It’s been a long time since I’ve posted on this blog as I really haven’t had an unction to post.  Today I feel it’s time to testify about what’s been going on in my life and heart in the intervening time…

I was previously working over in Manila, Philippines – paying off some overseas debts incurred in Dubai, UAE – while my wife and children returned home to New Zealand…

The Lord had been dealing with me regarding a root of coveteousness in my life and I’d come to a place where I never wanted to go into debt again…

I’d been sensing strongly from the Lord that He wanted me to return to my home town of Christchurch, New Zealand but I couldn’t see how He would do this quickly as I had at least two years left of repaying this debt in Dubai – in the natural – before I’d be able to return…

In August, the afternoon and early evening of Mon 09 Aug 11 to be precise, the Lord had indicated to me that I’d be returning home to Christchurch, New Zealand and I’d believed Him and was waiting to see how He would make this possible…

I’d believed Him so fully that I hadn’t booked a return ticket for my end of year trip back to New Zealand…

I just had this overwhelming sense that my time in Manila was drawing to a close but I wasn’t sure how the Lord would achieve this as I’d strongly felt He didn’t want me to “do a runner” when we had to leave Dubai after the financial crash as I’d been transferred to my companies Manila Office…

The Lord gave me a word prior to this day saying, “You have paid your debts to men” and when He did I had this overwhelming sense of freedom, so I knew “something was up”…

Anyway, time seemed to drag throughout October as I just knew something was around the corner, I knew I’d need to give one months notice to my current employer and I had a “cut-off” time to achieve this…

I just kept getting this strong sense that I was returning home, I’d surrendered my loneliness to the Lord – I was really missing my littlest son, Zechariah, as I’d felt his pain in prayer one night when I was praying (as he’d been the one who’d missed out the most with me being away) – but just kept feeling that something was going to happen…

In late October my Dad sent me an email saying that he had a sum of money – it was a large sum of money – which he wanted to use to pay off my Dubai loan…

I responded to Dad that if the Holy Spirit had really put it on his heart to do this that I would not resist the Holy Spirit and gave him my Dubai bank account number to make the deposit…

He and Mum responded that they had a peace to do this and so they deposited the money and I repaid the loan…

I was praising God but there was more…

In “hope” I’d been applying for jobs back home in New Zealand, opting to go for jobs only in Christchurch, but prior to this no one could pay me enough to be able to live and make the Dubai loan repayments…

The September earthquake in Christchurch meant that there were more Structural Engineering jobs going and after the loan was repaid this helped in reducing my salary expectations – but we still had a sizable loan which we were repaying back home in New Zealand also – and as my deadline for handing in my notice approached I had three interested parties but no written job offers…

The day came (Fri 12 Nov 11) and I handed in my resignation (I’d pre-empted this with my boss by telling him that my Dubai loan had been repaid so he wasn’t completely taken by surprise) without a certain job to go to…

The Lord had given me enough faith to resign without this and I said my “goodbyes” to the Guys in Manila and headed home…

We had to ship all our stuff down from Napier to Christchurch and didn’t get a rental before it arrived so it went into storage…

We arrived back in Christchurch on 17/18 Dec 11 and after staying at my parents/my step-daughters/my wife’s friends we finally moved into a rental on Sat 19 Feb 11…

I had been paranoid about where we were going to live as the Lord had showed me while I was still in Manila (back in September, the week after the September earthquake) that there would be another earthquake and that people would die – I felt the pain – and it was annoying me that we couldn’t seem to find a place – either the Lord would say, “No” or someone else got it or people were slow to get back to me…

The children ended up missing the first week of school and I got to the point where I just gave up then my wife found a place and I felt the Lord said He’d keep us safe during the earthquake in that place…

In the meantime one of the job possibilities which previously had been a “no go” because my salary expectations were too high before the loan was paid off, was still available…

The strange thing was that on one of my training runs in Manila (before the loan was paid off) the Lord had said, “If such and such a company offers you such and such an amount then you should accept the job”…

At the time this made no sense as it wasn’t enough but still I kept it in the back of my mind as I really felt it was the Lord speaking to me…

Anyway, this company ended up offering me exactly this amount – I told the recruiter that I’d accept if they offered me this amount and then they offered it – and so I took this as a sign from the Lord…

I started work on Wed 19 Jan 11…

So when the February earthquake hit on Tues 22 Feb 11 we were in our rental and I was at work in Hornby (as I’d turned down two other offers in the CBD)…

We were blessed to only lose one vase at home and work was basically unaffected as the gravel seemed to dissipate the seismic energy…

I think I will leave it at that for now but I would like to praise God for what He has been doing in my life in the intervening time between posts (there is more but this might come out at a later date)…