 |
God Is My
|
"Trust in the Lord and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed." |
|
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
The Next Step
When Rob left work, we really had no idea what we were supposed to do next. Rob kept looking at job ads, hoping something would jump out at him.
One afternoon, I was at home praying, while Rob was in town running errands and checking employment opportunities. I was asking the Lord what we were supposed to do next - we had obeyed and Rob had left work, but now we felt we were in a kind of limbo, and longed to know what to do next. I felt that the Lord replied “I gave you a vision - move towards it”. So there I sat, mulling over how exactly we could “move towards” living a remote, self-sufficient lifestyle when we were living in the city up to our eyeballs in debt and with no income. As I pondered this, I was leafing through a local free newspaper that had arrived that morning. Suddenly a large advertisement jumped off the page at me. Its bold type asked “Have you ever considered training in Dairy Farming or Agriculture?” And I realised that was the answer - if we were to be self sufficient, Rob would need to learn about animals and agriculture - I had been brought up on a farm, and had been around animals all my life, but Rob was a total city boy and hardly knew the front end of cow from the back!
When Rob arrived home, I showed him the ad, and told him about what I had been praying and felt God was saying. He concurred with me, saying, “It’s funny, but the only jobs on the job board that I can remember, that struck me, were farming jobs, and I have NEVER considered farming before.”
Rob phoned up the organisation that was running the training course. They explained that their course was funded by a government program called TOPs, meaning that in order to be able to get on the course, one needed to have been registered as unemployed for a minimum of 26 weeks. When Rob told them he had only been unemployed for 2 weeks, they said there was no way he could do the course. But Rob was not deterred - he approached Employment Services the next day. They sympathised, and suggested that perhaps his low High School qualifications would allow him entry to the course. But they told him it was not up to them - he would have to go and see TOPs (Training Opportunities, a funding organisation to provide training to up-skill the long-term unemployed). So, off we went, to the offices of TOPs, to explain the situation. A middle aged woman in a business suit listened to our story, then bluntly proclaimed “No! Absolutely Not! No way! You must be 26 weeks unemployed!” and then swung on her heel and marched away from us.
My heart fell, and cried within me “Oh Lord! - I was so sure this was right”. At that moment, the lady turned back to us and, holding one forefinger up, said “Unless!” Unless what? “Unless you have some sort of major disability - you’re missing a leg or arm, have a serious back injury, are blind or deaf, that sort of thing.”
Rob and I looked at each other. And I explained that “co-incidentally” Rob had been tested the previous week by the audiology department of the local hospital, in order to get a hearing aid, and the tests showed that he was profoundly deaf in one ear. Would that do? “That will do,” she says, “go and see Workbridge.” So we went to visit yet another government agency we had never formerly heard of, they wrote out an exemption, and the next day Rob was on the Dairy Farming course.
Read the next part of our story: Blowing In The Wind
 |
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
|
CynthiaHancox/Foxton, New Zealand/ +646-363-7743
www.CynthiaHancox.com/Cynthia@CynthiaHancox.com