunities to present God’s Story in the public space at festivals such as Toowoomba Streets & Lanes and Toowoomba Languages and Cultures festivals, and are keen to see what other opportunities may be suitable. In 2019 we received greater freedom from AccessTheStory to expand the mission God is building in our local context, and we’ve named this “LifeStory Ministries,” because “Every Life Matters! We believe every life finds greater clarity, purpose, belonging and wholeness when seen through God’s Story!”
Travis and Pixi Johnson and family, and the team and tribe around AccessTheStory have had a huge impact on us, our understanding of God and the way we do ministry; and this will continue to shape who we are and the way we seek to help others. We are so grateful to them and look forward to continuing a great partnership with them. I continue to be an Agent with AccessTheStory and am more than happy to help facilitate their experiences in your context. You can find out more about them on their webpage, www.AccessTheStory.com! It’s great to see how God brings transformation in the lives of others as we provide space that helps remove obstacles and Him engage in their lives. At the end of 2020 God moved us to Adelaide to complete a DTS at Youth With A Mission (YWAM). We have since moved to Port Pirie in South Australia's Mid-north and we're excited to see how the journey continues in this new context. Blessings in Christ,
Mike & Rayleen Smith
LifeStory Ministries
Lives Interwoven in God’s Story
Adelaide, South Australia
