Hi all, can you believe it is November already?? Derek and I have been living back in NSW for almost a year! We can hardly believe it. And what a year this has been for the planet. Praise the Lord that the times are in His hands. What a mighty sovereign Lord we have so be of good cheer folks. No matter how big the waves, let’s keep our eyes fixed on Him. He alone is the One who stills them.

Well, regarding site changes.

This site will be down as of 2.11.20 Australia time and should be back on the air by 9.11.20 at the very latest! There might be a temporary error page that displays but don’t panic.

I have been toying with this idea for a very long time and finally I have decided to switch Drawing From The Well over to Bluehost so I can do more with the site. Things are a-bouncing here in the Batty household and there’s lots of creative things happening so it is time for me to make the move to a more flexible site that I can own and manage myself. Unfortunately though, this means I will have the site down for a while – hopefully it might only be a few hours, at most a few days. But don’t worry, I’ll notify you when the site is back up and running.

I’m a little anxious about it as I really have very little clue about these technical things. I much prefer when I only have to press a button and someone else does it all for me. Hopefully, that will be the kind of experience I have with Bluehost.

It has been wonderful using this wordpress.com site and I am so grateful for the world of blogging. I’ve made precious connections and enjoyed wonderful fellowship through this medium, both with humans and with the Lord. I thank you all!

Having a place to sit quietly reflecting, writing/typing/blogging as a creative release for what is in my heart has been an indescribably valuable part of my relationship with Him. In many respects, my little desk and computer have become a work station where I feel that I can co-labour with Him. He and I have talked through many experiences, questions, ponderings, highs and lows, through this medium of blogging.

Can I encourage you, if you have anything that you feel you need to start ‘putting out there’, then a free wordpress.com site is a brilliant move for writing. That’s been my experience anyway. I’m not promoting wordpress.com except to say that I didn’t have the faintest idea about blogging when I started and I found wordpress.com just so very easy so I do definitely recommend it!

What I am promoting however, is creativity and the release of the expression of Christ in you to others! Or maybe just a platform for you to start expressing Him and nobody even has to see it or read it just yet. Maybe that will come later. Did you know you don’t have to make your site public? You can just keep the whole site to yourself and if you feel ready then you can make it public. So that’s cool.

I was greatly encouraged into blogging by reading others and responding to the urge inside me which I knew was God. Perhaps He is encouraging you too? Or maybe to start drawing or recording or writing songs or other creative expressions?

There is a great line in a song we sing that goes “We’re going to open up our mouths and let the living Christ come out and we’ll all be built up in to the house of God”. Saints, that’s what it’s all about.

I love this quote from the book Jesus Speaks written by Leonard Sweet & Frank Viola;

“Be curious, imaginative, and creative if you want to turn up the volume of Jesus’ voice. Be conforming, unimaginative, predictable, and uncomfortable with change if you want to mute Jesus’voice”.

The context being addressed in their book is the gatherings of the church and the level of creativity used in expressing Him to one another in the meetings and I agree 100%! In addition though, I also believe the principle is the same on an individual level where members of Christ’s body can discover and express Him creatively in their personal daily lives and reaching out through forums like these. We can definitely see more of Him through the variety of expressive outlets He has given us. Let’s face it, we have such a creative God who simply cannot be contained in the same old – same old. So let’s get onto it saints, His world is our oyster!

I hope my new site will be more interactive and that you will enjoy the fresh look and find your way around it very easily. The content will stay and God willing, none of it will be lost in transition!

I really appreciate more than you know, you folk who follow my blog and those that I follow, and I really value your comments and feedback and sharing with others. So don’t be a stranger, and we’ll see you in a few days!