G’day there!

It’s the 12^th of the 12^th, 2015 and here I am sitting in my new office for the first time, in the new house the Lord has given me and my family. God has been faithful as always. We moved in here on the 27^th of November and what a ride this last month has been. Some of you have been following my blog posts on our situation regarding moving house, and how the Lord has been revealed to us so beautifully through it all, so I am delighted to now share the next chapter (but not the last) on our move.

We have moved from a land of wide open space looking out onto plains and paddocks ready for development by the father and son landlords, to an established land of fruit trees and shade, tucked away in semi-suburbia. It is a large block of land offering refreshment with the biggest shadiest mulberry tree I’ve ever seen. There’s an apple, a pear, a lime and a lemon tree, a pool for this Summer season we’ve just entered here in Australia and water from three different sources. Water is sourced from town water, tank water and a well :-).

To the right of us is an agricultural farm for the high school (yes it does get a little noisy) and so our neighbours are sheep and chooks, literally at our window, and I think soon there’ll be baby lambs arriving, it’ll be our very own nativity scene in time for Christmas! To the left of us is a long-vacant block at the rear of a house which is down on the street, while our house is on a battle-axe block with the vacant land down on the street.

Funnily enough, (and praise the Lord that I am learning to see the funny side of His ways) the vacant block at the front of our house currently has a development application in council, and we are told that ‘eventually’ our landlord will develop our block also. So once again we have come into a land that is intended for development – and as a sister from our group commented yesterday, this is a reflection of the life of the church and how the Lord is always about development, change, transformation, moving us on in Him and taking us wherever He leads us. Great stuff!

Derek and I are really beginning to get the picture that we do not belong to this earth and are not settled here but rather we are nomads on this planet for our home is in Christ Himself and His body (which are one anyway) and ultimately in His heavenly kingdom, the full resurrection after this earthly life. So we have a six month lease and I wouldn’t at all be surprised if we have to move at that time or shortly after, although we’ll wait and see. It’s up to the Lord after all!

My mother has her own area of the house for herself but still allowing for interaction, our daughter has her own large bedroom, we have our ensuite and the three doggies are all very happy with so many trees to choose from! Ahhh….the God who meets all our needs 🙂

The most exciting thing for me and Derek on a practical level, is that we are now pretty much centre of the various geographical locations where the rest of the saints live, whom we are sharing community life with. Yay!! A big yay!!! This means we can be together more often, sharing a quick or lengthy drop-in coffee and chat, can pick each other up for gatherings, can more readily change venues if a hosting family has to cancel, and generally be much more available for body life. Just yesterday I was able to meet a sister for lunch at her favourite café and it was only a 15 minute drive at 60kms per hour instead of 40 minutes at 110ks! And how much easier this will be for our brothers and sisters than having to pack up their kids and travel out to the sticks where we used to be.

While we are still getting used to our new ‘temporary’ dwelling, with all its new sounds, smells and layout, still boxes to unpack etc (although we are continuing to cull) there is much the Lord has done in and shown us over this period of transition and I would like to share some of these with you over the next number of blog posts.  Here’s some of them….

• Letting go & Not looking back
• Taking the land for all it’s worth before HE moves us on
• Letting go of anxiety and remaining in Rest – Christ as our Rest
• God as a God of completion –the final day – the final hour
• A place where the Son can lay His head

I’m not sure what order I’ll write these posts and whether or not more will arise or I will feel not to share some of them as the weeks of reflection go on, but I know the Lord has done significant work in both Derek and myself through all of this and so I want to wait on Him about what and how to share. I am still very much ruminating on what the Lord has done!

So until my next post, I hope you like the few pics of the new place, a picture of Christ as our Land of Refreshment (sorry they’re only taken on my iPhone so they’re only a reflection, not as crisp as The Real Life!)