God seems to have been speaking to us quite a bit in the last couple of weeks, following a period of silence. Though it's nice to be able to hear Him again, it's not necessarily what we're wanting to hear at the moment, as rather than receiving clear instructions for the future and about where the provision is coming from (we're still awaiting those camels to arrive - see Time2 Talk Camels), just more things to prepare.
Recently, Ruth has been sensing God saying that we need to be prepared to move quickly! Well, most of our possessions are still boxed up and are being stored in our garage and loft, and we could have the rest packed up in an evening. Therefore, we felt that we're as ready as we can be from that point of view. So, if we're practically ready, what could God be meaning? Spiritually? We feel to be in a good place spiritually, we're enjoying good regular quiet times, praying together, studying the bible, listening to challenging sermons, worshipping, being accountable to our prayer partners. So, what else can we do to be ready?
At about the same time that God was telling Ruth we needed to be ready, I suddenly and unexpectedly felt that I was asked a direct question by God. He said 'Who are you going to invite to the opening of Time2?' My immediate reaction was 'I didn't even know that we were going to have an opening!'. When I sat down and shared this with Ruth, she was a little surprised as well, but thinking about it further, it seemed to make sense, so we started to make a list of people we'd like to invite. Neither of us wanted a huge event full of people just for the sake of it, we said that we wanted to have a small celebration with those people who had been with us on the journey and who have encouraged us regularly along the way. So, we've now got a guest list drawn up!
Then it suddenly hit Ruth, it was like a wedding. There are months (or in some peoples cases, years) of planning and preparation for the big day - the guest list, the dress, the venue, the reception, the gift list, the photographer, the flowers etc. This led us to start thinking further about what preparation we could be doing to be ready for the big day. We suddenly realised that if God gave us the hose tomorrow, though we've got our personal possessions, we haven't got any of the furniture, towels, bedding or the kitchen equipment that we'd need i.e. the saucepans, the knives, the glasses, the crockery and cutlery etc. So, we're currently producing a gift list, so that if people want to support us, but want to do it practically and want to know where their money is going, then they can purchase something off the list for us.
So, here's our To Do List:
House - still waiting for
Guest List - done
Gift List - done (just waiting for the property, so we have room for it all)
Trustees - done
Website/Social Media etc. - done
Having had this revelation and started doing all our 'wedding preparation', we were in Cardiff a couple of days later, spending a few days with Ruth's parents and while there, we decided on the Sunday morning to drive across to Bristol to go to the church that we'd been a part of. It was really nice to catch up with friends before the service started, who we hadn't spoken to for a number of months. Our church is a plant from an Australian church and every few months, they stream the talk across all the campuses around the globe and today was one of those days. The talk was being given by a visiting pastor from South Africa, so we sat back to listen - wow! The title of his talk was The Power Of Preparation, he went on to say that for any event, preparation is very important, he specifically said 'how well you prepare for a wedding will determine how well the wedding turns out!' God had got our attention! For those reading this who don't believe in God, you may say that it's just a coincidence that the speaker spoke on preparation and specifically mentioned preparing for a wedding, all I'd say is there have been too many coincidences in our journey - just spend a bit of time reading through our other blog posts for more instances. He went on to talk about how all of us in life are either preparing or repairing - if we haven't spent time making preparations, then we will end up spending our time repairing situations! I won't pinch his whole talk (but if you're interested, I found a very similar talk from him on Youtube), but two of his points were i) Jesus endorsed natural and spiritual preparation, ii) God develops us through seasons of preparation - he made a side remark about late bloomers. How relevant is that to us? - a couple in their 50's, God's not finished with us, he has this new adventure for us.
Now back to the preparation, better to prepare than repair! We want to be as ready as possible, ready to move when God's provision arrives!
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