Here I am
We had a full on couple of days in London last Friday and Saturday, looking at places to live. Let me start by telling you our answers to prayer so far!
1. We have found a house! I'll tell you the story later on in this post, but suffice to say that this is a HUGE answer to prayer.
2. Tim has been offered work to start immediately after we move. This was unexpected and also has a story to it!
Please continue to pray for us - you will find the prayer points at the end of this post.
A year ago, I jotted some notes down in my journal about the passage in Exodus that I had been reading.
Exodus 3:4 says; When the Lord saw that he (Moses) had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, 'Moses! Moses!' And Moses said, 'Here I am.'
This is about an encounter between Moses and God and what struck me about how they interact with each other is the recognition that there is between them. The way Moses replies to God makes me think that he recognised God's voice and it challenged me to ask myself whether I recognise God's voice in my life. Recognising someone comes out of relationship with that person - when I phone my Mum, I don't need to introduce myself because she immediately recognises my voice! Do I recognise God's voice in the every day? Am I familiar with how He speaks to me?
On Friday, we had looked around a few properties, including a massive house that the agent had suggested we look at, despite the rent being much more than we were happy to pay. We really really liked it - it had so much space, over 4 floors and seemed to tick a lot of our boxes. The agent assured us that the landlord would accept an offer from a family, so we went away to think about it. We felt excited about the thought of living there, not least because it was only a few minute's walk to some close friends' house - perfect. By the end of the evening, we had decided that we should make a low offer to see if the landlord would come down in price. The next morning, Tim and I prayed together about the day ahead, where we had more properties to look at and Tim prayed that we wouldn't be so convinced of our own agenda that we would miss where God wanted us to live and that we would be able to be humble enough to allow God to direct our steps. I have to say that I felt a little irked at his prayer - because I knew that this big house was for us...
...so when we went back to the big house for a second viewing, we didn't like it. It felt like we were looking around a different house. I had a knot in my stomach the whole time we were there and knew this wasn't the right place. One way that we can recognise God speaking to us is when we have a complete change of heart about something. And that's how we felt about this house.
Now let me tell you about York Rise. We had York Rise lined up to view on the Saturday, but Tim and I took a walk there on Friday evening to take a look from the outside. We walked to it, but went the wrong way trying to find it - because we were convinced that it was in one direction, when in fact, it was the other way. Once we finally found it, we both said immediately that we didn't like it, didn't like the area and so on.
On Saturday, the time came to view York Rise, but we walked to it from a different direction and felt completely different about it. We loved the area. The house itself is quirky but nice but we didn't feel convinced one way or the other about it. However, later on that day we had a phone call from the lady who had showed us around - she isn't an agent and works on behalf of the landlord. She told us that another couple had looked around the property after us and had made an offer BUT she had advised the landlord not to accept their offer because she wanted us to live in the house, because she loved our family! Lesson no. 2 about recognising God's voice in the every day is when unexpected things happen that make you reconsider something. We reconsidered this house, (which we call 'the porthole house' because it is very boat like and has portholes). By the end of the day, after we had spent some time praying, we felt that we should put an offer down on York Rise, which is what we have done. We reflected on how we had gone the wrong way the day before - next thing to learn about how God speaks to us in the every day is that approaching something from a different perspective can bring about a different outcome.
Recognising God in the every day things of life cultivates thankful hearts in us. A thankful heart opens up a beautiful pathway of dialogue between us and God.
Prayer Points for this week
1. For the house on York Rise to definitely be ours to move into. We are at the stage of references, etc. Please pray that this would all go through smoothly.
2. There is a High School a couple of minutes away from the house. Please pray for a Year 8 and a Year 10 space to be available and for a Primary School place for Jemimah.
3. For financial provision. Still lots to pay for.
Ways you can support us;
1. Pray
2. Praying and fasting - this week we will be fasting on Wednesday
3. Supporting us via our Just Giving page