Riverside Christian Family - "loving Jesus Christ and showing him to others"
 |
||
|
Check out some of the testimonies of people in our church and the amazing God who has given us victory in many areas of our lives
‘Puppy Love’ by Raelene Guernier 28/06/08. There are days in life, that you expect to be special - like birthdays and weddings. And then there are days when something so wonderful, so unexpected, happens, and in an instant, your world changes - like the morning, when my toy, poodle, Shannah, discovered three, skinny, red puppies, in our other female poodle’s, breeding box. And even though they weren’t her puppies, Shannah pranced around, like a pony -her head bopping, and her tail flapping wildly. Every morning was Christmas morning, now that puppies were in Shannah’s world. A week later, Shannah herself, went into labour, to give birth to her own litter of puppies. It was her first litter, and she was totally clueless, as to what was about to happen. It started at around six pm, when she began shivering, and scritch-scratching in her breeding box. It was all very exciting! I stationed myself beside the box, and did the very important job of stroking her belly. She was doing great! Dog labour, can take ages, so I did some quick research on the internet -scaring myself silly with information on breeding. I read about how a newborn puppy sometimes sufficates, when the mother is too slow in removing the sac from the puppy’s face. And then there were stories of puppies that get stuck - top half in, legs sticking out. I was in way over my head. I’m not a vet you know! Anyway, inspite of all my fears, at 4am in the morning, my moment of faith came. I decided that I would go to sleep (I had my own, 4 month old baby, to look after). So like Jesus, who went to sleep on the boat, while the storm raged around Him, I too would sleep, and trust God to wake me, if Shannah needed my help. Waking me was an easy thing for God to do. Too easy! So I asked Him to do it. At 6am I woke to feed our baby, and then got my husband Marty, out of bed to watch Shannah. Again my head hit the pillow. When I woke up a few hours later, I called out, from my bed, to Marty, “Are there any puppies yet?” “Yes!” Marty replied, “There‘s two, but one of them is dead.” It was a perfect little puppy - except for the problem that it wasn’t breathing. I’ll never know for sure why it died. I suspect that it suffocated from the sac, just like in the stories that I’d read about. Although Marty had watched Shannah, on and off, he’d missed the birth, of the first puppy. And so, inspite of my prayer, Shannah had faced this moment, somewhat alone, and one puppy died. I placed the cold little puppy in an empty ice-cream container. How could something so beautiful, be so hard to look at? I hid it behind me, on the floor -at the back of the room. Then I watched Shannah strain, to give birth to pup number three. Within moments the little puppy was pushed out, and fluid gushed around it. I punctured the sac with my fingernails, and removed it from its face. Two healthy red puppy’s were licked clean by their doting mother. They fumbled around at her teats, eager to suckle, yet not knowing how. It was a beautiful picture. Here’s another beautiful picture - Shannah leaving her two healthy puppies, to collect her firstborn, from the ice-cream container. She tenderly carried it back, to take it’s place in her litter. A good mother, wants each and every one of her babies. And not one of them, can be replaced by another. The vet had cautioned me not to get too involved in the birthing process, in-case Shannah then rejected the pups. But each of the three times, that I put that puppy in the ice-cream container, Shannah quickly returned to re-claim it. No chance of rejection here. Days when pet‘s die, are always hard days. And this was an especially hard day, for my seven year old son, Riley. For Riley’s sake, we gave the puppy a funeral. Now some of you might be wondering, why on earth am I going on and on about this little puppy, that died. It’s not like we ever got to know it all. I am going on about it, because at some level this puppy was important to our hearts, even as the sparrows of the field are important to the heart of God, and not one -again I say , not one….. falls without him knowing, and caring. Anyway, it was a very nice funeral. My husband is a funeral director, so he knew just what to do. He dug a hole……while Riley and I prettied up that ice-cream container, to use for the puppy’s coffin. We all wanted to put something inside, so Riley chose his Winnie the Poo Bear..“It’s my love gift,” he said. I chose three, small, glittery bows - so that the puppy would know that it was precious to us. And Marty put in a phone card. Phone cards are especially precious to him - he collects them. Riley then lined the box with a photo of the puppy’s Mummy and a photo of it’s Daddy. I’m talking in jest, but it was a genuinely sad moment. In our hearts, we all felt that this death of the puppy, had been avoidable. We felt responsible. As the time for the burial approached, I scooped up my little baby, Ben, and together we hurried outside, to join Marty and Riley, at our backyard gravesite. As a mother, I knew what it was like, to have babies die. I’d had two consecutive, recent miscarriages, both at ten weeks after conception. I looked up at the sky. Dark clouds surrounded us. The trees danced and the wind was cold. I cuddled Ben close to my body, both to warm him, and for my own comfort. In our rush, he had only been dressed, in a nappy, and a long-sleeve shirt. Riley interrupted my thoughts, as he prayed loving words concerning the puppy, that he had named ‘Cody‘. He asked Jesus to take our very precious gift of a puppy, and give it to Aaron and Marissa, in heaven. Aaron and Marissa, were the names, that we had given, to the two babies, that I had miscarried. I had purchased our poodles in the first place, as a means of comfort, over the loss of these babies. And here we were now, offering this precious pup that had died in puppy birth, to our unborn children. Now the theology might not be correct. But it’s another beautiful picture! That night I found myself lost in grief. I sought comfort - in food; and then I listened to a few of my favourite songs. In the end I passed these up, (there was nothing yummy to eat anyway) and I talked it over with God. I asked Jesus to take my pain, and to show me what was going on in my heart, and my mind. I felt such overwhelming grief. And it felt way disproportionate to my loss. “It must be triggering the grief of my miscarriages,” I said to my husband. “Ask God what the underlying statements you’ve attached to it, are,” Marty replied. Immediately I realized that I was grieving over my inability to save that puppy. And that I still had hidden grief, that I had been unable to save my miscarried babies. And, that as a small child, I had repeatedly been unable to save, almost every one of those sparrows, minor birds, doves, budgies and cockatoos. I had nursed so many - spooning soggy wheatbix into their beaks. They mostly all died in the end. And eventually I decided I wouldn’t care anymore. Watching them die was too painful! As I reviewed these situations with God. He told me that He remembered them differently. He’d watched me as a small, little, red-headed girl, brooding over my little chicks, willing them to live -spooning water into their beaks. He said that to him, they had all been beautiful pictures - pictures of love. He said that I’d reminded Him of himself. - always trying to rescue someone who’s hurting, and hurting along with them. Shannah is now still in a fragile state. And I’m tempted to give up breeding altogether. Can you see the pattern here? She is having so much trouble looking after her two little ones. She is very weak. And she won’t eat! She won’t eat anything at all! And yet she’s feeds these puppies, all day long. The vet says that she has retained placental products, and that he needs to remove something from her small intestine. It’s hard to love something or someone, who is fragile. Mostly, we feel tempted to stay away. “I’m just giving him, or her, space,“ we might say. We want to fix their situations. But we can’t. We want to say the perfect words, that will take their pain away. But such words are hard to find. So sometimes, we just do nothing, and we say nothing. The problem is, that when we stay away from the injured, the hurting, and the dying, we additionally wound them, because they think that we mustn’t care. We do care. We care deeply. But we feel so powerless! You know that horrible, scarey feeling of powerlessness? Do you know that it is not the same thing as actually being powerless. I’m beginning to see, that the two are completely different. The truth is, that while we are never all powerful like God, we are also rarely ever powerless. I’d asked God to wake me up, if the puppies needed my help. He didn’t, and one puppy died. I felt powerless. God remembers it differently. He’d watched me with my pets, caring for them, though it hurt. He’d also watched me love my unborn babies, doing all that I could to protect them - ridiculous things, like not eating chocolate, or like not breathing in, when walking past smokers. My list went on and on and on. Years and years of “don’t do’s”. And some of them I still don’t do. But my God who sees into my heart, said, that to Him, they had all been powerful pictures of love. And that when I was loving, I was actually at my most powerful. Don’t you love the way God sees things? He affirmed my ‘loving heart‘ - my “mothers heart!” He affirmed me as a mother, calling good, what I’d only seen as failure. What I had called powerless, He called powerful! In the bible, when God wants to help us understand the compassion that he has for us, he uses the imagery of a mother. And though she is only a vague reflection of Him, a mother’s compassion for her child, reminds Him of Himself.
God recognises, that although there are mothers who choose not to love their children, in general, a mother’s heart towards her child, is a formidable force, that can not be easily be matched in this world. We don’t realize the difference, that our love can make in the lives of others, (imperfect as it is.) We don’t often realize that our love is actually powerful, in and of itself. When we love our unborn babies, our family, our pets, or other people - our love is always needed. We may not be able to change someone’s circumstances, but we can sweeten their journey, and lighten their load If we let Him, God will use us to create beautiful pictures….powerful pictures….. pictures of love! Suicidal Drug Addict - From Gutter to Glory I grew up in Elizabeth South Australia, which is about 20 mins North of Adelaide. I was one of three children ( the middle child), I had good parents who never let us go without, but at the same time didn't spoil us. We always had food on the table a roof over our head and clean clothes to wear. Life was good. At about the age of 12 I made a decision that would dramatically change my life. My next door neighbour had been sniffing glue and asked me to have a go. Being the adventurous person that I was I was I thought why the heck not! That one event started me on a downward spiral for the next 16 years. Unfortunately I loved the "feeling" of being high and wanted to try anything and everything that I could get my hands on. By the time I was 16 I had sniffed glue, taken LSD, eaten magic mushrooms, smoked marijuana, been blind rotten drunk more times than I care to remember, snorted speed and then also I began injecting speed. I thought that I was on top of the world and invincible. How wrong I was. I joined the army at 17 not realising the impact that life that I had been living would effect me. I was kicked out of the army 12 months later after getting in to way too many fights, smashing a car while intoxicated, breaking a policeman's arm and then getting caught sniffing glue while I was on a detox program run by the army. I ended up on the detox program because I had attempted suicide for the first time after getting into so much trouble. I remember cutting my wrists and asking God to kill me ( I didn't even believe that God existed, yet I was asking Him to kill me). However the best thing to come out of the detox program was that we had to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and I met a man there that knew God. He told me that I needed to trust my life with a Higher Power and that the Higher Power was God. I started talking to God and asking Him to change me. When I got kicked out of the Army I used the last bit of money I had and bought a bus ticket to Townsville, I needed to attend court in NSW for braking the policeman's arm and though I would just keep heading North. I started attending Church after being invited by someone. I met some really good people who would then support me over the next 10 years ( I was 18 when I moved to Townsville). Unfortunately my early years in Townsville were not all that good. I was addicted to morphine. It took me a few years to just "let go and let God". Those years were hard as I had met a wonderful Christian girl (Pia) and we got married. I was up and down like a yo-yo. Pia stuck by me as she could see what God could see in me. I thought that life was never going to be good. But God had other plans. He kept me safe. By the time I was 28 I was a real mess. I was married had 3 young children and I was still shooting drugs and getting into trouble. I thought that the only way to get out of the mess I was in was to kill myself, and I attempted suicide 3 more times. The last straw came when I overdosed on Morphine. I was at my wits end and I just cried out to God. I knew at that point that I could not continue trying to live life on my terms and needed to start living them on God's. All my life I had been a liar, I lied to family, friends and strangers so that I could get the drugs that I needed. But God showed me better way. He told me I needed to start getting honest, no more lies. I started telling Pia that I was spending money on drugs (she knew already, but I always lied about it) and I began to see the destruction that I was causing. From that time until now God has shaped and formed me into something Glorious. I am now drug free and have been since 1998. I live in God's blessing each and every day of my life. He really did change my life and he can change yours too! Contact me if you would like to know more about how I was set free! To give you a bit of my background - I grew up in Charters Towers, North Queensland. I was raised in a Wonderful Christian Family, Dad, Mum & 2 sisters. I lived there, did my schooling there and it was only when I got married in 1997 that I moved to Townsville. I had quite a low self-esteem growing up (moreso in high school) I was never one of the popular girls, but I had a couple of good friends who made high school bearable for me. I became a christian in primary school on an SU Camp. I always felt that I didn't have an interesting testimony because I grew up in a Christian Family, was never really rebellious, had a pretty good life, nothing hugely to complain about - what did I have in my life that was going to have a huge impact on someone's life. But you know, there are people who have instantaneous transformations by God, but there are still others, like me, who God has changed gradually over many years. And we all have a story to tell - some are more dramatic than others - but they are all equally important! Before I got married I said that I would never marry a pastor or a missionary. Well God has a funny sense of humour. I didn't marry either, (I married a Civil Engineer) but just 2 years into our marriage and guess what my husband became. A Pastor of a Church!! Well, how inadequate did I feel? I was nothing like a 'Pastors Wife', I would never live up to that title. Or maybe it was what I'd perceived a Pastors Wife should be - from past experience of what I'd seen of others in that position. We were both young (22 & 23) All the people in our church here were older than us - surely they knew a lot more about God and how to lead a church than we did. I found it a really hard & lonely road those first few years. I've lost friends because I was the 'Pastors Wife', like suddenly I'd changed personality and become scary all of a sudden?! Which didn't make sense to me. I was still the same person I'd ever been - just accepted God's calling for our lives and walked into that, having the faith in God that he knew what He was doing. Because we certainly didn't! One month after starting the church up here we lost our 2nd child. Kirsten was born at 24 weeks, lived for 10 days in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Kirwan Womens, and then died of a severe brain hemorrhage on 6th December 1999. Well that almost broke me. I never thought I would recover from that, as anyone who has lost anyone they love knows. But God was faithful and got me through it. I had 10 days with my beautiful daughter for which I am eternally grateful. When I was in the midst of that horrible time in my life, I felt like I was just stumbling through in a bit of a daze - but looking back now, God actually grew me spiritually through that time because I had no choice but to depend on Him to get me through. My marriage also was strengthened through this time. I also have a deepened compassion for those who are going through the same thing as I did. So positives have come out of a very negative time in my life. God has called me to where I am today and he's made a promise to me that he will bring something good out of the trials I have in my life today because I love him and trust Him. He's delivered on his promises before so I will keep on trusting Him. I still struggle at times but that's part of that slow, gradual transforming process God's doing in my life. God has a purpose for everyone's life. All that we go through we can use to help others in the same situations. God never wastes a hurt. That means my life, my story can help others. Your can too! Wendy Almost 20 years ago now, if you met me, within 20 minutes of talking to me, you would have found out who I hated. I hated him so much, that I told everyone I met, how much I despised him. Sad to say, it was my own father. What made me hate him so much? What made me constantly seethe with anger - day in day out? Well, I was only about 7 years old when he left our family home, my mother, and the three of us kids, without saying goodbye, and never to return. I guess it was kind of like he died, when I was 7. Well, he ceased to exist in my life anyway. My memories of him used to haunt me. The day that he walked out, and away from our home, used to be a pretty bad memory for me. I was in the kitchen with Mum and Dad, enduring another of their hateful, heated arguments (this time about money), when my father suddenly thrust his strong arm around my mother's neck, and drew her into his body. He then grabbed a large kitchen knife, put it to her throat, and told her, in my presence, that he was going to kill her. I am grateful that my father never carried out his murderous threat. Possibly he was only trying to manipulate my mother, into giving him money. But from my seven year old standpoint, I believed that my father intended on killing my mother. And so I hated him. From that day forward, for about the next 18 years or so, just the sight of sharp knives, caused me emotional turmoil. I was afraid of my father. I hated him, for threatening to kill the one person in my life who was my world. This was not the only way that my father failed me - but it was perhaps the worst. I don't think that anything is to be gained, by making mention of the other ways, that he devastated our family. So back to here's me, an 18 year old young lady, seething with anger and hatred, yet at the same time yearning for a father's love. Many of you also know what it is like to be abandoned by someone you needed - cut off and treated as though you are nothing. I watched a gripping film, which portrayed Jesus, as he died on the cross for me. A group in the audience, who obviously felt anger towards Jesus, were jeering and yelling abusive comments. They horrified me, and exacerbated my guilt. Here was Jesus. He'd suffered, and died for me - WIPPED, BEATEN, CRUCIFIED! And here I was living my life as though he didn't exist. I felt his love for me, and I felt ashamed of myself. A lady from the pavilion, tried to console me. I was bawling without restraint! She told me that it was OK, that I didn't have to go to hell, because Jesus had made a way for me to go to heaven. As nice as this sounded, I didn't care about heaven or hell, I only cared, that I had treated Jesus so badly, in not returning my love. I cried all the way home on the train, and later more tears marked my pillow. I now knew, that my only appropriate response would be, to live my life for Jesus - perhaps I'd have to become a nun. The Pavilion passed my contact details to a vibrant church, near where I lived. On the first day that I attended the church, the pastor asked if anyone would like to ask Jesus into their life, to cleanse them from their sin, giving them right standing with God. The offer was one of forgiveness. My heart responded with a resounding YES! My hand shot up! Suddenly the world looked entirely different to me. You see, LOVE HAD EXPLODED into my world, and changed everything in a moment. I WAS CHANGED! I REALLY WAS! And here's the proof! I instantaneously forgave my birth father. It wasn't like anyone told me to forgive him - or that I had to work at forgiving him. I suddenly WANTED TO FORGIVE HIM. Right there, in the car, on the way home, I set him free. And I was finally set free, of my hatred towards him! I've since found out, that the process of forgiving others, isn't always this easy. But this is the miracle that God did for me on that day. Do I still feel pain in relation to my father? Yes. But it is diminishing in huge chunks. Not because the years are passing, but because Jesus and I are looking at my pain together. I'm taking every single way that my father wounded me (mostly unintentional), and giving the pain to Jesus. We are working out the lies that my father's behaviour taught me, and we are expelling those lies, with the truths that Jesus is showing me, about me - about Jesus. I'm not just trying to work this out by myself. I'm asking Jesus, and he's showing me things that I would never ever, discover on my own. I am no longer afraid of knives. They are for cutting vegetables. I don't fear my father anymore. He is another adult just like me. I'm not that powerless, little, 7 year old girl anymore. Oh, and I'm not a nun either. God's plan for my life included an amazing husband. Bit by bit, Jesus is transforming my life. Issue by issue, I'm taking my pain to him. He's been so faithful in showing me his truth. Like the time when I was grieving over my father not protecting me as a little girl. Jesus responded by burning deep into my soul, that HE IS my fierce protector. And that when I NEED protecting, according to his wisdom, nothing, I repeat NOTHING, will stand in the way, of his protecting me. That is who God is. HE IS my powerful protector. I have so much more to learn. I'm still asking God to fill that father ache in me, with himself. And his answer to me is always a resounding YES! What God is doing for me, he will also do for you! Anonymous. Our boy has been sick off and on for the last year. So much so that when he was well for 2 weeks straight last year we couldn't work out what was going on? It wasn't until he got sick again that we realised that he really had something more complicated that the flu "once again". We went to our doctor and got a referral to an Ear, Nose & Throat specialist in town. We were able to get an appointment in February where after 2 minutes of the specialist looking at our boy he was diagnosed with"Glue Ear" and was to have gromits in both ears to improve his hearing and to have his tonsils and adenoids removed which was what was making him constantly sick. We were able to get our son's operation later that week. The operation went very well according to the specialist however our son was considerably distressed being in hospital and have an IV attached. Our son was discharged the following day on the condition that he drank plenty of fluids and was starting to eat. When we got home our son then refused to eat and drink, we gave him 6 hours and still he still refused fluids and food. We knew that if our son didn't start to eat or drink within an hour we would have to take him back to hospital where he would have to have another IV attached. We rang our church prayer chain and asked them to pray. Within 10 minutes of that call our son drank a cup of water and ate 3 boiled eggs. It was in our eyes a prayer answered and a miracle. David & Julie Who will love me? Who thinks I am worth anything? My name is Michelle. I am a mother, a wife, a sister, a daughter, a singer, a lover of Jesus. My life is a blessing, everything that happens I count as joy. It hasn’t always been like this though…
Overcoming Depression & Stress Looking back on my life, I remember being a rotter of a young person, always depressed, very low self esteem, and if someone was laughing, they were most definitely laughing at me. I felt I was different, never really felt I belonged, always tried to be liked by everyone, but never really felt that I got that close. Was I gay, was I....., the questions would continue to run through my head as I perceived the world was looking at me and I was coming up short. This continued into university where any comfort zone I may have once been in, was completely demolished, and I found myself facing the darkest times in my life, away from family, and away from any stable relationships I once had. I found my health deteriorated and remember being sick in one form or another almost constantly for the first 6 - 9 months of my first year at Uni. I once excelled academically, and now found myself failing even my favorite subjects and my perceived strengths (Maths). So what changed? Well a little bit more history first. I grew up in a Christian home. Had fantastic parents - although did not recognise it so much at the time - and regularly went to church (although wished I hadn't). Had a bible, didn't read it, many devotional tools on the shelf, and although I called myself a Christian, spent most of my time trying to make sure people did not find out I went to church, and definitely did not want people to know my parents were involved in leadership! Otherwise, I perceived, that I would be alienated even more. So mid year of my first year at uni, and my first year away from home, I actually remember praying. Possibly my first real conversation from the heart with my heavenly Father,a cry of desperation that said 'if You are truly out there - HELP!' The next thing I noticed in the days that followed was a Daily Bread devotional on a coffee table in the boarding house I was living in. I opened it to find a short bible verse, and some inspirational words of analysis of what the Bible was saying. I picked up my Bible for the first time in years, and read it, and in the days, weeks and years to follow read more and more. Something happened that day. Something so profound and yet I couldn't have seen it except in hindsight. God started to restore the Truth into my life. His Word was refreshing me little by little, inspiring me, little by little, and transforming me little by little. I began to gain confidence, began to improve my studies, began to increase in health and began to have hope for the future. In those months that followed, I fell in love with the women I would later marry, found confidence that I was in the right place at Uni, and found that a relationship with the creator of the Universe is the most natural thing to have! And yet the changes were gradual, and the more I pursued God, the more I grew in character and confidence, grew in passion and in boldness. I need to emphasise - for me this was a gradual process, and every day, and every season since has seen growth in character and integrity, and I cannot ever see a time where I will be finished growing and it is exciting to think of what God could do. We should not dwell in the past, but when God has responded to the desperation of your heart and done a mighty life transformation, it is great to consider all He has done and continues to do. Today, many of my weaknesses have been turned upside down - I am no longer as timid in my faith, I share my testimony boldly, the world around me knows that I am a Christian, and I know that Christians are not rejects - they most often have the most valuable contribution in a society without hope and without Truth because we have the Good News & He lives in us! Who am I? I am Daniel Dubbeld (Dan), pastor, father, husband, and a valuable child of God. If He can transform my life, He can definitely do the same for you! Why not pick up the Bible today and start reading, start absorbing, and start allowing God to reveal absolute Truth in Jesus Name. (If you have never really read the Bible - start in Mark - and find yourself in Church with a group of people who can help you along the way - and tell them, ask them, bug them, to help you find the most that you can......... |
||
