 |
Finding it hard to locate personalised, unique, professionally designed Christian Outreach items for your Church or simply to give away?
That's where we come in.
We have a wonderful BRAND NEW online store at our Damascus Road shop, with many unique, beautiful, original designs - created by a pro - for you to choose from.
|
 |
Patricia's Moment of Truth.
As a small child, I was brought up in Christian Science (NOT the same as Scientology), but in my mid teens we left Britain and stopped attending church. I did very well at school and University, qualifying as a Barrister and Solicitor of the High Court of NZ with 2 degrees. I worked over 20 years as a lawyer in the NZ Government.
Once I left home, I found myself searching for spirituality, and my search led me to a small group that were following the teachings of the Indian Master Sant Kirpal Singh. We were initiated by him just a few months before he died, as it happened. His express instructions to his followers were not to leave their religion - his wonderful writings are full of references to Jesus and his teachings. However, 'the path' was via meditation, which I found really difficult. I couldn't get my heart into it, somehow.
After his death, the group broke up. I carried on with my life, and though I didn't attend church, I always felt as if I really didn't quite belong in the world. I hated violence, anger and heavy "psychological" stuff in life, movies and on television. Though I worked in Government, I didn't like hard-nosed business folk. In fact, Government rather than business was probably the best place for me. I always seemed to side with the underdog.
I became a bit liberal and new-agey in my thinking about religion and spirituality, though. "We're all worshipping a god of some sort" kind of stuff. However, once my recreation became the outdoors, in the high country where I spent my weekends, my experience there was filled with an awareness of The Creator. I am told that this shows up clearly in my Landscape Art.
When my father died, I decided to move up north to the family property, rather than sell it. Later, my mother's health deteriorated, and from 1997 her condition slowly developed into Alzheimers. I looked after her at home until she died in February 2007 - a full ten years, almost. I had some very black times indeed in the course of these years (take a look at my blog called The Alzheimer's Carer). Most of that related to financial worries, being unable to get a job because my carer's role was 24/7, and being so isolated (thank goodness for the Internet!).
I'm grateful that finally an inner prompting helped me drag myself out of the pit by learning to give thanks at all times for the beautiful place I live in, rather than agonising about how I would ever afford to keep it after my mother passed on. But with very limited funds, I struggled in vain to find some reliable way of earning from the Internet.
Then in October 2006, a friend invited me to the church she and her husband attended. I'd known these people for about 10 years and I knew they went to a small interdenominational church about half an hour's drive north from here on the coast.
I'd never been a fan for church-going, because I looked on religion and churches as man-made things, but my mom was in care for a week and I went. This tiny church has a wonderful Worship Team. Well, the music and the presence of God's love that filled the school hall that day brought me to tears. Not only that, they were having a baptising day and so in a couple of hours, along with 3 others, I entered the chilly October waters of the South Pacific and was baptised into the Lord's family.
Without a doubt, that was THE greatest day of my life. Kind members of this small congregation - who did not even know me - brought their scriptures for me at the end, and several of them were identical:
"I will restore to you the years that the locusts have eaten." Joel 2:25
What an amazing revelation from the Lord that was, and I have to say it is coming so true in ways I would never have contemplated!
I know I was blessed that Jesus Christ reached out and pulled me into His boat on that day. Being with Him helped me so much in the last months of my mom's life, and even more so now, since her death.
I am sure all this was planned. I give thanks daily for His mercy. I am learning to take life one step at a time and lean on Him for His guidance and provision. That in itself is a huge revelation for one who has always been very independent, and it's doing me good. My daily prayer is that He will lead me to fulfil whatever it is that I was created to do.
Blessings
Patricia
|
 |
