Children of the Lord

During the year in Christchurch, New Zealand (1969) the children went to a Christian school. We rented a lovely house in the city right opposite a beautiful park. We got a dog for the children that they loved dearly. We loved to watch David and Hugo, the dog, playing across the road in the park. There were "dips" in the land and it was delightful to see the two heads...boy and dog...appear and disappear as they ran together over the undulating ground. Life was very good.

Rebecca Receives the Lord

One morning, as I was getting the children ready for school, Rebecca suddenly said “I’ve never asked Jesus into my heart”. She was five years old.

“Would you like me to pray with you?” I asked.

“No” she said, “I’ll do it myself” and off she went into her bedroom. A few minutes later she came out. “Jesus is in my heart now” she said with a big smile.

The children’s ministry attached to the church we were attending (one of the churches that had sprung from the great move of God Paul had been involved in prior to us going to Thailand), had great impact on both the children’s lives. Under the leadership of Sally Hanna, David and Rebecca were both wonderfully filled with the Holy Spirit.

Children Supernatural Led of the Spirit

One particular incident during that year was amazing. Sally organized a children’s camp and I was invited to be the speaker. Children from many parts of Christchurch came. I acted out the story of Daniel in the lion’s den, and in the second session, the story of the three in the fiery furnace, using them as illustrations of the Gospel. Many of them responded to the invitation to receive Jesus into their hearts. That night, when all the children were in the camp beds, two little girls came out to speak to Sally and me.

“We were reading this in the Bible and we don’t understand what it means.” They showed us Acts 2, the record of the Holy Spirit being poured out on the early believers. “What does it mean” they asked.

Sally and I looked at one another. “Come up to the chapel” said Sally, “and we’ll explain it to you”.

Lights were out in the camp. All the other children were in bed. We took the two children up to the little chapel that was on a hill next to the camp ground. Sally turned on the light and sat down with them and began to explain the passage of scripture to them. As Sally talked with them, I stood at the window looking over the camp, praying for them. Suddenly, I couldn’t believe my eyes. Children were coming out of every cabin and climbing up the hill towards the chapel. Nothing had been told them....we thought they were all asleep...but here they were being drawn by the Holy Spirit to the chapel. Soon it was filled with children and Sally was sharing with them all the wonderful truth how God wants to fill each believer in Jesus with His Holy Spirit. We watched with wonder as each one of them was filled with the Holy Spirit.

Children Hear from God

At the end of 1969, after a year in Christchurch, Paul and I both knew it was time to move on and we began to seek the Lord as to where he wanted us to go. We waited for His directions. There was such a need for resources on the missionfield, the Lord seemed to be impressing us to go to Sydney to establish a missionary church. This was confirmed through a prophet who came to visit us in Christchurch. Someone gave us the use of a holiday cottage at the beach at Woodend so we could have 5 days break. We wanted to spend time in prayer and as we prayed we both believed the Lord wanted us to go to Sydney.

We needed to give opportunity for David and Rebecca to hear from the Lord. They were now six and seven years old. The move would mean a lot to them...having to leave the friends they had made and, for David especially, having to leave Hugo, the dog. They needed a word from God as much as we did. We had always included them as part of the team. They had grown believing they were missionaries too. We knew they could hear the voice of God if given the chance. We did not tell them what we were feeling but went for a walk with them along the beach. Paul then explained we wanted to pray about where the Lord wanted us to go next and asked them to pray and tell us what the Lord tells them. We did not share with them what we had heard from the Lord ourselves. Instead Paul gave them three options to pray about. Did the Lord want us to stay in Christchurch? Did He want us to go back to Thailand? Did He want us to go to Sydney?

Off they both went along the beach to pray. Paul and I watched them both with such joy. After a short time Rebecca came skipping back to us.

“The Lord wants us to go to Sydney” she said.

David took longer. We watched him pacing back and forth, head down and hands behind his back. Finally, he too came back.

“I’m sorry I took so long” he said. “I knew it would mean leaving Hugo and my friends. But that’s okay now. The Lord wants us to go to Sydney”.

We all rejoiced together. We, as a family, had heard from God. We knew the next move forward in our odyssey of faith.

The final event of that year in New Zealand, prior to our leaving for Australia, was something that was far beyond anything we had experienced before. We will share about this in our next post.