Just be patient

[VivaOZ]

I just wanted to share this all of you who are in this waiting game.

When we decided to come to Oz, I told hubby that we would do our best but at the end of the day it is not in our hands. If God wanted us to walk this way it will happen. As many of you would already know, the process of immegrating is one big waiting game and a rollercoaster on top of it. With our process it was plain sailing the one day and the next day it would feel like everything is crashing in on you. Just as soon as we thought we won a bit of ground something would happen to make us think we are stepping backwards agian. There were many, many times that I asked if I would ever get in to Australia.

What felt like a year was acctually only 6 months for us to get here. I thought that we would fanally be able to relax a bit as most was over. To my shock we found out that it was not. We still had a lot of hard work to put in before we would be settled agian. We planned to buy a house as soon as we got our pension money out so I started looking at houses as soon as we got the net set up. To get that money we thought would take about 2-3 months after we got here so after 3 months of trying I started to get anxious. The banks in SA completely misinformed us and we had to go through a lot of drama to finaly get the money out. Agian I started to feel depressed about it all. Getting settled did not happen as fast as I wanted it to.

After 4-5 months we got the money, immediatly put an offer in for a house and from there it was just happening agian. After we moved into our very own house I looked back on our "long" journey. I thought of all the times that I lost all hope. All the times I wondered if we did the right thing and all the times I was so impatient and depressed. It was then that I realised that all that waiting and ups and downs was just God's way of telling me that everything happens on His time. We just had to be patient and go with His flow. It was His way of telling me that He was in charge and that His Will shall be done.

At that moment I realised that if God was not listening to my prayers of " LET YOUR WILL BE DONE IN OUR LIVES, LEAD US ON THE ROAD YOU LAID OUT FOR US - WHERE EVER THAT MAY BE" we would never ever have got this far. Not on our own. He let all the things happen for a reason. If we got that money sooner we would never have found our dream home, if we did not make certian decissions at a certian times we would not have been able to come to Australia.

To all the poeple still waiting, maybe for a document or a passport or plainticket, remeber there is a reason why you are waiting. Remember that we are not living on our own time, we are living on God's time and only God can make things happen for us. He taught me to be patient and He showed me once agian that my prayers does get answered. Do all that is humanly possible for you to get here and just ask Him to let His will be done.

JUST LEARN TO BE PATIENT AND IT ALL WILL COME TOGETHER FOR YOU. Just put your lives in His hand and keep on believing and pray as much as you need to, He does listen and He will give you an answer - on His time.

[Olkabolka]

Thanks for a great post!!

Your words are so very true, and we are ecperiencing evertything the same.

God is also providing for us in a wonderful way, but as you said, in His time! We just have to keep praying, and leave everything in His hands!

[Firstworld_girl]

Thank you for this post.

Really need it today.

[VivaOZ]

Thank you for this post.

Really need it today.

Dis 'n groot plesier. Wat ook al in jou lewe aangaan, hou net moed dit sal weer beter word.

[BasinOzson]

VivaOZ

Ons glo ook dat alles in die Here se hande is. Dat Sy tyd die beste tyd is. Dankie vir jou post. Dit gee mens weer moed. Dankie en baie seenwense vir julle.

Vlam

[Pixel]

Thanks for your post VivaOZ

I am not a very patient person, and our road to Oz has had many bumps, and have still not submitted a visa application. It's always good to be reminded that the timing is not for us to decide, and that all we can do is pray, and wait for the Lords will to be done.

Regards

[noodles]

Thank you for your great post!

[Eva]

Thank you for the reminder. We do get so frustrated sometimes, and even though we believe this whole process is in God's hands, the human self still has to worry, rather than believe. I was so stressed about our medicals I'm surprised my blood pressure wasn't sky high, and all went smoothly. Now its time to put our house on the market, at such a bad time, and we do believe that God will provide. Its only ONE buyer we need after all. But hard to keep remembering, when times get tough, that we have placed things in the hands of the Almighty, who wants only good things for us!!

[Alida]

I'll have to agree with all of you above. We are on that same bumpy, unsure, frustrating and sometimes positively exciting road. Although we've decided to go, there are still absolutely no indication that we will be able to go. We're only waiting for our UMC - got all the rest. And DH is doing application after application, yet silence from down under. Back home we need to sell a property, finish building our home for selling and all this in the current market. If need be, we decided that pack up and go on a whiff, would be possible as well. The magnitude of the whole setup sometimes feels like it takes your breath away, as if it will never happen, as if you'll wake up one day to realize you dreamt, there's no such thing... !

I've been in conflict with myself some days, wondering if I should 'act in faith' and start to sell stuff I seldom use. I've been praying for some time, continuously having this nagging drive to start . It kind of baffled me and I prayed about this for some days. I'ts a bit hard for me at this stage to discern wether it's really a Holy Spirit-drive, preparing me for quick action in the near future, or my own desire to pack and go, that urges me.

(And you know what's awesome ? No one, absolutely no one that we told or discussed our discussion with, this far condemned us !!)

I've often resolved to start sorting my stuff, sorting what I would like to keep, what I should get rid of. Many of my stuff were easy to decide about - can you believe it, for the first time in my life I'm really thankful for my cheap and often second hand furniture, for the decision was easy: no container, only boxes. I'm thankfull for my unfinished house, for I'm emotionally detatched from it because of the 'unfinishedness' thereof (and the way it frustrates me), I feel like I can close the door and go - even though DH and I planned and dreamed this house ourselves for a year. But when I got to the point where I should decide about keeping or selling my easels (see, I was planning art classes in the garage), my knees and heart got weak and I suddenly wanted out. But I compromised and gave them to dear friends whom I knew would use them often and with enthusiasm (the easels were rough and hand made, but served well). Well, maybe one day in Oz .... It was amazing, the feeling I felt when my friends walked out my door with my beloved easels. It felt like freedom, I felt joy !! I never expected that...

Rather than plainly selling, I've begun to kind of subtly giving stuff away. Like flowers in a vase. Thus it doesn't actually look like selling and I know I'm giving with a merry heart, not pitying myself for getting rid of my own meager material posessions. It helps me keeping my focus away from my anxiety, to see where I can bless someone with something I have and anyway doesn't use often enough to justify keeping it. It makes this dreadful waiting game easier - looking for ways to bless others with what is yours. It's no holy act or 'mother Theresa'-gesture, I'ts part of personally surviving my own confusion ! It kind of became an exiting game, to think about your stuff and imagining who might need something like this or that. Suddenly my whole house became other's. It really is a deliberating experience.

I still do not know what may come and some days I go to bed with the thought: another day and still no answer, no idea, no direction. I wake up each morning with a vague 'what if', but no real expectation, at least not for today. Let's take today on it's own, face what has to be done today. Have anyone ever felt, since you decided to go, that even buying the monthly groceries might not be necessary ? As if you would spend your money on groceries only to pack up and go (silly, I know - but I sometimes feel that way at the beginning of the month !).

Then there's the children. Emptying the house might unsettle them. Who knows how long we will have to put up with an almost empty home ? I don't want to make things unnecessarily uneasy for us ! On the other side I also do not want to make them anxious by emptying the house in one month's time, while doing all the finishing touches before lift off... They're still small, would not understand explanations yet. Will it bother them ? I can remember nothing from when I was three, so probably it won't.

Do anyone feel this way also, and what did you do ? I sometimes wonder how much of this journey is plain practical and how much is faith !

[Aktief55+]

I'll have to agree with all of you above. We are on that same bumpy, unsure, frustrating and sometimes positively exciting road. Although we've decided to go, there are still absolutely no indication that we will be able to go. We're only waiting for our UMC - got all the rest. And DH is doing application after application, yet silence from down under. Back home we need to sell a property, finish building our home for selling and all this in the current market. If need be, we decided that pack up and go on a whiff, would be possible as well. The magnitude of the whole setup sometimes feels like it takes your breath away, as if it will never happen, as if you'll wake up one day to realize you dreamt, there's no such thing... !

I've been in conflict with myself some days, wondering if I should 'act in faith' and start to sell stuff I seldom use. I've been praying for some time, continuously having this nagging drive to start . It kind of baffled me and I prayed about this for some days. I'ts a bit hard for me at this stage to discern wether it's really a Holy Spirit-drive, preparing me for quick action in the near future, or my own desire to pack and go, that urges me.

(And you know what's awesome ? No one, absolutely no one that we told or discussed our discussion with, this far condemned us !!)

I've often resolved to start sorting my stuff, sorting what I would like to keep, what I should get rid of. Many of my stuff were easy to decide about - can you believe it, for the first time in my life I'm really thankful for my cheap and often second hand furniture, for the decision was easy: no container, only boxes. I'm thankfull for my unfinished house, for I'm emotionally detatched from it because of the 'unfinishedness' thereof (and the way it frustrates me), I feel like I can close the door and go - even though DH and I planned and dreamed this house ourselves for a year. But when I got to the point where I should decide about keeping or selling my easels (see, I was planning art classes in the garage), my knees and heart got weak and I suddenly wanted out. But I compromised and gave them to dear friends whom I knew would use them often and with enthusiasm (the easels were rough and hand made, but served well). Well, maybe one day in Oz .... It was amazing, the feeling I felt when my friends walked out my door with my beloved easels. It felt like freedom, I felt joy !! I never expected that...

Rather than plainly selling, I've begun to kind of subtly giving stuff away. Like flowers in a vase. Thus it doesn't actually look like selling and I know I'm giving with a merry heart, not pitying myself for getting rid of my own meager material posessions. It helps me keeping my focus away from my anxiety, to see where I can bless someone with something I have and anyway doesn't use often enough to justify keeping it. It makes this dreadful waiting game easier - looking for ways to bless others with what is yours. It's no holy act or 'mother Theresa'-gesture, I'ts part of personally surviving my own confusion ! It kind of became an exiting game, to think about your stuff and imagining who might need something like this or that. Suddenly my whole house became other's. It really is a deliberating experience.

I still do not know what may come and some days I go to bed with the thought: another day and still no answer, no idea, no direction. I wake up each morning with a vague 'what if', but no real expectation, at least not for today. Let's take today on it's own, face what has to be done today. Have anyone ever felt, since you decided to go, that even buying the monthly groceries might not be necessary ? As if you would spend your money on groceries only to pack up and go (silly, I know - but I sometimes feel that way at the beginning of the month !).

Then there's the children. Emptying the house might unsettle them. Who knows how long we will have to put up with an almost empty home ? I don't want to make things unnecessarily uneasy for us ! On the other side I also do not want to make them anxious by emptying the house in one month's time, while doing all the finishing touches before lift off... They're still small, would not understand explanations yet. Will it bother them ? I can remember nothing from when I was three, so probably it won't.

Do anyone feel this way also, and what did you do ? I sometimes wonder how much of this journey is plain practical and how much is faith !

Hi Alida

Verantwoordelike beplanning is juis geloof in aksie! Godsvertroue bly biddend beplan en volharding handel daagliks 'n deel van die beplanning af! Wonderlik om 'n mens se vreugde te vind in gee wat 'n ander een kan gebruik. God se seen oor jou lewe vermenigvuldig met elke gee, vir jouself en vir die een wat ontvang!

Aktief