Helen & I had a scheduled trip to Australia coming up in April 07. We assumed it was just to be a few months to rebuild our prayer & financial partnership team, to spend time with family and to have a break back in our own culture. Then the Lord started to talk to us about team, that our time in Australia was to be about building team, this caused us to wonder about how long we would be back.
The next development was the strong sense that our time in the apartment we have been living in was over. This was no huge surprise. When we were preparing to leave Australia last year to move to this current “rent free blessing’, I believe God said to me that our time in Franz-Fihl-str would be around 9mths. I remembered this when we moved in as the owners were talking 2 years, but inside I just knew that this wasn’t to be our home for that long.
Then last week while we were in Croatia, Helen & I both got the sense that while we were expectant that God had said He had our next house in hand, that we were to pack up our little apartment regardless, as that season was over. That was scary huge as this could mean returning to Germany with no set up house to go to, a big thing with a family. So we were making plans to put everything in storage if need be.
We were also in the process of getting our bi-annual strict roadworthy on the car, when on the trip home from Croatia we found out what it is like to hit a Fox at 160km/h. I’m sure it was worse for the Fox, but our car lost a light and some internal panels around the wheel. This, along with some oil leaks made the car “not viable to repair’. The car is fine to drive at the moment, just not good enough for the roadworthy. We then discovered that we can legally drive the car until the end of March, but not afterwards, this is exactly when we were planning to leave. So God!
Yet now, all of a sudden we were looking at leaving Germany and not having a car or house to return to… Actually we were fine with this as we have seen God provide these before and knew He would do so again. It was looking like a fresh new season next time in Germany.
I received an SMS from my Dad Friday afternoon and in it he asked, “With these changes is the Lord closing your time in Germany?” Helen & I thought “NO WAY! He is just rearranging things.” Then just a few hours after the SMS and immediately after an hour talking to my mentor in Israel, I started to chat with Helen.
It will be hard for me to describe as it was such an unusual experience, (actually very similar to what happened in France described in the Blue waters story on our website) I started to talk about our situation but what I was saying were different conclusions to my own. I knew this to be a revelation from God so I just kept speaking it out, it was a very very powerful time. As I spoke, God showed me that Building team back in Australia was right, that moving even more into the Apostolic role was right, but that our home base was no longer to be here in Munich, but that we were to now go back to our home and to base out of Melbourne. Whoa!!!! That was absolutely huge! How do you absorb such change??!! Yet there was such peace & freedom in both our hearts as we contemplated this. Helen & I had both so set ourselves to this, to Munich and to living in Germany. So much effort. So much focus and intention in order to sustain ourselves here.
Well now after a few days to absorb the shock and change, and hearing the testimony of close German friends here who say that while really sad, this ‘seems right’ and that the Lord had in fact also pre-prepared them. We now sit in the reality that in 8 weeks we will return to Australia and then base out of there.
So we believe God is asking us to ‘even more’ embrace our Apostolic calling. To base from Melbourne no longer Munich, and that this next season is going to be about team, and team building. We are very excited as we anticipate this, like a burden has been lifted from us, it feels very right, also we know that His plans for us are ALWAYS for good and not for evil, giving us hope and a future. Jer 29:11
John 3:8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear it’s sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.—
God is good! therefore we trust and follow His lead whether or not we understand.