More Testimonies
BEAUTY FROM ASHES
Rejected by her mother and sexually abused by her father, it was a traumatic start to life. It was her older sister who brought her up and protected her as much as she could. It was her older sister who fostered her faith in God and the belief that with God in her life, good things could happen despite what she’d been through.
Her sister was right. She learnt to put the past behind, got married to a really good man and they were married 21 years, with two lovely sons. Then he died and her world came crashing down. Everything she had gone through and now this, it was too much to bear. She began to drink very heavily, became an alcoholic and got to a point where she cried out to God “God I need your help, I don’t want to live anymore”.
That same night, four born-again Christians turned up at her door. They prayed for her all through the night. The next day was Sunday and they took her to church.
As she came in, the hymn was Isiah 41 “Fear not for I am with you”. She felt God was speaking to her and felt a surge of strength course through her body. Her depression fell away. Her brain fog cleared. She could lift her head up and felt joy spring from her heart and lips as she joined in singing the hymn.
She says that was the start of her faith journey. She became a regular churchgoer. She grew in faith, knowledge, understanding. She had a lot of healing prayers said over her and she prayed a lot herself. She stopped drinking. The grief stopped. Joy returned.
Five years later she met her current husband who is a strong Christian. Together they share their faith and have found our faith community at Church on the Rise, Maleny. They’ve been married 35 years now and couldn’t be happier.
If we believe in Him, He will take our brokenness and make beauty from ashes.
Thank you God
GOD IS WITH US
As a child, when believing in God is what you know, then going to church, reading the Bible and learning about God and what He can do, is important to you. As a teenager, something changes.
A young woman from our church started to ask God to do something big, some sign of His presence, but the answer never came.
She went on to University and around the same time, started having a crisis of faith. Things were unravelling at home and this was causing some anxiety. She was still praying but becoming more desperate to know that God was here, watching over her. She’d pray “Lord, I need absolute proof that you are with me. Do something BIG so that I know it’s you and not anything we could do”.
One afternoon, she was running late to collect a friend from the airport. The road was slippery and as she turned onto the freeway she lost control, hitting a guard rail and flipping the car upside down in a works yard, on top of a stack of concrete pipes.
Within minutes, emergency services were there and she was taken to hospital where the doctors found not a scratch, not a bruise, no concussion, nothing broken. No-one could believe she had no injuries or concussion.
Next day she phoned the foreman of the yard to thank him for his help. He told her that in the past month three other cars had come over that guard rail and in the last two rollovers, the drivers didn’t make it. In that moment, she knew who had been holding her hand. Her prayers answered. Something Big. God saved her life.
Since that day she says she has no need to ask God to show His presence because she knows, deep down in her heart and soul, He is always with us.
Today she sings in the Worship Team at Church on the Rise, Maleny and says she could not be happier, knowing that God is with us always. Praise God.
A GOOD GOOD GOD
A parishioner had a brother who was a cattle farmer who had about 100 head of cattle on 1000 acres during one of the worst droughts the area had suffered. There had been no proper rain for two years and the land was completely bare of all grass to feed the cattle, so they were being hand fed, which was a costly business. His brother was desperate and had to get a job in town to pay for the feed and to keep the property from going under.
The parishioner would go out there whenever he could and stay for as long as he could, to give his brother a hand. It was always hard to leave, seeing the damage done to the land, the plight of the cattle and the desperation in his brother’s eyes. On one particular visit, he asked his brother “what do you need?”
The immediate answer was one word “RAIN!”
He asked “how much do you need”
“Three inches would be enough”
“Did you want that all at once or spread over a couple of days, or a week?”
“Over three days would be good”
He said “ok. Let’s get a calendar and mark out a date.”
Poring over a calendar laid out on the kitchen table, they chose a month ahead and marked the dates.
When he got home he prayed and fasted, fasted and prayed specifically, for three inches of rain over three days.
The chosen dates passed but a week later, his brother phoned to say that the drought had broken and the rain came. 2.75 inches over three days up near the house, but down where the cattle were, it was three inches over three days.
What other explanation is there but that we have a good good God who hears our desperate cries and answers our prayers. He is real and readily available if we believe in our hearts and trust Him.