Who am I?

Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,

Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.

My faith journey has taken a long circuitous route, rather like this blog, which began in obscurity at a friend's behest & did not see the light of day for many years.  Just as for many years I did not know the calling God had placed on my life ~ which is probably a good thing or like Jonah you would not have seen me for dust!

My passion has always been for English Literature & Celtic Archaeology & Literature is what I took my degree in at what is now the University of Southern Queensland.  I minored in drama.  Along the way I ditched my Anglican background as dry, dusty & irrelevant.  I may have ditched religion but like so many others before me I found God had not ditched me & He held the keys for drawing me into faith & setting my feet on the path He had ordained for me.

I was drawn towards Quakerism, firstly because of its contemplative nature which attempts to help the individual hear personally from God, & secondly because of the emphasis placed on a practical application of the Christian life.  As I understood my bible that was how it worked: you heard from God then you walked where He directed.

I live on a small island off the Queensland coast in Australia.  There is no local Meeting & so the Lord & I embarked on a 25 year journey wherein He taught me how to follow His lead, hear His voice & proclaim His word.  Along the way I raised 5 children, ventured into homeschooling & began blogging as a creative outlet.

Last year [2012] my youngest graduated.  Last year the Lord got on my case, directing me to enroll in Bible School.  Never in any year would I have enrolled with a charismatic church ~ but that very definitely was where the Lord was directing me.  It was a hard year.  Charismatics are noisy & extroverted; I am not ~ but there were some things the Lord wanted to teach me that I could not have learnt anywhere else.  One of them was how to still hear Him amongst the noise.

This year the Lord directed my husband & I to begin a new work ~ Harvest Family Church.  My husband has an intercessory prayer ministry. The Lord keeps giving me Jeremiah 1:5 ~ something I was not terribly happy about but when I tried to ignore it I found Jeremiah 20:9 applied:

Then I said, “I will not make mention of Him,
Nor speak anymore in His name.”
But His word was in my heart like a burning fire
Shut up in my bones;
I was weary of holding it back,
And I could not.

For those who may object to a woman proclaiming the word of God, I would gently ask you to consider the apostle Philip, whose 4 daughters were prophetesses, which simply means, as Young's points out, female preacher. Both the Hebrew (Nebrah), and Greek (Proph) used for prophetess means (female preacher). (Young's Concordance, Pg. 780.)

In any event the main ministry both my husband & I are anointed for is  prayer, which has a prophetic aspect & an intercessory aspect.  It is both our privilege & our delight to confer with our Father & to walk in the paths He directs.