Part 1: The start of a wonderful journey

Our relocation to New Zealand and what transpired since we started, what we call our adventure, is nothing short of miraculous. It yet again revealed to me how God is directly involved in our daily existence and that he performs countless miracles in our lives. We were blessed with more than we could have ever asked for or think up for ourselves.

Yes, the adjustment was difficult, and I wanted to give up multiple times. I was sometimes scared to the bone. I questioned our decision a lot. We had to endure a few months of hardships and discomfort. There is just no easy way of giving up most of your earthly belongings, saying goodbye to your family and friends, and everything you know in exchange for the unknown, for a country that you have never been to and a town you have never even heard of before. But where we couldn’t see a way, God prepared a smooth and even road for us.

So let me start at the beginning. In July last year my hubby, of only 3 months at the time, told me that he was thinking about emigration and wondered how I would feel about it. He did not have a specific plan or place in mind, but he knew that he wanted to explore this hunch.

I was totally and completely not on board with it. I mean, I don’t think I even let him finish his last sentence. I am super close to my family and we spend a lot of time together. I love South Africa, our South African heritage and the abundant wildlife, I hold my home language very dear and I was really happy about where we were in our lives at the time. I had big dreams of finally completing my community service year as a clinical psychologist and serving the people of my beloved country. We were just starting to make our little apartment our own and even more so I was just starting to feel at home in our new church congregation. I couldn’t even entertain the idea and he was very supportive.

In my mind that was the end of the story. Later that week I submitted my comm serve application for 2020 and started making holiday plans for December. Business as usual.

But the following week he brought it up again so I had to take it more seriously. I truly listened to what he had to say and in turn shared my concerns with him. We agreed that we should start praying about it. He would start looking around for opportunities or recruiters but I made sure he knew that I was not going to do anything from my side, besides praying. Being true to myself I cheekily added that if anything was coming from his efforts he would be responsible for making it all happen.

We started praying really hard. We would never want to make a decision like this without the help of God. It was our hearts desire to know what He wanted for us. And I couldn’t shake the feeling that He was planting this dream into Evert's heart. As a devoted woman of God, I hold my husband’s authority in high regard and I trust him and support him in making important decisions for our benefit.

So I prayed. And prayed. And prayed a little bit more. Morning, noon and night, and every moment in between. “Open the eyes of my heart Lord, show me the way forward. Reveal Your plans unto us. Prepare the way for us. We lay our lives into Your hands. We trust in the path that You lay out for us. We want to live our lives to Your Glory alone. Not our will but let Your will be done.”

In the mean time we also started discussing the idea with our families. At this stage this was not a reality in my mind and I threw around ideas as if I was talking about someone else’s life, not my own. My family got very upset which in turn upset me a lot. They made a few very valid points for remaining in South Africa and I actually agreed with most of it. I was totally confused and sad. I could see that it would be devastating for us as a family if the two of us had to move across the globe.

I tried to come up with all sorts of reasons why we should just forget the entire thing. But I had to quiet my thoughts because we were still waiting upon the Lord…

#proudlysouthafrican #praying #waiting