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God Is My
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"Trust in the Lord and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed." |
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In The Beginning
Six Hundred Dollars
The Next Step
Blowing In The Wind
Thinking South
Betty Bucket
In The South Island
Selling Our House
God Provides
A Home of Our Own
What Of Our Vision?
Conclusion
How To Know God
For Part One go here: In The Beginning
In the South Island
So, we moved to the South Island, to a place we’d never been, to a house we’d never seen. The sharemilkers we were going to work for had kindly sent us a photo of our new home - it showed a row of trees, with an arrow drawn on it pointing to something invisible behind the trees and the words “the house is behind here”.
When we arrived there, we had nothing, except our little Chevette, a trailer, some basic items of clothing, bedding etc. We had no furniture, no money to buy any. And we still had lots of debt. But God provided, just like he said he would.
Trust Me, I will provide!
The sharemilkers leant us beds for the kids until we could buy some, and there was a fridge in the house, along with one ratty old couch, and a small table and chairs. The house was gorgeous - a 100 year old villa, with 14 foot ceilings, a lounge the size of a ball room, carved panels around the fireplace, and some built in drawers in the bedrooms. It was everything I’d ever dreamed of in my “perfect house” - so different from the little, impersonal shoebox we owned in Auckland. God had given me my heart’s desire!
And then it snowed - and it was FREEZING! The power was out for long hours, the roads impassable. The temperature hovered around 10 degrees C below zero for 3 weeks. The house could not be kept warm, except for the tiny dining room, into which we crammed the ratty couch and the table and chairs. And Ben (our third child) was born in the midst of this - though thank the Lord he sensibly waited 3 weeks past his due date for the weather to improve and the roads to clear! But by then I knew that at least one of my hearts desires (this "perfect" house) wasn’t so desirable after all!
Our expectation was that we would work at least one full year on this dairy farm - to gain experience and also references. But we soon learnt the truth of the scripture in Isaiah 55: 8-9 that says
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts”.
Within 2 months, the Lord was nudging us to move. At first we ignored the gentle nudges, thinking “No, that can’t be right - we have to stay here for a year”. The nudges got stronger, but we stubbornly resisted. Then, four months after we arrived in the South Island, things came to a head - a situation arose which left us no choice but to leave the job in Culverden, and hence the house that came with it - it probably would all have been so much easier if we’d listened in the first place!!
We moved to Murchison, to another dairy farming position. Since then, over the 10 years we lived in the South Island, we have lived all over the place -
In Murchison*
Motupiko
Timaru*
Central Otago
Tapawera
Ruby Bay
Motueka*
Paton’s Rock
Upper Takaka
Onekaka
Bainham
The Tory Channel
Pelorus Sound
Mapua
Pangatotara
And Greymouth*
*Note - the places marked with an * are small towns - the rest are remote rural villages or locations, all in the South Island of New Zealand.
Did we expect to move so much? No!
Did we want to move so often? NO!
Why did we move so much? Because the Lord led and we followed!
Would we make all the same choices if we had to do it over again - absolutely!!
So why did God take us to so many places?
Because he had a plan!
Jeremiah 29:11 says “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.”
And Phil 1:6 says “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
You see, God had begun a good work in our lives when we each became Christians when we were young. When we grew up and married, while he was still with us, and still working in our lives, I believe that what he was able to accomplish was limited by the fact that we had taken back control of our own lives, and were making our own decisions, and living as seemed best to us. When we came to the point where we realised we had NO hope for a good future doing things our way, and yielded ourselves to him, he was able to REALLY get into action shaping and transforming us!
Nearly every place we have lived over the last 12 years, there has been someone that the Lord used us to help or minister to - and that was truly a blessing and a privilege.
But in EVERY place we lived, there were lessons we needed to learn, experiences that taught us more about God and how to follow him, or people that helped us to grow.
Each time, when God has achieved his purpose in each place we lived - whether for our good, or for the good of another, he immediately told us it was time to move on.
He continued to provide for us - sometimes naturally, through employment, sometimes supernaturally! And he constantly “worked all things together for good” in our lives - so often we were in the right place at the right time to “just happen” to meet someone that opened a door either to reach their hearts, or to effect some future event that we knew nothing of at the time.
Next: Selling Our House
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Welcome!I hope our
testimony will be an encouragement to you! Don't forget to check out my
list of Articles for help with homeschooling, depression, getting out
of debt, decluttering and lots more! May God Bless you!
Cynthia
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CynthiaHancox/Foxton, New Zealand/ +646-363-7743
www.CynthiaHancox.com/Cynthia@CynthiaHancox.com