Blankets

P 3323 Follow the thread.  

/ DVH

Last night we stayed in a Motel room that was the worse for wear. The tiles were coming off the bathroom wall, and it looked like there had been a fire in the room at one time. It was however, immaculately clean. Yet, today we are staying at a resort-type place on the Murray River, right on the border of NSW and Victoria. Here’s the fun bit – the room with the tiles coming off the wall was only $AU9 cheaper than the resort. Go figure! 😂 

Life on the road is like that, and we have learnt not to concern ourselves about small things, because getting upset means we will most likely miss the blessing. Letting in anxiety also uses up heaps of energy, and we are running low on that at the moment. 1,250 kms in 5 days, 360 things given away! If we did a rocket imitation we could have driven the distance in 2 days. But then we would not have had time to stop for the people who turned up in front of us. We’ve had 6 or 7 close encounters of the God-kind, not to mention being blessed by these people just because we met them.

My poor hubby has to do absolutely everything. My contribution is to move things one at a time toward the door, then fold the dirty towels for the cleaner, and …. I do my best to stay out of his way. He’s kind of a skinny blue and grey blur that rushes in and out, packing the car. We’ve also given away 3 bags of blankets, 30 blankets in all, plus toiletries and bibles. But we have 7 bags and loads of extras to go, yet. 

One of the roads we traveled on is known as the worst highway in our state. We agree with that assessment BTW. Road trains of 3 trailers or more, were hurtling along swaying and bouncing all over the bumps. It ain’t boring!! But on one of those bad back roads – the Lord picked it – we met a Muslim man and his wife and shared Jesus with them.

In our very elderly motel, we met another Muslim couple, and hubby told these two young people about the Lord’s love for them too. They told us they were so lonely, because nobody in the country town talks to them. They even wrote us a thank-you-for-coming letter! Please pray, there are so many lonely people out here. A lot of the churches have closed, and there is limited support and a huge need.

Hubby sometimes has a hard time with me, not just because I am disabled, but because the Lord tells me stuff and he – poor sod – gets to do it for me. But there is a side blessing for him – he gets to talk to people, face to face. He loves that part. I honestly think he really was born to do this, it comes so naturally to him. I have to gird up my loins and pray like mad, or the words fall out of my brain. I can forget what I am saying in the middle of a sentence when I am tired!

We met one guy through a series of God-sent miracles, and  the Lord said to me: “Tell him he needs a compass.” We sometimes have compasses to give away, they often have a profound message for people. So, there he was, a youngish tough looking guy, and I blurted out: “God says you need a compass!” And as I handed it to him – he said, with tears in his eyes. “I’ll say!” What I’ve learnt from things like this is that the Lord Himself picks the people He wants you to interact with. This young man needed straight talk. Tee-hee, being older has its perks, old ladies can pretty much say whatever they like, so long as it is caring and sweet and fluffy. I like to take advantage of that.

We don’t have to individually be the whole ballgame. Jesus is the whole ballgame … He’s the ground, the sky, and in the players etc. Plus the Holy Spirit is the best Coach and our Father is the team’s owner! The Lord wants YOU to be YOU, but that doesn’t mean you are destined to sit in the bleachers watching on, while the game of life progresses. Too many precious saints are in the cheap seats thinking they don’t belong on the field because of this and that. The past is gone. It’s time to pick up a ball and bat and join the game – it will take all the members of our team to help us win, and you definitely have a part to play. The Lord has something planned for you that will knock that baseball out of the park and bless you at the same time.

When I was a teenager I wanted to be a journalist/reporter. Much later in my life, God gave me my dream. He kind of turned it upside down and tweaked it a bit, but now I ask questions and write things down. I listen and then obey. Now I write for Him. Like I’ve said before – it ain’t rocket science. America just sent 4 astronauts around the dark side of the moon, and they discovered something amazing – the earth is not just fragmented bits floating about in space. You might think it is, the way we all act! He made our earth with love, it was never His plan for people to chop it up in pieces. 

Today, together, we can each do our bit. Some of us trundle down dusty roads to meet the one person who needs to hear about Jesus, and some of us will have a conversation with a stranger in the supermarket. Some teach Religious Instruction in the schools, and some talk to people on the train. There’s an interesting bit of a verse in Genesis 24:27:  “I, being in the Way…” The no-name guy who said that ends up being an integral part of the story.

I think none of us need to continue to sit on the bench or in the bleachers. Let’s decide to live our whole lives in His WAY and get our head in His game. I hope to see you there, and you might see me. We’ll both be following His thread. Bye. 👋

P 3019 Get on with it …

/ DVH

Hebrews 12:1-3 “Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we’d better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, Who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how He did it. Because He never lost sight of where He was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—He could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now He’s there, in the place of honour, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility He plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!”

Postponing our contribution to whatever God is doing right now, leads to eventual non-participation. Life roars along — it almost flies through the air, at times … then it lands on us!  And we can’t easily get out from under it. We all know there is always going to be stuff:  things like opposition, or situations that put pressure on us, and things in our immediate family that need to be taken care of. That’s why verses like these 3 in Hebrews 12 are so accurate, and pointy, all-at-the-same-time! It’s the Message version, by the way.

I’ve written about the following situation as an example. My 97 year old mother is now in palliative care, the powers-that-be don’t know how long she has left in this world. In my opinion their guesses will be all wrong anyway, because they don’t know my mum! She’s determined, and strong-willed and she won’t go anywhere unless she is ready. She has had to be this way, all her life, she was her own parent from 5 years of age. We’ve spent ages with her, lovingly explaining when the Lord comes for her, she definitely needs to go when she is called. In my opinion Jesus is the only Person that she will move on for!

The Lord spoke to us about this situation before we left to take blankets etc. into cold places. After all we were going away and, of course I’m bound to be concerned because I don’t want to leave my mum alone in case something happens to her. I’m just being real here OK? This whole thing is not about whether she is coming or going in this life — for me it is about me being there for her when she leaves. She is my sole parent, and I am an only child, so that responsibility falls on me.

That’s when the Lord reminded me of this verse: “He (Jesus) said to another man, “Follow Me.” But he replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Luke 9:59&60. 

I’m like: “Well, that’s not the answer I was hoping for!” And suddenly I found a whole lot of inside stuff I didn’t know was there. Things like … how could I even think about leaving her alone at a time like this? Or what will other people say if we trundle off and leave her when she is dying? Obligation hit me like a train. “Good children” are supposed to be there for their parents in a crisis to help them. Meanwhile, for your info, on yet another occasion, the Lord also accused the Pharisees of using the law to avoid their  filial responsibilities – which is why we need His wisdom every single time!

Then the Lord came up with this fantastic thought, He said: “Ask her what she thinks.” Well, she smiled at both of us and said: “Of course you must go!” So, as you know, we did. I had to wrangle with my feelings for a bit, but I eventually went back into His peace. I asked my daughter-in-love to keep an eye on mum and she faithfully went to see her for us. Then I remembered that Jesus had to leave His mother behind when He died. Suddenly that didn’t seem such a little thing anymore. I know that Jesus loved His mother just like I love mine!

You see, our society puts all kinds of expectations on us, and we can be grounded by them. Then we can’t fly like the Lord wants us to, because … well, you know the reasons … but part of us running after Him will mean sometimes we must leave others behind. Otherwise we will end up with one foot nailed to the floor, going nowhere fast. One of the most difficult things to do in the Christian life is to obey God and not let fear of man, or even human consideration for other people stop you – while you are doing it. Of course this has to be done prayerfully, with oversight, or you can end up doing exactly the same thing—for totally the wrong reasons!

The Christian life is full of widely, wildly different alternatives. The only hope we have to make it through these scenarios is to know His voice, and obey Him. Plus I always ask for His voice through the scriptures! I refuse to just listen to voices. satan can disguise himself as an angel of light. When I am in doubt, I give everything back to Jesus and then I make sure I leave it there. The God Who made this world can deal with my inadequacies and fears, and letting go is a good beginning.

However, there are times when we don’t get answers, because we’ve allowed double mindedness to step in. When that happens to me, I try to repent quickly and then wait for further instructions. We’ve seen my mum since we’ve been back, and she was fine about our 8 day absence. She loved the photos we’ve shown her, as well as the testimonies, and even more importantly – she realised she was part of what we did because of her faith that He would take care of all of us. 

I do hope this little testimony helps somebody who needs to know that God can do anything but fail. What we need to do, sometimes, is just get on with it. Bless you! 👋.

P 3014 On our trip.

/ DVH

Today, I just want to tell you one story – it’s about a single family. While we were on the road, we heard story after story of dreadful hardship, and it was overwhelming each time. BTW, all the government agencies are totally swamped, the need is so great. By the time we got to our last stop, we were so tired. We went to that destination to drop blankets and food into a men’s shelter. 

As we drove into our accommodation, on the right hand side of our cabin, there was a family. They were packing up to leave. They did not have a car, or even suitcases – everything they owned was in a series of medium sized plastic containers, and they were moving and stacking them away from the unit door. These containers each had labels on them with a person’s name on it. The Lord spoke to my heart and said: “These people are homeless – they have nothing, and nowhere to go.”

It transpired that the managers of the place had given them 4 nights to stay there for free — it had been so bitterly cold they took pity on them. But now this nice couple were caught because they didn’t own the facility, they managed the property for someone else and their employer would not have been happy that they let them stay for free.The family was quite literally moving on and they had nowhere to go. We started to pray. We didn’t even unpack, hubby went to talk to the father. 

Every single thing they owned was in those plastic containers.They also had a tent, and had been previously camping by the river, but it became too cold for them to continue to do that, because the two youngest kids were fairly small. The little girl was about 4 or 5, and still in nappies. the other child about 6 years old. He had a fishing pole and he was practicing casting about, presumably hoping to catch fish. The Lord said: “He is trying to help.” 

Hubby quickly ascertained that they had called some relatives for aid, but they were uncertain anyone would come because their extended families were as financially strapped as they were. Then he told the father that we were giving away blankets and food and asked if they needed anything? The father nodded and told hubby he would take 2 blankets and we also gave them all the food we had for the men’s shelter. Hubby queried the man gently about only taking 2 blankets, and only then he said 4 would be better. 

My dear husband emptied his wallet to provide them with some money, because they had no funds at all. He prayed for them, and hugged the wife, who was weeping and weeping. The little girl was attracted to him, she kept wanting to shake his hand. We’d bought a cute stuffed toy, as a gift for someone, and the Lord indicated it was to be given to her. She was so excited about it, and carried it around.. I’m pretty sure there weren’t many stuffed toys in their boxed belongings! 

We asked them what else they needed etc. and then we went off to the shops to get things like milk and nappies. Plus we also managed to replace the food and blankets we were originally taking to the men’s shelter! Then the little family went and settled down outside to wait. Their husband informed mine that someone was coming along to collect them all … eventually.They had a teenage boy with them who had attached himself to the group. He had just lost his mum, and this sweet couple, who already had a lot of things to deal with, took him in. 

Before we left them, hubby gave the younger children little books. Their mother started reading to them about Jesus right away. The Lord was quite clear with us, He told us what we could do, and what we could not. So we just did what He said, and prayed – lots. Because we were just passing through, we could not solve their entire problem.

The money hubby gave to this family was not spare. We couldn’t afford to buy all that extra stuff either — but almost immediately, somebody put funds in our account and God provided for us – and them! Plus we were also able to witness to the manager and his wife and commend them for their generosity. The family was gone the next day.

Nobody sets out to be homeless, without a job or money, but life happens to all of us. “But You, O God, do see trouble and grief; You consider it to take it in hand. The victim commits himself to You; You are the Helper of the fatherless.” Psalm 10:14. “Rich and poor have this in common: The LORD is the Maker of them all.” Proverbs 22:2. Bye. 👋

P 2990 The great wall of blankets … as seen from space!

/ DVH

“If we are out of our mind [just unstable fanatics as some critics say], it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for your benefit. For the love of Christ controls and compels us, because we have concluded this, that One died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, so that all those who live would no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and was raised for their sake. 

But all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ [making us acceptable to Him] and gave us the ministry of reconciliation [so that by our example we might bring others to Him], that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting people’s sins against them [but canceling them]. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation [that is, restoration to favour with God].” 2 Corinthians 5:13-15,18-19 AMP.

Well you could easily think that hubby and I have lost the plot…until you read 2 Corinthians 5. Then, hopefully, maybe not! It seems the Apostle Paul also suffered from the same idiosyncrasies as we do, only his case was wa-ay worse than ours! He went on the road and stayed on it, permanently. He preached in jail as well. Gee I hope we never have to check that jail one out!! And what Paul is saying in Corinthians above in a nutshell is this – if I’m nuts, then I’m nuts for God, and if I’m sane then it is for your benefit.

He knew what was important, and he did more than ask people to church next Sunday – as if!!  Or hand out flyers and pass-it-on cards, he totally left comfort behind and travelled all over the Mediterranean preaching and starting churches. He was not just saying “I have A message” — he is saying “I have THE message.”  The message of the ages…  and … you in your small corner and I in mine ... we two are off on the road again! 

If I told you everything that is in our way you would think we have totally lost the plot! The thing is, we probably have. But Jesus is our Redeemer and He can take our spirit of stupid and do something amazing with it. All we need to do is be obedient. We are going because we too know we have been given the message of the ages and we want to give it away to everyone we meet. Our wonderful God is incredible, He turns up even when we have nothing to give. Actually, I should say – especially when we have nothing to give! He truly loves poverty- stricken people. Sometimes I wonder why we try so hard to look like we are coping, when God promises to be our strength. Moving on… 🙄

The above picture is just some of what we need to fit in our wonderfully elastic car. We have heaps of medical aids for me as well – not to mention some little things … like food and clothes! Every single time we go, hubby throws his hands in the air and says: “It is just not going to all fit in the car, I can’t fit it in.” This whole thing is becoming like a well-known play – the stuff always goes in. And afterwards we say things like:“I dunno how it went in, but it did. Just don’t sneeze OK?” Meanwhile the relief we feel when we off-load blankets, food, and bibles along the way is huge. Suddenly there is oodles more room… 

We once took our only slightly crazy dog on a trip with us … just once mind you … once was enough! Her presence added a degree of difficulty we were not equipped to handle. We are never doing that again. Instead we are giving her a holiday somewhere else safe. Anyway, hubby went around a particularly steep corner and a packet of chips and the lid of a container fell on her head.  She sat there for ages until we noticed she had a new hat, and then we figured out how far back that corner was! What a patient creature she is… I know I could definitely use some of her doggie patience.

As you already know hubby and I are big fans of love in action. Love in action facilitated me hearing the gospel. I was 27 years old. Years ago a dear older lady at a previous church used to come to my front door and give me the local parish newsletter every week. She didn’t have a car, and she walked all the way from her house to mine. I imagine I was one of many people she kept up with. 

I was highly suspicious of her kindness, and barely spoke to her when she appeared at my door, because I had 3 little kids who needed my attention. However, that lady just kept on coming … and when a crisis in my life occurred she was the person I phoned. I gave my life to Jesus on that day, all because she just kept on coming, week after week after week. We don’t always know what key will unlock someone else’s heart. But God’s love through her did not give up on me. She too was constrained by the love of God.

It is good to understand that loving God and others, starts with our obedience to what He has told us to do.“Therefore I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies [dedicating all of yourselves, set apart] as a living sacrifice, holy and well-pleasing to God, which is your rational (logical, intelligent) act of worship.” Romans 12:1. 

I have absolutely no idea what God could possibly want with my busted elderly body, not to mention dear hubby’s bad back! My theory is this – let’s all just live our lives presenting whatever we have to Him, following Him. Visiting our neighbours, or people in hospital or old people’s homes, shut-in mothers, plus genuinely caring for those people who work alongside us. We may never reach multitudes, but anybody can talk to one person! Let’s live this life, stuffing our cars full of blankets. ‘Cos love looks like something. Bye. 👋

P 2942 Obedience is a great healer.

/ DVH

Be-ca-use … as we are going off to do what He told us to do, He can heal us. I’m not just talking about ailments, although He loves to heal those too! I’m talking about the kind of troubles that say: “I’ve been alive a while and people-jumped-all-over-me-with-their-hobnail-boots-on … and hurt me badly..” So many Christians are sitting around with hurt feelings, waiting for God to heal them, so they can do something for the Lord. … Because their mother, father, spouse, kid – has been, or is still being – mean to them. Bin there dun that, the t-shirt was a dud!

We can’t change that behaviour … IT’S IN THE PAST. You can only have so much prayer that even with anointing oil you will slide down walls!! I’ve learnt, through His Grace, to leave the past behind me. Walk on. Like Jesus said,‘let the dead (past) bury the dead! NOW is the hour of salvation.”This is what ‘loving those people who despitefully use you‘is all about … putting the past where it belongs – behind you!

People have done dreadful things to each other, and their kids … Forgive, repent and … get over it. Jacob always had a limp. Some things mark you for life, but let it go and get on with your life. Don’t let someone else’s sin hold YOU hostage! And pray for the offenders, love on them, then … move on. Go out and be obedient to His heavenly vision. You don’t have to dig ditches to serve Jesus, your story may be a blessing to someone else.

I am not talking about neglecting our families or kids, or our family life – I’m talking about priorities. This world has subtly presented the idea that we cannot have fun without being whole. ROT! People had fun before they had electricity. I’m talking about living a godly life in front of your family as an example. Let your kids see that Christians value God’s opinion more than their own, and they value obedience.   

Many loving, fantastic parents put their lives on standby, while their most productive years are being devoted to raising their children, and contributing to the kid’s well-being. Protecting and helping your kids can become a habit that is hard to break — even when the little darlings are turning 55 soon! That person we fuss over is a grown up, by the way. The best way to learn about this life is to live it!

We have carefully cultivated a million reasons why we can’t be involved in that banquet the Lord talked about in Matthew 22:1–14 and Luke 14:15–24… ’I got married. I bought a field. I’m just too busy!’  That banquet story is not just about heaven, it is about here and now. Do yourself a favour, don’t ever be too busy to be obedient to the Lord! That is a slippery slide that leads right out of the building.

Many bits of my body either don’t work, or constantly complain at me, it would be easy to sit in a corner and wait to die. Somebody I love is doing that with their life, even as I am writing this blog. It’s sad. We have no control over the time of our own departure – unless we make a dumb decision to take the matter into our own hands! Our time is in HIS hands. I’m not trying to criticise others for their choices, but that’s not what I call a LIFE.

Hubby and I always have so much fun together on the road, but his back is often pretty dreadful. Sometimes he can’t hear or see as well as he used to, and now his memory falls out on him like money slips out of a purse with a hole in it! I used to rely on his memory, mainly because I can’t remember what I said 5 minutes ago – and the harder I try to locate it, the less successful I am. Hubby is a bit younger than I am. He is younger by … …mind your own business … so now we both have to rely upon God to remind us, because we are both terrible at it.

We go on the road and we drive thousands of kilometres simply to obey God. The Lord has sent us to care for the people that He knows are waiting for someone to come and help them understand what He is all about! Acts 8:26-4O. There are times the people we meet don’t know what they don’t know, until hubby talks to them. Then they cry all over the place.

We spoke to 51 specific people this time – we don’t do thousands! We are just posties for Jesus, on the road bringing others the mail/message He wants them to have. You don’t have to be an evangelist to witness to God’s goodness. And we’ve proved that don’t have to be well either! Everybody likes to go on holidays, just take blankets and bibles with you. Find a homeless shelter or a women’s shelter – sadly there are plenty of those. 

We can waste our God-given time claiming we’re waiting for God to heal us, or for a sign from heaven. Here’s an interesting scripture to chew on about signs …“But He (Jesus)replied to them, “An evil and adulterous generation craves a sign.”Matthew 12:30. We can make excuses and not obey Him, OR we can limp, hop, crawl out there back into this world and just love on people, and see where that leads us. There really are better things than healing – and obedience is a great Healer. Bye. 👋

PS I’d rather wear out than rust out!

P 2595 Hubby found this ace place …

/ DVH

We are currently in Uralla, NSW, a tiny little town just past Armidale. We’re out in the real bush, yet we couldn’t be more comfortable – no hip-holes in the ground here! Hubby found this cottage on the net and it is really special. The lady who runs it has thought of everything … well, almost everything … some things are out of her control! The net coverage here is a nightmare. It’s kind of ironic how we found this cottage on the net, yet we can’t get on the net for toffee!

Hubby has been walking about inside the cottage trying to find a spot where the net works, so we can put today’s blog onto WordPress. We’re not brilliant at this tech stuff – we kind of get by, but we don’t know any clever little tricks. Meanwhile,Telstra seems to have fallen out of the stratosphere — or is that the information highway? Hah! Maybe they fell in a ditch!  I think somewhere out in the immediate bush around us, there is a cleverly disguised hide that houses a little man who is peddling like mad, trying to get the net to go faster. We sure are spoilt in the city. I know I complain if the net drops out at our house – I am pretty sure that country people are amazed if it drops BY. 

Right now I’m sitting in a very comfortable chair, and outside of the window that is directly in front of me, there has been a parade of birds of all shapes and sizes. Corellas, rosellas, wrens and finches, magpies … whatever!  There are Eastern rosellas and Western rosellas. Boy are the Western ones lost!! They are apparently only found in the south west corner of Western Australia!!  I looked them up – we have proof, he took pictures!! The bird above is an Eastern Rosella BTW, the Western ones are shy. The owner here has cleverly put out food so all the birds around come at sunset and dawn to eat. What a treat that is!

We are mad twitchers. No, I am not talking about us badly lacking magnesium! We simply love birds – especially the little ones. Watching and photographing them is a favourite past time. Hubby has taken over 200 photos here, so far.  Personally, I think photography is an art. My mother liked to take pictures of people, years ago. However, it was a certainty that she would cut everyone’s heads off. That made for fun family photos!  Everybody would take hours trying to figure out who was who? We all look different HEADLESS! She once took a picture of someone very famous playing tennis. She showed me the photo so proudly – hilariously the only thing you could see was an arm and a hand with a tennis racquet in it! 

To keep you up with what we have distributed etc. so far, we’ve given away 169 things in 2 days, and 60 of them were bibles. One third of the great wall of blankets has been delivered, as well as many other things to the women’s refuge in Armidale. It is such a relief to have some of the blankets gone! Hubby packed them all carefully on the roof of the car in our flexible cargo bag, and we’ve prayed away the rain that kept threatening us, on and off since Brisbane. We didn’t want to be a WET BLANKET! Well, I thought it was funny anyway.🤪

When we arrived here, we realised we had a God-appointment with the owner of this cottage. So we gave her the things the Lord told us to give her and she was teary, and happy, and excited and overwhelmed — all at the same time. In the end she quite delightfully asked us: “Are you guys prophet-people or something?” We laughed and pointed at the roof – the Lord is great to hang around with as you do this stuff – He has the skinny on everyone! No! it’s NOT cheating.

Our hostess was extremely excited about everything, but her eyes really lit up at the Darryl Lea chocolates. There are no Darryl Lea Chocolate shops out here! Then Hubby gave her one of his famous paintings and she cracked up. Those paintings ought to come with free tissues… …  I must remember to write that down.

I am still not sleeping well, so, of course, my dear husband isn’t sleeping well either, although the poor man tries!! Hmmm. You really find the fruit of the Spirit at 3.00 am when your wife can’t sleep.😱 Yesterday, hubby spent ages re-packing the car – I was amazed he could fit everything in the first time. Yet he dragged it all out again and reconfigured the boot. I assume he does that to prove the first time wasn’t a fluke! At the same time I was praying for him, inside the house — I think that counts as helping, don’t you??

So far we’ve met all kinds of people, and some of them I was really glad to wave goodbye to, and others I wanted to take home with us. You can always tell when the Lord touches someone, it is like the outside veneer slides off and the inside gooey centre shows. It is such a privilege. These moments are the reason we do this, the deeply spiritual things  that happen are mind-blowing. People share their deepest needs and sorrows.

 Well, gotta go, gotta do, gotta be … somewhere else. Catch you next time. Bye 👋

ps He just discovered the net works perfectly …on the toilet!Sigh.

P 2585 Things to think on.

/ DVH

We are in the middle of preparing to go away into outback NSW next week with boxes and boxes of New Testaments etc. everywhere. And the huge pile of blankets for the homeless looks like the great wall of China. It is not exactly tidy here. I love-hate this waiting and prep time – for me waiting to go on the road seems to take forever. 

We will have to put racks on the roof of the car to accommodate all the blankets, not to mention somehow fit in the toiletries, canned food etc. we are taking with us. We pray a lot when we are loading the car!! Right now there are so many people homeless, or in dire straits in the bush. When hubby rang the local help-for-the-homeless line, in three NSW country towns, all of them had a huge response. The ladies on the other end of the phone almost came through it, they were so excited about the very little we can bring them. Perhaps they just like to know that other people care.

The government in our country allocates monies to help the poor, but those funds do not even begin to cover their everyday needs – so every single day is a struggle. However if the government forms one more committee to investigate the stuff that is staring us right in the face, I will scream!! We need to remember that these people are not worrying about what kind of TV they will buy next – instead, they often don’t know where their next meal is coming from!

Monies for governmental aid are distributed according to numbers, and there are far more homeless people, number wise, in our cities… so that means the cities are delegated the larger portion, and the little country towns struggle. Aid-workers in these agencies have so little help to give to those who come in day after day in desperate need.“But God will never forget the needy; the hope of the afflicted will never perish.”Psalm 9:18

Sadly, there are also more and more abused wives and children who have to leave their homes to escape abusive spouses, and they have only what they can carry. These people have literally had to run for their lives.  Because of this hubby and I have become secret agents – which could be fun, if it wasn’t so sad! Over the phone we are given the time and place to meet someone, far, far away from where these poor terrified souls are actually hiding. Of course we pray for the carers and the little families that have been abused, as well as the abusers. Feel free to join us.

Poverty can happen to anyone. But out in the bush, we’ve seen first hand our society’s complete disregard for our farmers. The people who provide our daily bread etc. Instead it seems that greedy corporate companies regard profit over people, and they are prevailing. At the same time investors are demanding more and more return for their money, because they are not satisfied to simply make a profit, instead they want to keep increasing their profit margins in an outrageously excessive fashion. Have we all forgotten that the bible says: “In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus Himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ”Acts 20:35.

You don’t have to tell us that Australia truly needs revival. Hubby and I can see the results of the haves and the have nots every day we are out on the road. However, I do wish sometimes, that city folk would limit themselves to one car, instead of one car for each member of the family! By overplaying our needs we have created a false living standard and made the gap between the poor and the rich wider.

I believe our society’s ever present need for more is also contributing to the divide between the city and the country. Today, in all of our cities, we have upgraded normaI to mean that everyone has their own phone, plus 4 or 5 TV sets,  a couple of gaming consoles, a boat, and a 240 square metre house with a pool in the back yard. And everything inside that house must be brand new! 

Yeah I know, everyone works very hard to make a living — but while we keep insisting that things like our daily bread – or milk! – should be cheap cheap cheaper, our farmers will continue to go bankrupt. The ever-present corporate machinery has no conscience so it refuses to take a loss – instead, the farmers will. It is incredibly dumb to bite the hand that feeds you! We cannot expect to get more for less and not have somebody else suffer.

Hubby and I asked the Lord to be in charge of our money years ago. He is a fantastic money manager … However, doing that was hard. It is hard to go against the pressure that exists in our society. Money can make us feel safe, but we have forgotten what is given can be taken away in a heartbeat. God has given us such a passion to share, instead of hoard and acquire. Aussies can be great givers if there is a proven cause, but we also seem to thoroughly enjoy the idea of having more than enough. I know these things will not be popular thoughts, but they are worth sharing anyway. Bye.