Uluru

P3391 Personal testimony.

/ DVH

Hubby and I have made bible delivery trips all around Australia from top to bottom and side to side, for the past 21 years, approximately 280,000 kms. We lost count! God called us, when we were in the middle of Australia, staying at Uluru. My dear hubby was in terrible pain at the time. The L4/5 discs in his back were disintegrating, plus he couldn’t sit for long periods of time, and he couldn’t work anymore.

The bank wanted to repossess our house at that time. Undaunted, hubby had faithfully finished a 3 year bible college course lying flat on his back, most of the time on the floor! He had bone crunching against bone so it was not nice. A dear friend paid for us to fly to Uluru, and he shared his accommodation with us.

I like to tell people that my husband walked all the way from Brisbane to Uluru, because he literally did. Apart from going up and coming down again, he walked the aisles of that plane, both ways, in terrible pain. They had to put him in a wheelchair to get him on and off, because he could not manage the stairs. A bit later he had an operation for those discs and praise God, the pain left. But at that time we were both praying and waiting on the Lord to find out if there was anything He wanted us to do for His kingdom. 

On the very last day before we flew back home again, we decided to scrape up our pennies and invest in a hire car from Uluru, and go out to Mt Conner, which was about 147 kms away. The picture above shows you the area. We climbed out of the car to look at this interesting formation of rock, and hubby very carefully warned me to lock all the doors, because the car was not ours. So I did. 

The scene wasn’t all that riveting, just a huge lump of mesa rock far far away. Plus, by this stage we had taken some truly great pictures of Uluru. Now that is some rock!  But we took pictures anyway, then we went to leave. Poor hubby was taking pain killers for his back so he could manage the never-ending pain, so he was a bit vague. That’s when the unthinkable happened. In all his concern to keep someone else’s car safe, my dear husband had locked the keys to the car — IN the car. And it was very HOT in the sun. There were the keys, together with some  water, a very necessary item – plus sunscreen and food etc. All of it was locked away, tighter than a drum. This is not good when you are out in the middle of the outback, in the middle of nowhere! We were stranded. Yay!

We prayed for help, because neither of us had the ability or energy to walk to the nearest cattle station, which was, at the time, 65kms away. Then a Dutch couple turned up in a Combi van, and tried to help us with a tiny little screwdriver so we could get the window open. No chance there! Then along came a busload of Japanese tourists. They found what was happening to us, much more interesting than the view of Mt Conner! Bless them. Fortunately someone had a great big screwdriver, thank the Lord, so while this was going on, all the passengers were busy filming our dilemma. 

Finally a Ford Falcon drove into the viewing pull off – there wasn’t even a toilet! And out climbed these four guys who could have played international Rugby! Boy were they big guys!! One of the biggest ones had his wife with them. When they found out our predicament … which wasn’t hard to miss with a crowd of Japanese tourists jostling round the car filming away…the wife whispered to my hubby: “It’s OK, they can fix this for you. My husband just got out of jail for breaking and entering!!” We didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. 

But sure enough the four of them started tackling the problem of how to get into our little rental car. Meanwhile, they were all so big they could have picked up the car and shook the keys out!  A-n-y-wa-y … I shan’t tell you what they did, because I’m pretty sure it was illegal, but in the process someone came up with a coat hanger and they used the BIG screwdriver to open a window a bit, and then the coat hanger trick to pull the keys out of the ignition. 

Slowly the big guy balanced the keys toward the slightly opened window, and then … the keys fell off! A collective groan went up from all the Japanese tourists who were still  watching on! The keys slipped off the coat hanger hook onto the driver’s seat. Another big groan from the audience. Finally the guy managed to thread the keys back onto the coat hanger and carefully pull them out of the window. And he noticed a tiny scratch on the driver’s door and licked his finger and wiped it. “That’s OK,” he said. “That’ll buff right out.” Problem solved! 

Those burly men drove off almost immediately, but before they left the wife said to hubby, “They would never have left you alone here to manage this situation. They would have stayed with you, until you were safe.” They told us they were all from Newcastle. We gleefully jumped back in our now wide open car, drank a whole bottle of water, waved at the Japanese tourists boarding their bus, and then headed back toward the Uluru complex. As we were driving away praising God loudly for His provision, and kind hearted people, the Lord spoke into hubby’s heart. “These are your people, the people I have sent you to – ordinary working class Aussies”

Sometimes we get our assignments from the Lord, in unusual ways. We’ve been doing what He told us to do in that little white car on the road back to Uluru, ever since. I don’t usually share our personal life here, but maybe somebody out reading the blog today, needed to hear that a ministry can be born from strange and difficult circumstances. Bye. 👋.  Isaiah 40:3-8. Isaiah 55:10,11.

P 2859 The ‘back’ story.

/ DVH

Hubby and I have been delivering bibles, and personal words from the Lord, to strangers-who-don’t-know-Him-yet for 20 years, and we’ve travelled nearly a quarter of a million kilometres. We’ve given away thousands of bibles, and a whole lot of personal stuff, together with our own testimonies  about the Love of God for all His kids. We learnt – often in the trenches –  that God is so faithful and He can and will use anyone!

I am sharing this info today so other people know how to start, so they can go and do whatever it is that God has called them to do! It is unfortunately a bit too easy to serve quietly in our churches, but never reach out into our communities. Yet Jesus Himself told us all to “Go!”  Even after the Holy Spirit came on everyone in the upper room, the first thing that happened was Peter preached a brilliant sermon about how and why to get saved!

So hubby and I started praying about doing something/anything for His kingdom. But at the time, it seemed impossible, because hubby had been badly injured at work, he had a ruptured disc at L4-5, plus he was in excruciating pain. Eventually he had surgery and they discovered that one vertebra was rubbing on the other – the vertebral disc itself had collapsed. In the middle of that awful time, we were asked by a dear friend, if we would like to come away with him for a little rest/holiday. Our friend wanted to take us to Uluru and we said: “Yes please!” Hubby couldn’t even sit down on the plane, so he walked the whole way to there, up and down the aisles  for nearly four hours. They had to get a special lift to get him down off the plane, because he could not walk down the stairs.

My point being that neither of us were fit and healthy and up to doing much of anything! The Lord called us to do what we are doing now, just before we were due to come home from that holiday. We’d accidentally locked the keys to our little rental car inside it, and we were at a look-out in the middle of nowhere! Suddenly four big burly men, who looked like rugby players, helped us get the keys out. As we drove away, the Holy Spirit said this to my husband: ”These are your people, I want you to go and tell them I love them.” 

Our pastor was incredibly supportive, and we trust him implicitly. So we submitted what we had heard and asked him for his input. We still do that every single time we go away, because we both believe in the importance of  submission. I don’t think we would have gone anywhere without his personal prayer for us and his oversight. After all of us praying, the pastor came back to us and … … he asked us to wait six months before we went out!  Of course we didn’t want to wait – we were all jazzed up with enthusiasm!! But during that time we learnt that there is wisdom when you wait, because you can’t actually keep running on enthusiasm, it runs out! 

The Pastor and the Body of Christ have supported us in a thousand ways ever since. People we didn’t even know believed in what God was doing, prayed for our safety, and sent us money. We have never had to ask for monetary help, by His Grace, it simply comes. God constantly surprises us.  Along the way, we’ve made many, many mistakes, but I want to say here and now, that He looks after His kids, even the dumb ones, and He has transformed our inadequacies into His opportunities, over and over again. Father God has used our mistakes to give us even more opportunities to talk to people about Him! 

We are seed sowers. Can I just say? … Any fool can sow a seed! We are not evangelists. Many times people have prophesied over us about thousands coming to know Jesus – well who knows? Only God!  We’ve seen two, so far … but we refuse to let numbers be our guide. Our job is to love on people, help those we can, and testify to the power of His Grace in our lives. Through all these travels we’ve been put into positions where faith was the only way out … our faith has grown because of that. If you want to experience God’s love in your life – give it away! If you want Him to touch you – do what He says.

At this moment we are planning yet another trip, and the Lord has already changed our original plan – living by faith means you see His hand in everything that happens. We often tell each other, even if there is only one who wants to listen, let’s keep going out to find that one person that He loves. Numbers are just scribbles on a page – watching Him touch other people’s lives is our goal. Jesus told a number of stories about the importance of the ONE!

Lastly I will leave you with these thoughts — our God can use anything. He can take a whale and make it transport;  a burning bush and make it a place to meet;  300 men to defeat without number; 11 people from all walks of life and make happy-to-die-for-Him disciples out of them;  not to mention a kid’s lunch to feed multitudes! And that stuff has not stopped just because time has passed. We are proof that He will use ordinary people, whether battered and bruised or not, to reach out to others who need to learn about Him and His everlasting love. Our “back story” has changed both of our lives.  🙌

God loves His Son and He adores it when we glorify Jesus.“But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; He is the Messiah, the Lord.” Luke 2:10,11.