Hi my name is Sam Melville, I am 20 years old, and I am an outdoor recky and rock climbing fanatic!
One of my passions in life is rock climbing! If you know me, you know I love spending all my free time rock climbing. It doesn’t matter if it’s outdoor, indoor, top rope, lead or bouldering. Climbing is an awesome sport. It’s hard to describe the feeling of pushing myself to my limits on a climb and challenging myself climbing walls that look impossible to climb.
Another one of my passions is serving others. Now when I say serving others, I mean that I love being the hands and feet of Christ – showing the love of Christ in a practical way. I love getting to know people who are not Christians. It gives me so much satisfaction to be kind to those who don’t know God, or just showering them in God’s love without them knowing it.
A Pastor once said, “to win a generation you must serve a generation.” That has stuck with me and I try to live my life like that. I am involved with pathfinders, summer camps, Ingreign and Red Frogs. I see all of these projects as making a difference in the lives of this generation.
I was born into an Adventist home with my dad a Pastor. Many pastors move churches regularly For my family, it was every 2 years. We would go to church every week, I would see lots of young people filled with the Holy Spirit and loving Jesus. They were always serving up the front and talking like Jesus was this fantastic awesome dude, seeing Him moving in their life and others.
For me, God was always there. My relationship with God at this stage was more as a friend. I talked to Him often, He would help the family out when we needed help but I never had the kind of connection with God that I thought everyone else had. Back in February of 2019, I was fortunate to go down to Stuarts Point, New South Wales, for an Australia-wide, four-day camp for Adventist young people. On one of the nights, we were singing praises to God and I suddenly felt this crazy sensation of happiness and gentleness. I felt this sensation of peace come over me. It’s hard to explain, but I believe that it was the effect of the Holy Spirit on my heart and I was overcome with joy. I could feel God in this place – it was incredible. After that night I really wanted to help God build the kingdom of heaven and as my friend loves to say “let’s make heaven crowded.”
In May of 2019, I finished my Certificate IV in Outdoor Recreation and was on the hunt for a job. Now, I had been looking for a job all the time that I was studying, but nothing had come up and I was super unhappy that I hadn’t found one yet. I had given it to God on multiple occasions. A few months passed with nothing coming up, but I finally got a callback and an interview followed. Now this job was awesome! Lots of activity, great location, full-time – it was everything I could have wanted. It ticked every box but one – they wanted me to work on Saturday! Now for me, it was very hard to decide what I would do. I could take this great opportunity and work on Saturday, or I could stay workless and keep the Sabbath. That night I wrestled with God for a long time wanting God to speak to me and tell me what to do. When I awoke the next morning, I decided to step out in faith for God. It was one of the hardest things I’ve had to do in my life, not knowing if I should put my career first, or God, but I decided God. I had to step out in faith and He ended up giving me two jobs at a place that enabled me to do more for Him. I was able to keep going to church, pathfinders, helping out with Fuse and serving with the Red frogs. God is good.