Where will you settle down?….and….Where will you be for Christmas?

On the 14th of December 2009, we drove out of a “normal life” on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, and set off on our A-DVenture! And what a journey it has been! We have been through every State and Territory in Australia. We have crossed off many places on our “would love to see” List and added so many more…. It is a perplexing anomaly that. The more we travel and experience, the more we want to travel and experience. The journey has been long and varied. The purpose….to serve God. To broaden our childrens’ horizons. To grow closer as a family! To step out in faith, surrender our agenda and go where He leads. Sounds simple enough, I guess. But giving up the security of regular income, a Home, friends, family, our Church, School etc was HUGE! We went from a nice home with nice neighbours (whom we lovingly referred to as our extended pantry), with all the accompanying creature comforts….to Home-Schooling 4 Primary School children, living in a camper trailer, driving a banged up Troop Carrier heading out into the wide blue yonder of possibilities but no definites! We became Homeless, vagrant people wandering over hill and dale looking for opportunities to serve God through the wider ministries of Mobile Mission Maintenance (M.M.M) and Mothers Of Preschoolers (M.O.P.S) and Daniel taking ‘paid’ work as an Electrical Contractor wherever he could.

Two years and some 80,000kms later we are contemplating another change. We are preparing to settle down. Sounds so weird to say that, but there you have it. We have been praying about this for some time. We even wondered if we should spend another year on the road. It is not to be. So without holding you in suspenders for too much longer….we are pointing the Troopy’s nose towards Malanda, North Queensland. This will be our new Home-town. We have already enrolled the children into School (I think you can sense my head-space) and look forward to making a Home again, even though that means starting from scratch. My older sister, Brother in law and their 3 children live in Redlynch, in nearby Cairns. Daniel’s Parents, Sister and Nephews live in nearby Townsville. The rest of my family live in South East Queensland. At least it is the same State!

However, the reason we are going there is because we feel that is where The Lord wants us. He showed me a very clear vision of a Christian Campsite in Malanda. I had no idea where it was, at the time having never seen it before, I just knew it was a Christian campsite in North Queensland. Later we googled “Christian campsites north Queensland” and came across a campsite with the exact same picture God had given me in the vision! So we’re heading to Malanda! At this stage I have no idea what to do about the vision I had…whether we are to work at that Campsite..? We don’t even know if they’re looking for someone (or a family of 6 very handy someones!) We are praying about the next step…. But at this stage, whilst we have the children enrolled into the Christian School in Atherton, we have no home, no prospect of a home, no money to buy or rent a home, no furniture, nothing except for our camper trailer and 4WD! And yet we have a personal promise from God! That is enough!

The other question we get asked all the time is…. “Where will you be for Christmas?” This one has been a bit trickier to answer. We have really prayed about that too. After months of being in limbo, waiting on the Lord, we now know that we are to make the 4,300km journey to be with family on The Sunshine Coast in QLD for Christmas! This means days of constant travelling. And we may be cutting it fine. We are once again struggling to make ends meet, after some car repairs in Perth have set us back a fair way, so we need to stop and work. Daniel has lined up some work on properties along The Nullarbor and we hope to drop in on a beautiful friend in Mildura along the way. It’s funny you know….I had a really strong feeling that we would be going overseas for a holiday, that The Lord was leading us into a time of Blessing and Provision for our obedience to His call. I again had a vision of The Lord walking along a foreign beach beside me, covering my eyes with his hands, saying “I could show you where you are going, but it is a surprise!” I have diligently prepared our Passport Application Forms, and it has taken quite a bit of back and forth correspondence to get them ready, chasing down a new Marriage Certificate and getting a dear friend to fill out the official ‘I have known this person for more than 12 months’ part of each of the 6 forms! Now they are ready to be processed we cannot afford to submit them. The financial cost will eat into our already stretched to it’s limit - budget. We are once again waiting on The Lord, for His wisdom, His timing, His prompting, His provision. His resources are infinite! We simply cannot do this in our own strength!

We make our Plans…and He directs our Paths!