Josh Tomalin is one of our Apprentices from England. Through the last year, he has seen God work through His life and in the lives of those around him. In this interview, he shares his experience on Pais to help you learn more while you apply for our Free Mission Year too. 

Read through to the end to be inspired to live what God has for your life, regardless of your field or nation.

PAIS: How did you hear about Pais and when did you join a team?

JOSH: I first heard about Pais back in 2017, when the Gatley Pais team from a nearby church decided to attend our young adult’s bible study group. Since then, every team has joined the study group, which I went on to lead. And so, through talking to them I started to find out a little bit more about what exactly they did.

I remember quite a few of the teams tried to recruit me over the years to no success. I thought Pais was pretty cool, but I was also certain it wasn’t for me… God has a sense of humor sometimes, doesn’t He?

I joined Pais in the fall of 2020!

PAIS: What motivated you to become a missionary in England?

 JOSH: So, what changed my mind? Well, I had known for some time that I was called to be involved in ministry. I had been leading several youth groups at my church, as well as leading a young adult bible study, where I met the Pais team.

When January 2020 rolled around, I was looking around for various internships and apprentice positions to see what fitted me best. Several opportunities didn’t work out, and so in early Spring I remembered Pais. But I’ll be honest I was hesitant – I wanted to experience something new, and youth work had been the bulk of what I’d been doing up to that point.

Then I noticed Pais had different streams available, not just working with young people but also the option to go abroad – so I thought I’d apply and see what happened. But I had two thoughts in my head – I’m going to try not to stay in England and I’m going to see if I can focus on something other than youth work…

Ah, God really DOES have a sense of humor! Obviously, 2020 happened and traveling abroad was no longer an option for me, so I decided to wait out the pandemic – that is until Pais England contacted me and asked whether I’d join the team just down the road from where I lived for a term whilst I waited.

It turned out to be the best thing that I never planned to do, and one term turned into one year of doing youth work in England.

PAIS: What have been some of your highlights about being on Pais? 

JOSH: Without a doubt, one of the best things about this year has been meeting so many Godly, servant-hearted people! Not just the other Pais Apprentices, but also getting to know people in the church I was serving at. 

For many, 2020 and the start of 2021 was a year of isolation, a year when their social circles reduced or even collapsed entirely. But here I was getting to know dozens of people I would never have met otherwise from countries and communities I would have never ventured to before!

But it wasn’t just the people I was serving with that have been a blessing, but also the people I was serving. The youth at my church have faced an unimaginably tough year of lockdown, Zoom and uncertainty, and through it all it has been my great privilege to see them grow in faith and maturity.

On a personal level, one of the highlights for me has been that this year has confirmed my sense of calling in ministry and more specifically what that calling might look like.

Sometime through the year I started having conversations with the Church of England about becoming an ordained minister – and that process is proceeding rather well. Hopefully I’ll look back on this year as being the start point of a very exciting journey!

PAIS: Do you have any stories of God moving in the lives of young people through your team? 

JOSH: There isn’t really one story that stands out – but throughout the year we saw a general progression in our young people in being able to talk about their faith.

When we first arrived, the first few sessions we had with the young people were very quiet, they didn’t want to talk and when they did talk, they struggled to be able to put words to what they were thinking about. Most of them hadn’t talked to their friends about their faith, and for a few of them, their friends didn’t even know they went to church.

But I was helping to lead a youth alpha session last week, and the difference was amazing. 

Not only were they all talking about their faith, but they had so much to say that we ended up splitting into 2 groups to make sure everyone got a chance to speak – and we still ended up running over time. 

Some of them have started talking about faith with their friends, and especially towards the end of the year they were bringing us the questions their friends asked that they couldn’t answer. And those were some deep questions!

It wasn’t always easy to see what God was doing throughout the year and so often we were just focused on putting one foot in front of the other to keep going. But when we had a chance to look back it has been amazing to see how far both the young people and ourselves have come this year! 

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