Inspirational Christian Stories
by Phillips

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 Bio summary

One day as I was digging out some baby apricot trees I had grown from seed, God told me we would be moving from the place we lived in to the edge of the city. He spoke to me a number of times through the verses in Deuteronomy 8. He was going to bring us to a place where we would lack nothing and we needed to take care that in our plenty we would not forget the Lord our God, but know that it is He who gives us the power to become rich. I could not imagine that I would ever forget God.

I had planted a fig tree and twice the wind came and tore the branches off, but each time it grew back more vigorously than before. The third time there was only a stump left and I thought it would die, but it didn't. So I transplanted it, but the place I planted it, beside the spa pool, was too small. There was a lot of building rubble around the roots and it soon died. I felt sad about the tree. I had had two car accidents and I felt that my life was like the tree. I prayed that God would never let me die like the tree but plant me in a big place.

One day my husband Peter saw an advert for an auction in a street on the city boundary, on a street we had previously tried but failed to buy on. There was no time to preview the house so I went down to bid on it. It was pouring with rain, which I thought was a good thing for us as the whole place was flooded. This I thought would be very off putting and as it turned out, not many people turned up. I won the bid and had enough for the deposit as I had just been given $10,000 from ACC for the pain and suffering caused by the first car accident. We rented it out for a year or so then moved into while renovating it. It wasn't long before our assets had doubled in value. My husband had been in the "right place at the right time" to hear about buying a piece of council land that he was able, with a colleague, to develop and rent. God had said that he would double our wealth, and He had.

God began to speak to me again about moving to a country He would show me. It was a good land with gushing springs, where food was plentiful and we would lack nothing (Deuteronomy 8:7-8). We began to think about places to retire to. I wanted to be near a university center and Peter wanted to be near water. He wanted a place with a boat. The words "sell what you have, and give to the poor...... and come and follow me." disturbed me. I didn't like the idea and think Peter would ever agree to doing that. So I decided it was not what God was telling us. Why would God double our wealth and then tell us to sell it all.

I had another car accident and felt even more like the fig tree. I prayed again that God would plant me in a big place. I had a dream that I was walking up a steep hill and I heard a voice behind me saying "Only a little more (up the steep mountain/hill) and you will see the land" and I looked out over a place covered in trees, and I was thinking it was the promised land. The trees were not like the forests of New Zealand. The individual trees could be seen. Twice I dreamt of the same hills.

A business venture caught Peter's attention and we went to Surfers Paradise in Australia to check it out. I saw a sign saying "big Country" and thought that Australia sure was a bigger place, but the trees were sparse, not like what I had dreamt. Although I was not happy about the business I was not well and thought Peter must know best. Peter even told the owner that I thought he was trying to rip us off, which was what happened. The owner lied about many things and we ended up losing most of our assets and gaining some debts. I thought that it would have been better if we had sold everything and given to the poor rather than lose it and more like this. It was a difficult time with Peter living in Australia alone until we had enough money for the rest of the family to go over - 8 months later. But God did many miracles in the area of providing for me. Peter was very depressed and down to his last $5 when his brother who was living in Canberra invited him to live with them until he could get back on his feet. He moved and almost immediately received many high paying job offers. He had the GST skills needed for a country that had was introducing it. It wasn't long after this that the rest of us were able to join him and we began paying back the debt we had fallen into.

I loved Canberra. I did not feel like a tall poppy there. There were so many people who had more of everything that I had. It was a city without the traffic problems of a big city. It was a university center as well. Peter had had a bit of what he had wanted for a short time - by the boats and the beach and I got the university center. I had cashed in the last of my assets - my Life insurance policy that I had opened when I was 21. It was just enough for a deposit on a house and I thought a house would be a better investment, than where it was (This was right. Within a couple of years or so the value of our house doubled.). The only house we could afford was half the size of our previous one and on the edge of the city again, although I did not think about that when we bought the place. It had one of things we both had said we wanted in our next house - a view. The house was on a hill and from one spot on a road near the house you could look out over the city and see only trees, like a forest of individual trees, side by side. Canberra is a city of trees. They have been planted between each suburb. Some travelers have said that you cannot find the shops for the trees ... and the food! I could not remember seeing so many different types of cake that I had not tasted before. When we went out for coffee it was hard to decide which cake to choose. The variety seemed to me to be enormous....and the sizes of them. One was enough for two, so we would share them. Was this then then place of trees I had seen in my dream? But what about the other things mentioned in the bible verse. It certainly was a land of plenty...... and there was one stream at the bottom of the hill our house was on, that "gushed" every so often after a heavy rain. I felt like Joseph and wondered if God had allowed the loss of nearly everything in order to bring us to this place - a place we never would have considered ourselves.

I loved the Australian gum trees...the landscape. I realized that my art had been strongly influenced by the Australian landscape, when I had lived there as a teenager. I had wondered why New Zealander's thought my art was so "silent". Now I could see why. The Australian undergrowth was regularly burned leaving the landscape "silent". When I visited Peter's work place - Parliament house I remembered the word God had given me about him - that he would sit among the leaders of the land (Proverbs 31:23). His office was right there among them! I was amazed at the building. It had window like openings, like I had imagined in 1973 and had included in some of the paintings I had made . The drive up to Parliament house had rows of flags which I had visioned in 1995 and received permission to install in the school I was teaching at (I began this venture but did not finish it. I got the finance arranged but decided it was not as practical as I had thought. I had planned to hang the screen prints my students made from them).