Touched by Heaven by Nancy Ravenhill

Author:Nancy Ravenhill [Ravenhill, Nancy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: REL012040, BIO018000
ISBN: 9781441265296
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2015-02-12T00:00:00+00:00

9

The God Who Heals

Thy children [shall be] like olive plants all around your table.

Psalm 128:3 NKJV

Give ear, O LORD, to my prayer; and attend to the voice of my supplications. In the day of my trouble I will call upon You, for You will answer me.

Psalm 86:6–7 NKJV

One of the few pictures taken of David and me on our wedding day shows us in front of the large map of the world hanging in the entryway of Bethany Missionary Church. There in our wedding finery, we are pointing to New Guinea, the large island in the South Pacific leapfrogging Australia.

David longed to minister there. I loved how he would laugh and say that he could not tell if the call came from God or National Geographic. We had been quite close when we were in New Zealand, but now our prayer was literally coming true.

A couple of months after the fire, David and I had once more given away everything we owned, except for the contents of three barrels and a few suitcases for us and the girls. Lisa was now almost five, and Tina was two and a half. We boarded a plane in Los Angeles and settled in for the long legs of the flight. The children mostly slept as we flew. I looked out the window, watching nothing but water for hours. After landing in Brisbane, Australia, we boarded another plane that would take us to the capital city of Port Moresby, New Guinea. It was very warm that day.

And the light! It was the brightest sunlight I had ever seen. It seemed to “wake me up.” It felt as though the Lord was nudging me to be alert, to be aware of where He was taking us. I felt the enormity of the privilege of serving God in this exotic land.

New Guinea, we knew, was a fascinating country of around four million people with more than seven hundred distinct languages, but I was not prepared for life there. It was a shock. On the one hand, the tropical beauty could take your breath away. Palm trees, lush grasses, blue sky. On the other hand, many people lived in unimaginable poverty and filth. We also heard regularly of tribes being discovered that had never seen anybody from the outside world.

The YWAM base of operations, which YWAM was purchasing, was a large house with a tiny apartment at ground level in a poor area of Port Moresby. Although the base was under good leadership, it was facing many difficulties in this land of so many poor and uneducated people. Our job was to help out in teaching, Bible study with the team and prayer, as well as do evangelistic work in the city and outlying areas. We eventually started a church that functioned from the base—the first church YWAM had ever begun.

We had little money—only $150.00 monthly coming in from Bethany Fellowship. That was the allotment for students who joined the church there and went onto the mission field.

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