Forgiveness follows tragedy

At 22, Nesan Kistan had life planned out. He had just finished university and was preparing to start a career in psychology. Then his father was murdered and his mother barely escaped with her life.

At his lowest moment, Nesan says God called him to a career of service, to turn tragedy into forgiveness, love and hope. Nesan and his wife Cheryl eventually became Salvation Army officers at a struggling corps (church) in one of Sydney’s most culturally diverse suburbs, where churches were closing every week.

Nesan will be speaking at The Salvation Army’s upcoming Mission Now conference in Wellington on how God helped him and Cheryl turn their corps into a thriving church again and on how to live Christ’s mission in diverse communities. Through it all, what has driven his ministry, he says, is that call from God to share his forgiveness, love and mercy.

Nesan and his family moved from South Africa to Australia when he was eight. Despite growing up in a loving Christian home Nesan says he was very angry as a child, lashing out at the world around him. The first of two life-changing encounters came at school when a Baptist minister who ran Christian education classes at the school saw something in the aggressive, disruptive teen and began to disciple him.

At the end of Year 10 Nesan was sitting at the back of the class one day, when the minister told the students it would be his last lesson.

‘He said, “I’ve never done this before, but I feel a call to ask young men to stand up and give their life to Jesus.” I hadn’t listened to anything he had said till then, but as soon as he said that I immediately got to my feet. My mates were saying, “What are you doing?”, trying to pull me back, but I said, “What is it you’re offering, because I need to accept that?”’

From there, he says his life changed completely. It was a shift so dramatic his teachers and the school principal commented on it. Although Nesan says his parents would say he was called to ministry from a young age, his own plans when he left school were for money not ministry—until his world changed again.

After Port Arthur

On 28 April 1996, Martin Bryant walked into a café in Port Arthur Australia and opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle. Nesan’s father pushed his mother to safety before being shot, one of 35 people killed in what was then the world’s worst mass shooting.

‘When Port Arthur happened my world cracked and my frailty as a human being was exposed to the highest point. My grief, pain and suffering was enormous. Even talking about it now you sense it again.’

However, the pain of that moment was also the moment Nesan says he felt God’s call again, clear and strong, to live wholly for him and move into ministry. ‘That’s when God, in his grace and love, said, “I haven’t forgotten you. I didn’t bring this upon you, but I will allow you to use this moment to bring wholeness, life and light to a dark world.” ’

Nesan abandoned his career plans and became a Salvation Army youth pastor in inner Sydney, working with troubled youth. His friends thought he’d gone mad and even his mother questioned his choice, but the call from God was so strong he had no other choice, he says.

Nesan describes youth work as 10 years on a rollercoaster, but as an adrenalin junkie he loved every minute of it and still thinks of himself as a youth pastor at times. So, when the Army approached him and Cheryl asking if they would become the corps officers (pastors) at a church in Auburn, Sydney, he was initially reluctant.

‘I said, “If you can convince my wife, I will do it,” thinking there’s no way she would do it, but she said, “Yes.”’

Dependent on God

The church, once a thriving, very traditional corps, was dying —down to less than 80 people, in an area that was rapidly changing. Along with being a melting pot of cultures, Islam was rapidly becoming the main religion in Auburn. Churches were closing so rapidly some asked if there was any point having churches or outreach in the area at all, Nesan says.

Auburn was also one of Sydney’s poorest suburbs with one of its highest crime rates, and the Kistans were untrained as officers, completing their training alongside their work at the corps. But Nesan says by the time he and Cheryl moved to their next appointments 10 years later, the corps was up to 250-300 members, where it remains.

He won’t give too much away about how that happened as this is what he plans to talk about at the Mission Now conference, but he says they began by making a lot of mistakes and by listening to people’s stories, before beginning to act. Crucially, Nesan says they felt God was calling them to become a house of prayer for all nations. Praying and learning to be humble and rely entirely on God was essential to all they did.

‘We began displaying acts of kindness and generosity beyond our own comprehension of how we could afford it. God kept on giving us more and more and more and more to the point where we were doing more than we were financially able to do. When you become dependent on God he provides and he does more than you could imagine.’

During that time Nesan also began work with refugees, built up relationships with local imams (Muslim clerics) and unintentionally became a police chaplain—a journey that began with chatting at community meetings and ended with the chief asking Nesan to pastor him through some tough personal issues, and then to do the same for his department.

Nesan remains a chaplain today, at times a ‘really, really hectic’ role that even saw him join other chaplains supporting police at the Sydney Lindt Café hostage situation in 2014. He says the role is a huge privilege even in the toughest times.  

‘I’m there when police officers are in their darkest hours. I’m there when there’s a murder and they’re picking up body parts or cleaning streets, and it gives me an incredible opportunity, respect and permission to speak into their lives.’

Embracing cultural diversity

On the back of his Auburn experience, Nesan has been appointed Australia Eastern Territory’s Multicultural Director—‘promoting, encouraging and initiating social and cultural inclusion’ inside and outside the Army.
Much of his work is on the frontlines of some of Australia’s biggest tensions, dealing with issues of race, religion and integration. These are also global issues, with a long history that are becoming increasingly important today. And they’re central issues for the church, ones many churches and leaders have not realised the significance of. Most of all they are at the heart of The Salvation Army message from its beginning, Nesan says.

‘Some people say, “My community’s pretty mono-cultural, I don’t need to deal with this”, but we’re becoming a global village and faster than we might think. I’d rather ask, “How do we embrace this as a positive and how do we find unity in our diversity?” ‘The Salvation Army’s William Booth was always a global thinker. He set out to win the world for Christ. So how do we think globally and how do we win the world for Christ in our neighbourhood?’

What underpins all Nesan’s work, though, was a moment after the Port Arthur killings all those years ago in 1996.

The family’s house was swamped by media, with journalists camped on the front lawn and pestering visitors with questions. Finally, a senior Salvationist leader who had come to support the family suggested giving a media conference to get rid of them.

‘The only person who was in a fit state to speak at that stage was me. I had no idea what to say and they were peppering me with questions and that was the God moment. I felt the Holy Spirit saying to me, “Forgive this man.” And I shared that with the people there, that I held no bitterness or anger towards him. And I still don’t. In fact, I have love for him.

‘Jesus died so that every individual would have the chance for salvation and Martin Bryant is no different. He is entitled to the same forgiveness, love and mercy that Christ gave on the cross.’

That forgiveness is not something he has given, Nesan says, but something that God gives and enables him to do. It’s an ongoing journey, but what happened in those dark days shapes everything he is as a person.

‘My response has been to be determined to live in a way that brings glory and honour to God. That’s a resolve that I will not shift from—my responsibility to share Jesus honestly and vulnerably to all people is sewn into the fabric of who I am. That is our mission and by so doing we will see Jesus coming again and be reunited with those we love. That’s my motivation, the reason I get up every single morning—and that’s got to be a great motivation to live for.’

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by Robin Raymond (c) 'War Cry' magazine, 6 August 2016, pp 5-7
You can read 'War Cry' at your nearest Salvation Army church or centre, or subscribe through Salvationist Resources.