Winks continued…

After the borrowed taxi driver dropped us off, remember we were needing refreshment from a very arduous 2 weeks which actually felt like 2 months, we started up the Main Street in chippenham, briefly ducked in a charity shop and on our way back out we heard preaching! We noticed this beautiful black brother preaching in the street. We stood quietly listening for a little bit and then went up to shake his hand and thank him for his obvious love for The Lord and the sharing of his gift!

He started to cry and shook our hands and thanked us so much for the support and encouragement! (What a tender heart!) We went on our way and told him that we would be back by after we ran a few errands and if he was still there, we could fellowship more! Joseph was still there about a half hour later and so then he asked if he could take us for a cup of tea or coffee. After 2 hours of joyous fellowship and some wonderful coffee, we did not want to part ways so he asked if he could give us a ride back to our van to see if it was finished. Though the rain continued and the van still was not ready, our hearts were celebrating the warmth of new friendship and joy of sharing our love for our amazing, loving papa!! Joseph suggested we go to dinner to continue this fellowship! He blessed us with the dinner and then took us to pick up the van which was almost finished but one of the parts was the wrong part so we had to wait yet another day. The next morning, the part had arrived early and they put it in and sent us on our way. We called Joseph to see if he wanted to meet us for a farewell coffee. Though he faithfully preaches in a variety of different villages weekly, he said that he wanted to take the day off to spend with us! Again, what a day we had!! He showed us around the village of Trowbridge and we all just thoroughly enjoyed each other’s fellowship! After we blessed him with lunch, I asked if he felt led to preach at all this day?! He chuckled and said that he was just wanting to enjoy our fellowship but as we approached the spot where he stands to preach, we all sensed the spirit nudging and he began to preach! I stayed off to the side and sang softly and prayed while Rick stood closer to Joseph and prayed and made himself available to The Lord! Soon, two men approached and were so very excited as they had sensed The Lord was doing something! The younger man started to talk with Rick as Joseph continued to preach. Rick ministered to him for almost an hour and after they prayed together, I heard him say that he was so overjoyed, as he has been longing for guidance and a mentor to help with some of his questions! That one hour, as we all shared the love of Jesus on that street corner, the sprint descended and we knew God had winked!!

Well, there are different ways to describe His blessings and we are just calling them winks right now, big and small! His mercies are new every morning right?! Well, we just want to share the beautiful mercies that God has been showing us even in the midst of the battle! Yes, the battle!! We know that He will never leave or forsake us but we also know that we don’t wrestle against flesh and blood and the enemy does NOT want us out here sharing Gods grace and love!! Sometimes the obstacles are overwhelming, but yet what the enemy means for evil The Lord always uses for good!

Let me go back to 4 weeks ago when we first laid eyes on what is now our little “Holy Roller!” Rick and I were making due in the cargo van we had rented and The Lord definitely blessed along the way, with all the little things we found here and there in the charity shops, to make it our home! It was a wonderful month even living in a dark small box but soon our backs began to ache and we could not cook which would certainly save money even though we were only sharing 2 meals a day! I didn’t want to complain to The Lord because we really were grateful but I did ask The Lord to put a camper blatantly in our path if It be in His will to allow us better sleep and to be able to cook! The next day Rick was out carrying the cross and as he was walking by this car dealership, the man in the parking lot was surprised but very interested in what he was doing. Rick shared with him and then said that he just felt a nudge to ask this man if they happened to have a campervan for sale and Jason said, “yes, I sure do, in the back!” After Rick looked at it, he called me on the phone and said that he thought I should come look. As I drove in, I noticed the BMW’s and Audi’s and sports cars and I was thinking, “this doesn’t look like a place that would have an old campervan but there was Rick talking to Jason and as I got out of the cargo van, Jason just greeted me with and great big smile and handshake, thanking us for what we were doing! He excitedly showed us the VW campervan and said he would like to help us. Rick and I were reluctantly excited as well, wondering if this could be an answer from The Lord, though so quickly?! We told him that we needed to pray about it. We came to the decision that this was Gods hand and so we soon became proud parents! However, the next two weeks proved to be quite trying! We actually had come to question whether we had missed God! The van was in and out of the garage 3 times and though it wasn’t costing us money, it was costing us time and we wondered whether it was even able to be fixed since every time we got it back, it ran worse! This is where more of Gods little winks come in….

After much prayer, Rick and I decided that we would not look at the circumstances! We would just praise God in the storm and thank Him, for we knew this surely was from Him though the troubles were many!! (Psalm 46:1) So….The 3rd time that we brought the van back to the garage, meanwhile camping in their lot since we had no where to go, we decided to take the day and go into town to just get away! It was the coldest, rainiest day since we had arrived so we asked if there was a bus that we could catch into town. We were told that a bus stop was only about a half mile away so we bundled up, grabbed our umbrella and set out. Just as we were crossing the road to the bus stop, there went the bus!!! We missed it by 5 seconds and they only run on the hour! Rick decided that we would grab a cab since it was so cold and rainy. A few minutes later, we noticed a cab at the stoplight soon to head our way. Rick stepped out into the road to flag him down only to have him drive right by! We just looked at each other and shook our heads. Was this really happening?! I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry! Well, we noticed another cab at the light and as he was coming toward us, Rick stepped out again to wave him down. The cab started to drive past us again but pulled over a ways down. We walked up to him and asked how much it would be to bring us into town. He said, “£10-12” which is $18-20 for us! We opted to take it though it was only 3-4 miles into town! As I climbed in, I heard “amazing grace” playing so I asked him if that’s what it was?! He said, “yes” and so immediately Rick asked if he was a believer! The next 7-8 min. was filled with rejoicing and short but sweet fellowship! David shared with us how he wasn’t even a taxi driver and that’s why he almost passed us by, but he works in the office and decided to just grab one of the taxis to run into town to do an errand! He shared his excitement about the ministry so when he dropped us off he said, “this one’s on me!” (First wink…thank you Jesus!)

To be continued…tune in later for more “Winks!”

bless you,
Doreen