Here I am Lord

As I sit here in my comfortable room in Saigon, it is, in some ways, hard to believe that I have been in Vietnam for nearly 6 weeks. In another way, it sometimes seems so much longer.
I came here expecting to teach English and to do a few odd jobs as well..... God had other plans for me. I believe that He brought me here, not to just be another volunteer in this new land, but to exchange that woman who left Australia in May, for the new woman that He wants me to be.
When I accepted God's plan for me, to come to Saigon, I know that a great change came over me. I was no longer unsure of myself when decisions had to be made; I just felt a complete calm come over me as soon as I decided that Vietnam was to be my destination.
I know that He shouldn't, but God continually amazed me and still does. Right from the time that I agreed to come here, God did amazing things in my life.My TESOL Course proved to be no barrier to me. My prayer was that God would help me through the course and, faithful God that He is, He not only helped me, but He allowed me to help others who were having difficulties. I have never been a scholar and it is only through Him that I was able to do that.
This blog was written during my first term of three months in Saigon . . . for some reason, it never got finished, but it certainly is true.

Destination Saigon

This post was obviously written some time ago while I was in the middle of preparing to come to Saigon. Please forgive me for my tardiness in not completing it. SG

Well, here it is only three and a half weeks until I leave for three months in Saigon.
I've been a busy little beaver lately. I attended my Child-Safe Environments course on Saturday and Certificate IV TESOL finishes on Tuesday. Vaccinations are well under way, and I am beginning to feel like a pin cushion at the moment.
I keep telling people that I have never felt so close to God in my life. Many would say that things that are happening are 'just coincidental' but I know that God is with me twenty four hours of every day and He continues to 'prove' His presence to me.

This morning I was asked to give a short talk, on why I had chosen to volunteer to work in an English Teaching School in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Until today, I had never stopped to think about why I chose that particular place and job; I just believed that God wanted me to serve Him there and so that is why I was going. So now I have thought about it and I know why.

Have you ever had a childhood dream of what you wanted to be when you grew up? Were you ever asked, what you wanted to be when you grew up?

I always wanted to be a teacher, there was never anything else in my mind. Unfortunately, my parents had other ideas, and wouldn't even let me do the high school course that I needed, to allow me to pursue my dream. I also suffered badly from a nervous condition, which made me unable to speak clearly, and I went through my early stages of life being asked to repeat myself, or to speak up and stop mumbling - none of which helped the nervous condition.So I ended up in the Public Service, eventually sorting mail for 26 years.

But God had other plans for me. After leaving home at the age of 17, I began to gain confidence and within a few years, I was able to speak without mumbling. I was still reasonably shy, but a few glasses of alcohol took care of that. I won't go into the life that I experienced, but suffice to say, I did not live the life of a Christian. Fortunately, God still had His hand upon me and placed me in the right job, and then the right house to be led into His loving arms and find fellowship with my Church family

Shortly after I was converted, I spent 2 years living with my newly adopted parents, Bevan and Lois, on their farm. One morning, after he had attended a Christian men's breakfast, Bevan gave me a card which said, 'God has a plan for your life.' I believed it then and I believe it now.

In His Word, God tells us that He has known us forever, and that means even before that dream of mine was first dreamed. As I look back, I can see God's plan leading me to this point. Even those bad times that I went through, have proved to be beneficial to me in my new endeavour. Many of the people that need to learn English have suffered greatly in their lives, others have disabilities which make it harder to learn and are therefore pushed aside so that others may learn in their place. I don't intend to have you believe that I suffered greatly, but through my mild sufferring, I have been able to develop an empathy with those who have sufferred terrible things.

I have a great love for children and a heart for the disabled. One of my best friends at work came from Vietnam and told me of how she had to leave her country to continue studying, as her father had assisted the Americans during the Vietnam War. I felt for those people then and I still do.

I have met Hoa Stone, the Vietnamese war orphan who was, and still is, crippled by polio. He was brought to Australia and adopted by a Christian family and after severe trials and torments in his life, he finally gave his life to Christ and is now back in HCMC, and serving Christ. His plan is to enable disabled and disadvantaged young people to learn to make a living for themselves. One of the ways in which he helps to financially support his work is by running an English Teaching School.

Praise the Lord, I can be a teacher after all. Thank Your Lord, for putting me in the right place at the right time. Thank You for being my Potter and moulding me, as clay, into the vessel that You created me to be.

This will be my first involvement in volunteering overseas. I believe it will serve as a great experience and if God wants me to serve in Malawi or Mozambique next, then so be it and all the praise and all the glory will be His.

I would love you to pray for me. It has been many years since I last studied and I am commencing my ten week course in TESOL, on February 1. Please pray that I will be able to set up a schedule, whereby I can fit everything in and still allow time for the large amount of study that I will need to do. Pray also, that I will have a clear understanding of what I am being taught. Pray that I will be diligent in my work and do more, rather than less than is required of me. Above all, please pray that by my actions, I shall show the love of Christ to all I meet and that I shall never be afraid to tell of His great love for us.

Your sister in Christ, Susiegee.

Semi-retired

Well, here it is, the last day of November for 2010 and I feel the need to write.

I have been unemployed now for just over a week and, already, I feel the need to go back to work for a rest! It's OK, I'm not really going to do it, but I am planning to study in the early part of 2011. (How easily that rolls off the tongue - 2011)
As I have written previously, I believe that God has great plans for my future and I have prayed believing that He would reveal them to me.

I am going to enrol in a course for teaching English to speakers of other languages. That will probably take up the first half of the year and then I will find out for sure, just where God wants me. I still feel strongly, that it will be Ho Chi Minh city. If you happen to wander on to this blog, maybe you can pray for that part of God's plan to be made definite for me.

Now to what is happening in my life at the moment. I am responsible to my Church Council for the Ministry of Children and Youth, I'm teaching Sunday School, running an after school club once a fortnight, on the Church Carer team and lead Worship Services occasionally. Fortunately, no one cares if my housework doesn't get done on time.

As we approach the time of the year when we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, I think of the billions of dollars that will be spent on presents for young and old and I lament. Oh Lord, how many lives could be saved by even half of that money? How many families could be fed, clothed and housed? Lord, I just pray that in the hustle and bustle of this Christmas season, people will stop and think of how He, for Whom this holiday is remembered, would celebrate it. He, who healed the sick, fed the hungry and raised the dead but who also cleared the temple of those who used it for the wrong purpose: how would He celebrate this season?? Would He be up early on Christmas Day, looking under the Christmas tree for some expensive gifts? I think not.

What about you? Will you take the time and make the effort, to show the love of Christ to those who do not know it? Will you sacrifice a little of your time and money to make someone else's Christmas special? Will you show others, Christ through your actions? I pray for our Lord to help me to do just that!

No matter how you spend Christmas, I pray that Our Heavenly Father will truly bless you as you praise Him and give Him the glory for the great things that He has done.
Have a happy and safe Christmas.

Direct My Paths

Well, it's been quite a while since my last post and I'm not really sure where I want to go with this one. God knows though, so I'll just let Him lead me to His end.
I guess things have become a little exciting since I last wrote, as I haven't been to work since about September 18.
I had my arthritic thumb operated on and so have been on sick leave since September 20 and it will be approximately 6-8 months before I regain 100% use of my left hand. I have definitely decided that I am not going back to work (a) because I cannot continue to use my hands to do the work and (b) because I believe that God wants me to work for Him. I believe that for some time now, in fact, for most of my life, God has been preparing me for semi-retirement. There is a lot of work for me to do, both here in Australia and also overseas.
I am seriously thinking of teaching English to migrants, although I would have to do a course of study to qualify for that. There is also the ongoing wish to work with children and young people in some capacity and the desire to provide care and comfort to elderly folk. Only the Lord knows what I will do and when I will do it.
If you happen to stumble across this blog, I would love you to pray for me, that God will direct my paths and that I will be His obedient servant.

Trust In The Lord

I used to have a little dog that was a cross between a Pekingese and a Shitsu. Many people thought she was an ugly little thing with a pushed in nose and huge under bite but I loved my little Jasmine to bits…. she was my little girl.
Now, you don’t know my ‘adopted’ parents, Bevan and Lois, but they used to have a large property where they grew almonds. Just after my conversion in 1989, they unofficially adopted me and I lived with them on their property for two years.
Jasmine , or Jassie as she became known, came with me and was soon converted too, not to Christianity, but from a city dog to an ‘almost farm dog’. She used to go out with Bevan on the tractor or run around behind it, or sometimes ride with him on the motor bike. She had to get used to having a bath under the cold water hose instead of in the laundry trough with warm water. She had to learn to shake herself dry instead of having a blow dry with my hair dryer, and she had to get used to not sleeping on my bed. But she did enjoy the almonds that ‘accidently dropped’ from the sorting belt. I’m pretty sure that dad would ‘drop’ them on purpose.
Because I worked nights, I would see Jassie when I came home from work but then I’d go to bed and Jassie would hang around outside or she would follow dad around the farm while I slept. If she went out on the tractor with dad, she would often run behind the tractor when he came home.
Well, one day I heard the tractor coming home and greeted dad, expecting Jassie to be not far behind him. But as some time passed and she didn’t come home, I asked him if he had seen her. She had been with him but he thought she had come home. Well, maybe she had gone to visit one of the neighbours …. No we couldn’t find her at the neighbours.
So off we went in the ute to look for my beloved dog. Out to the area where dad had last seen her and then slowly back toward home with eyes peering from both sides of the car. We were almost home when my eye caught sight of something …. I couldn’t quite make out if it was her or not, but we decided to have a closer look ….. Oh Lord thank You it was my little Jassie …
As we drew closer to her, I expected her to run up to the ute, but no…. she sat rigidly still in that one spot and then we saw why. Up in the sky, not far away, was a crow. Jasmine had obviously upset it somehow and it had turned on her. Now Jasmine was petrified with fear. She knew that I loved her but she didn’t realize that I loved her so much, that I would do whatever it took to save her from that big bird. I had to get out of the ute, and with one eye on Jassie and the other on that big bird, walk over to her and pick her up. As I held her in my arms I could feel her trembling with fright and tears of relief rolled down my cheeks. It was an experience that neither of us would want to go through again.
Life is like that isn’t it! We can find ourselves in all sorts of trouble, whether it is in the area of finance, health or spiritual well being, and we can be overcome by fear and worry. But do you know what? Just as Mum, Dad and I went searching for Jasmine and brought her home to safety, Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ is always with us offering His help to cope with any problems that we are facing. There is absolutely no problem that is too big when Jesus is on our side.
So don’t be like Jassie and be petrified with fear ….. Trust in the Lord who has promised ‘never to leave you nor forsake you.’ He is our rock, our fortress and our hiding place ……. He is Our Saviour.

A Little More Of Me

My mother passed away in 1986 and my father in 1992 (or thereabout). Mother was a Christian and in her last days, asked me if I would give my life to God. At that stage, I did not feel that I could do so and was able to tell her that.
In May 1989, I was dramatically converted and in the same year, was adopted (unofficially) by Lois and Bevan. I lived with them on their farm at Willunga for two years , then holidayed in Europe for about 7 weeks and moved back into my own home at Hackham when I returned from holiday.
I have been truly blessed in my life, to have known many wonderful people, some Christian and some not, but I continually pray that those who don't know the Lord, will come to know Him before long. I also continually pray for those of my family that do not know Jesus Christ as their Saviour and am absolutely rapt that my younger sister and her husband and daughter came to know Our Saviour and serve Him lovingly.
The power of prayer is so often under-rated by many people. It is one of our strongest defences against the evil forces of the world. I still thank those who prayed for me for 21 years before their prayers were answered and I received Christ as my Saviour.

Lord, I just want to say again, how much I love You and thank You for your gift of Eternal Life through Your death and resurrection. I thank You for sending people to tell me of this great gift and explaining that You died for me. Help me, Lord, to spread this Good News to those with whom I come in contact, so that others may have the opportunity to know You as I do. Open the eyes of those who are too blind to see that they need You in Jesus' precious name. Amen