Читать книгу Journey In The Kingdom - Ben BSL McGonagle - Страница 6

In April 1999 I married my beautiful wife Cherie, and we felt God telling us to move to Australia. We told our pastors who, with the whole church family, prayed for us and sent us out to Australia. We had only been married a month and a half.

We arrived in Coolangatta, Australia with a suitcase each, a surfboard, a guitar, and, if memory serves me well, I think about $250. We stayed in a backpacker accommodation and surprise surprise, we quickly ran out of money! We searched for work all day every day and finally Cherie was offered a job training racing horses on the Gold Coast, with on-site accommodation. She’d had horses while growing up, and it was a job she would have loved. However, when we prayed, we felt God tell us we needed to go to Brisbane. We were like “God we have no money and we have been offered work on the Gold Coast, but you want us to go to Brisbane? Ok, we will go.” So we sold our surfboard and guitar, moved up to Brisbane, and stayed at another backpackers accommodation.

In the past, without fail I would always get work in Brisbane immediately because of my background in computers, but this time I was getting nothing! Cherie was given a week’s work at a camping expo, selling a ‘30 Second Tent’ which was great, but the little money we made from selling the surfboard and guitar was running out fast. We sold everything we had except for our wedding rings and our clothes. We didn’t have enough for the next night’s accommodation so we gave the backpackers our passports as a guarantee that we would pay them back. We hadn’t eaten right for two weeks. And Cherie’s work at the expo was about to finish. We started to look on the streets for places to sleep, places where there would be shelter from the rain and a bit of light for security. It is different if you have to sleep on the streets by yourself, but when you have a beautiful wife to take care of and you are looking at being on the streets, it is another story.

We spent the next night pretending to watch TV in the communal lounge room of the backpackers so that we would not have to pay for a room. The next morning we got up and Cherie went to work. I had our last bit of bread and butter and started walking the streets of Fortitude Valley, Brisbane. As I was walking the Lord spoke to my heart. “What’s the worst thing that can happen?” I thought about it and then it clicked. The worst thing that can happen is that I die. The worst thing that can happen is that I die and go and be with the One I love! That’s the worst thing. That’s the biggest punch the world can throw at me and that is awesome. I’m in love with God and if I die I go and be with Him! I started singing and dancing on the streets of Fortitude Valley. People around probably thought I was tripping on drugs, but I was stoked! Then I felt God lead me to read the free newspaper at the backpackers, specifically the accommodation section even though we had no money to pay for a place. As I read through, this little ad just about leapt off the page as though it was in bold lettering. The accommodation advertised was a modern home, fully furnished, with beautiful French doors, situated on a 2 ½ acre property 30 minutes outside of the city. It sounded incredible! I read other ads further down the page, but none stood out like that one had. I went back to the ad and just knew I had to call these guys.

Cherie got home from her last day working at the expo. She had received a bonus for selling so many tents (that’s the favour of God!), so we were able to pay the backpacker and get our passports back. After not eating much for the last two weeks we went to the nearest and cheapest food outlet, which happened to be McDonalds. I don’t know if you remember the Monopoly competition McDonalds did? It was great: You bought some food and then you peeled off a special label to discover if you had won more food or a Monopoly game card which when collected could lead to bigger prizes, etc. Well on this particular day when we were hungry and almost completely out of money, God did a miracle at McDonalds and we just kept on winning! Off the drink we would win an apple pie, off the apple pie we would win some more fries. Off the fries we would win a burger. We ate and ate and ate until we couldn’t eat anything else. It was amazing! The staff at the counter couldn’t believe it! God used McDonald’s to fill our stomachs.

We then called the number from the accommodation ad in the paper. The people answered and asked if we could get a train to a station near them and they would pick us up and show us the house. Getting picked up by random strangers? And we barely had enough money for the train tickets! But we felt God leading us, so we agreed and got on a train. We arrived at the train station and met the woman. She took us to their home and showed us around. It was beautiful. A big room, fully furnished, en-suite etc. Everything looked great. The husband and wife lived on one side of the big house with their two children, and we lived on the other side. The lounge, kitchen and dining were common areas, and the property had plenty of room. We all sat down at the dining room table and the interview began. They had no idea that we had no money. At the end of the conversation they were up front and said they really liked us and that they would love to have us stay with them. The rent was $100 a week, but there was no rush to pay. They also informed us that they go bulk grocery shopping, so we were welcome to eat their food until we went to the supermarket! I was in shock but did not express that to them. We moved in. Here we were going to be sleeping on the streets of Brisbane, but now we had been blessed with a beautiful home, TV and video in the room, en-suite and food to eat. We thanked God for this place and then prayed, “God we need jobs to be able to pay these people rent!”

We started looking for work, but as our new home was on acreage, kilometres from anywhere, it was tough going without a car. Two mornings later the landlord came up to me. He said that since we didn’t have any transport we could use their spare car! It was a Toyota Corolla and had a full tank of petrol. I started driving all around the nearest CBD door knocking on businesses looking for a job. I was getting nothing. As I drove past a nightclub the Lord put on my heart to go in there right now. I was like, What?! Go into the night club? As I walked through the door of the hotel, I walked past another man who was walking out. I went up to the reception and asked the lady if any work was available. She gave me an application form, and then the manager came out straight away. He asked me what I wanted to do. I said, “I’ll do anything!” He said “That’s great! It’s true what they say, ‘The guy that walks in gets the job.’” It turns out that the guy that I walked past in the doorway had just quit and now the job was mine! I began by picking up glasses in the nightclub. Each 6 hour shift was worth $100 (the rent money!). Praise God! Cherie also got a job in retail and we were away. Now I was on a whole other faith level. I didn’t want to go back to living the way I used to. God had shown me that He was my provider.

Unfortunately years earlier (when we were teenagers and had no clue about finances), we had accumulated a fair bit of debt on credit card; therefore, we needed to send money back to New Zealand to make our payments on the debt owed. So even though we had jobs, we got to the point again where we only had $50 cash and no food in the pantry. We knew we could put $50 into groceries and manage to survive for the week, but we felt God asking us to trust Him to provide. So we decided we would give the $50 into the offering that evening when we got to church and believe God. That afternoon we were with a friend driving to a park to have some chill time. I had stopped at a set of traffic lights. When the light went green God spoke so clearly but quietly “turn left.”

I started to go left and Cherie and our friend Cleone said, “No Benny, the park is straight ahead.”

“It’s ok,” I said, “I’m going left.”

Cherie just rolled with it thinking I was going on an adventure. She saw a nice looking dog in the back of a car (I think it was an Alaskan Malamute) and said, “Wow, look at that dog, follow the dog!” You see God can use anything. I mean seriously, “follow the dog”? So we did. The car with the dog turned right into a car park and then drove off. We were driving slowly through the car park and I was wondering, God, why are we here? And then I saw it. I thought, No way! I drove up and didn’t even have to get out of the car. In the middle of the car-park, with no one around, I opened the car door and reached down and picked a $50 note up off the ground. And the Lord put on my heart, “I will provide for you always!”

We continued to learn that God is Jehovah Jireh, our provider. Once again when we were down to our last eight dollars, we decided to sow it all into the offering at church and believe God. After church some friends invited us to come to their place for pizza. That was Sunday’s dinner taken care of. We had a little bit of food in the pantry for Monday, but by Tuesday we’d run out of food. We waited on God, and soon received a phone call from our pastor telling us that on Sunday someone put an envelope with our name on it into the offering. Inside the envelope was $500! Wow! God is so faithful!

Another time that God showed us His faithfulness was after we had been using our landlord’s car for a few months we found out they wanted to sell it. They had blessed us so much, and we wanted to see them blessed too. We prayed and asked God to bring someone in to buy it for the full price that our landlords wanted (which seemed to us a lot more than that type of car was worth, but hey, nothing is impossible with God!) We prayed and believed God would do it.

A few days later a man who had seen the car advertised came to look it over. He took it for a quick test drive and then paid the full price with no bargaining. Our landlords were stoked! Now, of course we didn’t have a car to use anymore, but we believed God; even though the car wasn’t ours we felt as though we had sown it and knew God would provide. Almost immediately we received a phone call from a mate. I answered and he just started apologising.

I asked, “What for?”

He just said, “I’m really sorry.”

I said, “What for?” again and he apologised again saying that a week ago God had told him to buy us a car and he was only just telling us now!

God is Awesome! My mate drove around, picked me up and we went to look for a car to buy. Praise God! His timing is perfect. God knew it would take my mate a week to wrestle with the idea and then finally call us. God knows the end from the beginning. How great is our God!

In the same week of receiving $500 and a car, God spun me out again: After having worked for a few months at the nightclub and sharing about God all the time, I also got a job at a ten-pin bowling alley. I worked both jobs for a while. However, the hours clashed and it just wasn’t working, so I decided to finish at the hotel and try to get more hours at the bowling centre. Everyone there wanted to know why I was always happy, so naturally I shared with heaps of people at work about Jesus!

After a few months I asked the manager for some more hours, and he replied sarcastically “Ask God!” I kept a good attitude and thought to myself Ok. I went home and that night asked God for more hours.

The next morning I received a phone call from a guy at church:

“Hey is that Ben?”

“Yes,” I said.

“I’ve got a proposition for you, how would you like a full-time job, with great pay, starting tomorrow?”

“Yes please!”(I was employed causally at the bowling alley, which means only an hour’s notice was required before terminating employment.)

I then called the manager of the ten-pin bowling alley. I told him, “I prayed for more hours and God answered my prayer. I’ve been offered a new job, better hours and better pay.” The manager was surprised and then asked if I could still work the evening shift. I said I would, and even did a few more evening and weekend shifts to make sure they were not put out. God is so faithful. Five hundred dollars, a car and a job all in about a week!

God continued to stretch us and grow us. We were constantly learning that He is our source and our provider. Little did we know that these faith building lessons were shaping us and preparing us for the call God had put on our lives.

One day as I was driving through a rural area on my way to work, the car began to shudder. It was out of fuel, and I only had $2.70 on me. I was still moving at about 80km an hour when the engine stopped. I just coasted and had peace in my heart. Down a hill then up another. A car came behind me, and I was able to move to the left and let them pass. My speed started to drop down to about 40km. Then down another hill and up again. As I came around the next corner and started rolling down the hill, there was a petrol station on the right hand side of the road. I thought, God don’t let another car come the other way because I’ll have to stop in the middle of the road and then push the car across to the petrol station. No cars were around and I rolled across the road and pulled up to the petrol pump. With a big grin on my face, I told the attendant that I just rolled here! I put $2.70 petrol in and continued onto work. At work a friend gave me $5, which was enough to get me home again.

I remember another time God was teaching us to rely on Him.

We had decided to go fruit picking in a town called Stanthorpe. We drove out there and on the way prayed that God would have a caravan available for us to rent. We pulled into a caravan park and the managers said, “Yes we have a caravan for you.”

It was the largest caravan in the park and we were stoked. A massive storm rolled in and outside all the tents were getting hammered by the rain, but we were warm and dry inside. Later people asked us how we got the caravan. They said people had been asking all week for one but the managers had said none were available. We knew it was the favour of God. God had been keeping it aside waiting for us to arrive.

Once we unpacked, I was putting some washing in a machine at the communal laundry. A man was sitting there, and he asked if I was looking for work? I told him I was, and he said Cherie and I could have work on one of his lettuce picking teams starting the next day. We were so happy that we had work straightaway. We were up real early to get a ride out. It was a classic experience. Cherie was in the harvester packing the lettuces into boxes, and I worked in the field with a team of eight, cutting the lettuces with a knife and putting them on the conveyor belt of the harvester. Every now and then the lady working next to Cherie would bellow at us, “GRUBS!" And we knew that some of the lettuces were no good. It was a good day’s work.

When I got home my hand swelled up. I couldn’t believe it. It was an old injury that just inflamed again. We had work and now my hand couldn’t hack the consistent cutting with a knife. I was praying thinking, God, what was the point of having just one day’s work at this place? We told the team leader about my hand and didn’t go to work the next day even though we needed the cash. And then went looking for other work and applied at a job finding agency in town.

6:00 a.m. the next morning we were jolted awake by a big BANG! BANG! BANG! on the caravan door. I thought, Oh no. Another drunk has come to the wrong caravan. BANG! BANG! BANG! I opened the door ready for anything.

The man standing at the door asked, “Are you Ben and Cherie?”

“Yeah.” I answered warily.

He asked, “Do you still want a job?”

“Yes!”

“Be ready in five minutes!” he barked before walking off.

We were out the door in three minutes flat, and in another fifteen minutes we were on a property picking capsicums, tomatoes and apples with a team of pickers. It was hard work, but we enjoyed it. (I distinctly remember after we had been picking tomatoes for a while that our hands were stained so green that at church on Sunday someone came to shake our hands and when we reached out our hands they flinched! He He! Love it.) Apples and tomatoes we didn’t mind, but picking capsicums was painful! We had to bend at the waist as if to touch our toes, pick the capsicums while dragging an 80lt bin up hill and stay bent over basically the whole day. (We couldn’t go on our knees because we had to move too fast.) We became very familiar with rubbing Deep Heat and Tiger Balm onto our aching backs every night! I remember at the end of one of the rows I just lay down in agony, my back in spasms! But aside from the back pain, it was a good job and we were able to share about Jesus to lots of people who had travelled there from all over the world!

We still needed cash and our day’s wage from the lettuces was about to come through. We checked the bank and were shocked. We had been paid $600 for a day’s work! Being an honest guy, I phoned up the farm and managed to get hold of the owner of the property. I told him who we were, and he remembered us even though there were heaps of other workers. I told him we had been paid too much, but he said that that was up to his accounts department. He would check it out but unless he called us back don’t worry! He never called back. Amazing! God had done it again.

Our faith increased and we had even more proof that He is worthy of our trust and faith.