God indeed answers...

As we kept waiting, our hearts continued to long across the pond for Europe, the town of Exeter to be exact.
Truly our hearts were touched last summer when we had the opportunity to minister for two months to this
church. Loving them, praying and ministering seemed to bring such joy in our hearts. As we left, part of our
 heart was left in this little English town, as I Thessalonians 3:9-11 so rightly displays:

"How we thank God for you!  Because of you we have great joy as we enter God's presence.  Night and day we pray earnestly for you, asking God to let us see you again to fill the gaps in your faith."

Upon sitting and waiting on God, now that we returned to the states, there seemed to be this unending desire for these people.  Perhaps God was putting a sense of calling on our hearts to go there?  As we would continually say no, with every excuse possible, (longing to go back, but certainly not to live there) the Lord spoke to our hearts one morning in our devotionals – “Why not?”

Giving us the confirmation we needed, (found in Acts 16:10, “So we decided to leave for Macedonia at once, having concluded that God was calling us to preach the Good News there” ) …we knew that we knew we were to go.  Also in Acts 13:47 it says, "I have made you a light to the Gentiles, to bring salvation to the farthest corners of the earth".  Thus the peace and excitement filled our hearts to think God would want to use us in our old age! Remembering the prayer of our hearts, “Lord, let us be more fruitful in our later years than the beginning."

We had nothing to hold us back, so off we begin to walk down this new pathway in our lives. The invitation truly came from God to invite us to come across the pond, travelling to the gentle rolling hills of rural England. This now became our focus - Acts 26:16 "I have appeared to you for this purpose....".

       “The vision Paul had on the road to Damascus was not a passing emotional experience,

        but a vision that had very clear and emphatic directions for him. Our Lord said to Paul in

        effect, "Your whole life is to be overpowered or subdued by Me; you are to have no end,

        no aim, and no purpose but Mine." And The Lord also says to us, " You did not chose me,

        but I chose you and appointed you that you should go” John 15:16. Paul was devoted to a 

        Person, not to a cause.” 

              Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, January 24