God Whispers

    A man plans his ways but the Lord directs his steps   Proverbs 16:9   Once again I have changed all the names except that of Pastor Gerald Rowlands.   So … I was moving to Nambour, hoping to have a small farm to grow vegetables AND I’d have Ps Gerald Rowlands as my pastor, but we had yet to find our elusive house. I was returning to the region I loved. I was excited, too, that God had so clearly directed me to live there. But we needed a house to live in.   Sue and I scrutinised the papers and rang estate agents. There was nothing. I began to wonder if I’d misunderstood God’s leadings.   Again, Anne came to the rescue. The phone rang early one cold morning. I huddled in the hallway in my dressing gown, as Anne bubbled, ‘Nettie, I’ve found your house!’ She described it – an old Queenslander set in the hills outside Nambour. Plenty of room. A lovely outlook. It sounded perfect. I arranged to go and stay with Sue, on the Carsons’ farm. Angie Carson was a kind,

A man plans his ways but the Lord directs his steps. Proverbs 16:9     PART ONE   I have changed all the names except Pastor Gerald Rowlands in this true story.   Visiting friends in Nambour last week, I was reminded of the unusual way God led me to live in Nambour for several very happy years.   In my mid-to-late thirties I went through a difficult time after ending a relationship. Life had been hurrying along in one direction for the previous year or two, but suddenly it stopped. I moved back from my idyllic home in the Sunshine Coast hinterland to my family in Brisbane. What was my life all about now? Worst of all, I felt I had lost my way spiritually.   One sunny June day, I set off with friends to hear Pastor Gerald Rowlands speak at a Women’s Aglow meeting. He was a Christian minister whose preaching I had enjoyed since my earliest days as a Christian. He was a very popular speaker. As I sat and listened to him speak, life – exciting spiritual life –