It wasn't ours in the first place...

by John & Helen Gardiner

Though the fig tree may not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines; Though the labour of the olive may fail, and fields yield no food; Though the flock may be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls -- yet will I rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation (Habakkuk 3:17&18)."

Since we went into full-time ministry eight years, we have known the Lord's protection and provision in the most amazing ways.

At a time when we were involved in an itinerant ministry, we lived in a small cottage right next door to a squatter camp. Helen and the children would be left alone for up to two weeks on end, and yet no one ever set foot on the property and we never felt anything but the Lord's perfect protection and safety.

We drive a 10-year-old car that has more than 350 000 kilometres on the clock and has travelled the length and breadth of this country for the Lord's work -- and it has never once left us strandded.

We have also enjoyed the Lord's undertaking in the area of health. We're a family of six, with no medical aid, and yet our medical bills have never exceeded R100 a year for the past eight years.

We have also lived without any form of insurance during this time.

Like Elijah sitting by the brook Cherith, we've enjoyed the blessings of God's hand...

One Friday night in September this year we went off to our regular worship meeting at church. We returned home at about 9.30 to be greeted with the news that we'd been burgled. Inside the home, chaos reigned. The contents of cupboards had been emptied on to the floor, and the home had been stripped of virtually all valuables -- CD player, video machine, microwave, cameras, clothing, a purse containing money, even food from the freezer, and more.

A group of us rushed down to the bush in the valley below our property and began searching by torchlight. We found nothing.

We returned home and gathered everyone together to pray. The prayer went along these lines: "Father, these were not our things in the first place. Everything we have belongs to you, and so we release all these goods to you. If you choose to restore any of these things to us, we will be grateful. If not, we trust you to provide for all our needs in the future. We forgive completely those who have done this to us, in Jesus' name." We felt a tremendous sense of release and liberty, and were able to accept that we would probably never see any of our stuff again.

We later returned to the valley for a last look to see if we could find anything. On the way home after a fruitless search, a "chance" shining of the torch in a particular direction revealed something under a distant clump of bushes. A closer look showed a large pile of our goods, stashed for retrieval at a later stage.

Rejoicing, we carried everything home and took stock. A huge pile of clothing, the microwave, the all-important work cameras, the purse with cash in tact -- even the frozen chickens! -- it was just about all there. We realised that the video machine, CD player, an ancient radio and a few items of clothing were all that was still missing.

We were very grateful to have back what had been restored to us, and the Lord showed us very clearly how He had first wanted us to let go of all those things before He would restore them. On the first trip to the valley, we had walked very close to the area where everything had been stashed -- yet we didn't see anything, because the Lord needed to first test our hearts.Were we going to live what we've taught? Or were we going to question where God was in all of this? Were we going to get upset, angry or bitter over what had been lost? Or were we simply going to let go and trust Him completely?

Having settled that issue, it was a very simple matter for Him to restore what needed to be restored.

On the Wednesday after the burglary we happened, by "chance," to hear that the police had recovered some stolen goods in one of the local squatter camps. A trip to the police station revealed that, after only three days, the case for our burglary had already been closed ("Lack of evidence," we were told -- despite a full set of fingerprints having been taken from our home).

After some delay, a trip to the recovered goods room revealed that our video machine and CD player were about the only items of value to have been recovered from the squatter camp. Because the case already been closed, these two items would never have been returned to us if it weren't for the "chance"information given to us.

A short while after returning home from the police station, I (John) began to sweat and shiver. It was the beginning of a bout of hepatitis that saw me bed-ridden and incapacitated for almost six weeks (apologies to the few hundred people who left phone messages during this time!). The brook Cherith of health and healing had seemingly dried up in a big way. However, in the midst of intense physical fire, God was also doing an incredibly deep work of spiritual purging and cleansing and deliverance -- but that's another story in itself!