Taylors moving on
Just as Easter symbolises the beginning of new life perhaps it’s symbolic that Lynne and I begin a new chapter of our lives this Easter. After 20 years of local authority finance I finish work at the Waikato Regional Council just before Easter and then straight after that Easter weekend we join with a 2 month YWAM (Youth With a Mission) outreach “Activate Love”. That outreach will see us join with 100 young people from all over the world who are coming to NZ to help re-evangelise NZ 200 years after Samuel Marsden first preached the gospel. We’ll be part of one of the teams that will be sent out throughout NZ to assist local churches in their mission to their community.
After the YWAM outreach we return to Tauranga in June and begin a new chapter of our lives, trusting God to open doors of ministry as He has been prompting us over the years.
We’ve spent most of our married lives in Hamilton so it’s a big move to put our goods in storage and head off into our future, based in Tauranga. God’s call on our lives has been clear to us but it’s been many years before the timing was right. Making that final decision was quite a struggle but I had set myself (and God) a deadline of Sunday Feb 1st to determine God’s leading so I could give my employers two months notice (or not at all!). Lynne was sure but I just couldn’t see things clearly so she prayed “Lord you’ve got to make it clear to Alan”. When I was clearing out a storage room on Saturday January 31st I found a bag of assorted cassette tapes and gave them to Lynne to sort through. One of those tapes was a message from 3 January 1993 by me entitled “Don’t Limit God”. So Lynne in her wisdom put it in the player. One of the challenges I brought to the listeners 22 years ago was “Don’t be in the same place in a year’s time”. At the end of that message Lynne and Daniel (oldest son who’s staying with us at present) and I discussed things and it wasn’t too long before I said “Ok, I’ll resign on Monday”. Decision made. Lynne thought God had a real sense of humour getting me to preach to myself to bring me to the point of decision! That message from 1993 is attached to this blog.
Since then the peace of God that had been so elusive in recent weeks returned.
God has given us many words in 2014 about travel; adventure; ministering together; our lives are just beginning; the season of preparation is over. Many of those words were repeated several times in different circumstances. So we knew God was giving us some strong clues and now the time has come to step out.
We really aren’t sure what our lives will look like after the YWAM outreach but we are confident that God has gone before us and will lead us as we settle in Tauranga and look for opportunities to preach, teach, minister, run prophetic art workshops and otherwise seek to equip the saints.
Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass. 1 Thessalonians 5:24
For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:6
Don’t limit God, 3 Jan-93. Fountain City Christian Centre, Hamilton: