Very soon, God willing I will be embarking on a New
Testament Study Tour with my college to Greece and then Turkey.
To say that I have endured emotional abuse during various
periods previously in my life, I believe, would be a fair statement. It’s not something that I deliberately blog
about because God has done so much healing in me, and I also don’t usually blog
about stuff unless it’s necessary.
However it’s interesting that since I became single, God has
allowed for many opportunities for travel to occur…are these opportunities
simply blessing, or does He have a greater purpose?
Only with more time will I fully know…indeed travel is only
one such way God has been growing and blessing me during this period of my life…but
it has been a huge one, so much so that I’ve known for quite some time that I’d
blog about it to praise God!
Before my marriage ended I was quite emotionally damaged and
I had lost a lot of my individual identity.
It’s interesting because although I was restricted emotionally and financially
to what I could do I was still ‘carrying’ the family spiritually and
emotionally. I was the ‘mature’ one and
backbone of our family…the pressure was at times intense. This is not to say my ex did not try, or an
attempt to put him down…he was literally absent a lot, working away from home. He was unable to emotionally support us or
lead us and when it got too tough he left.
God set to work to heal me…and during the first year I began
to re-find who I was in Christ. A part
of this journey was some travel…now some of this which follows may actually sound
fictional, however it’s not J
Previously to the separation I had been searching for my ex’s
biological dad…I had messaged many men with the appropriate name via Facebook…months
later (and when I was single) the right man messaged me because he had finally ‘found’
the in-boxed message which had went to the ‘other’ folder. This contact
resulted in my first family holiday as a single-parent, with my three sons to a
most beautiful part of Australia that I had never been to, or could have
afforded to travel to…let alone with three sons! I even hired a car and made a new Christian
friend on the plane trip there.
Emotionally it was a difficult trip…it did grow me in many ways.
Last Easter again I took my boys away on a short family
vacation, this time by car, to another place in Australia that we had not been
to…then last school break we went camping for the first time with another new friend
I made on a short get-a-way to visit my older brother, and her boys.
This Ordinary Aussie gal, believe it or not, at 36yrs of age
had not even seen our own Sydney Harbour…yet due to my study I was blessed to
travel there for a course and be accommodated at my college at a very low cost…and
yes, I made another Christian friend who so graciously showed me the
harbour. It was amazing!
Somewhere I always have wanted to travel to, yet have been
unable to, is Tasmania. My ex actually
worked there for quite some time, yet the boys and I were unable to go. Well last year on an ordinary Sunday, a
family from Tasmania who were travelling around Aus rocked up to our
service. It was a total God encounter, because
stuff like this doesn’t happen very often to me!! The woman and I began talking,
and she just felt in her heart that we HAD to become friends. She decided that my boys and I MUST visit
them in Tassie and stay with them, sometime after their journey and whenever I
was ready. We have not travelled to
Tassie as yet, but the woman still texts me, and God willing I hope to travel
there with my boys sometime this year.
But as for now, the opportunity to travel to Greece and
Turkey as part of my university degree has arisen…what an amazing opportunity
to walk where Paul and many early church martyrs have proclaimed the gospel. If not for this tour being a subject, I could
not have this experience or pay for it!
Honestly, I have been a bit anxious as it is a big journey, and I don’t know
what to expect in many ways. Growing can
indeed stretch one, yet God is always right there and carries me through.
I think I will miss my boys while I am gone, but I feel sure
that this trip is in God’s plan for me as it has been confirmed in many ways. So I will not be blogging for most of
January, but of course I will write a post when I am home and tell you about
the trip.
God is good and His steadfast love endures forever! There is nowhere in our world that His love
cannot reach…so this Ordinary Aussie Woman will travel!
God bless, Melanie J
2 comments:
I hope and pray that your trip is rewarding and fulfilling and that God gives you revelations into His Word through the travel. God bless you.
Hope you have a fantastic trip! Who knows what else God has prepared for you and your boys :)
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