A Moving Dilemma

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 – welled up inside me. The thought came clearly: If you sit under this man’s ministry for six months, you’ll be back where you want to be.

So that settled it. I would do whatever it took to sit in his congregation, wherever it was.

Oh no! It was in Sydney. But I would go. A radical move perhaps, but I had lived in Sydney before. I decided to move there at the end of the year, when I had completed my current commitments.

As the year went on, I still felt flat. I knew I’d be moving to Sydney in several months, but at that time I was treading water. Going nowhere. I was involved with Teen Challenge, interviewing workers and ex-druggies. I loved the work but still felt a depleting lack of direction in my spiritual life.

 

Nambour and growing vegetables

 








 

Oddly enough, it was a television program that planted the next seed in my heart. The pastor’s family were watching A Country Practice at the time and I was fascinated by Molly growing vegetables on her own little farm in a small town. Again, something stirred inside me. I envisaged myself growing veggies and living in the country and joy welled up inside me.  Oddly enough, it felt as if God was directing me in this way.

I had several friends in the Nambour area and one of them, Sue, a single mum,  also wanted to move house and asked if I’d like to come and rent a house with her and her little girl.

I jumped at the opportunity – but the house had yet to be found. A nice big house in the country with room for me to have a study containing my huge desk. A yard for growing veggies. Perhaps a house with a view. Nambour was set amid lush green countryside, with the beautiful Blackall Ranges overlooking it.






 

There was just one problem. I knew I had yet to sit under Gerald Rowlands’ ministry in Sydney. My spirit was still at an all-time low. My friend in Nambour was ready to move as soon as possible so I felt pulled in two directions. Which would I do first?

 

One morning the phone rang. It was an old friend, Anne, from the Nambour area.

‘Have you heard the news?’ she asked me.

‘What news?’

‘Gerald Rowlands is coming to live in Nambour and pastor our church.’

I nearly jumped off the phone seat in my excitement.

Was it possible? – I could actually move to the Nambour area AND go to church with Gerald Rowlands as my pastor! At the same time! Both my God-birthed dreams would come true.

So all I had to do now was find a house in the country near Nambour and move there. 

Sue and I searched newspapers and advertising agencies. But it seemed the house did not exist.

 

NEXT INSTALMENT IS TO COME SOON

 

 

 

 

 

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