Sliding Doors 2

If you read my last ‘ Sliding Doors’ blog you will remember that I shared about the decision we had to make in either obeying God to give up our home if He asked us to – the home we had dreamed about, saved for and built to enjoy, or make the decision to stay put. Our home was to be used for ministry and it definitely had that use, so to stay was an acceptable decision. In choosing to obey God beyond our complete knowledge of the ‘why’ however, took us far beyond what we could have ever imagined we would be doing over the past 25 years. I wouldn’t swap it for that house any day.

Every day we make decisions. Not all of them are major decisions, however, whether we choose to do something or not do something, is in fact a decision.

Big decisions, those life changing ones, will see us standing in front of two major doors. One will bid against the other, each with its positive and negative points of view. You know that the door you choose will lead you down a very different path than the other. This is what ‘Sliding Doors’ is about. If I make ‘this’ choice, I will be in ‘this’ position, but if I choose ‘that’ door, I will be in ‘that’ position.

Whichever door you choose, know that you will not see the full landscape of your future story until you start living it. Make a ‘door choice’.

My second ‘sliding door’ experience is about a ministry opportunity almost lost.

I remember sitting at my desk one day and thinking about the changing face of the asian nation we serve in. As I was dwelling on the dramatic difference of today’s generation to those who stood in war times, God showed me a vision of a highway and standing at the fork of that highway were two roads, one leading left and one leading right. Also standing at the fork of that highway was the emerging generation of that nation, a generation who did not know war, did not experience extreme lack, did not live in fear for their lives, or miss out on an education. This generation were growing up with the bombardment of the outside world flooding in. The country was developing at a rapid rate as foreign investment, cable television, mobile phones, internet access, foreign tourists and so much more were entering their world.

God spoke to me in that moment and He said, ‘Deb, this generation are going to make different choices to the generation before. They are going to need ‘life-skills’ to guide them in making right choices for their life and journey along the right path. I want you to do something about it. I want you to bring ‘life-skills’ into this nation, starting with the women and the girls to help them make right choices.’

My response; ‘Wow God, yes, that is a great idea.’

I sat on that invitation from God without doing anything about it, and when three months had gone by, He spoke to me again saying; ‘Deb, if you don’t do what I am asking you to do, I will get someone who will.’

Immediately I picked up the phone and rang a friend who was running a life-skills program in Australia. I told her what the Lord had spoken to me about and her response was surprising; ‘Deb, we were invited to take this life-skills program into another country but they have just cancelled, we can come now.’

My friend and her colleague came and trained myself, some of our team and others who have a heart to reach women and girls. Within months we were running our own courses and then we began running our own training. Our first training saw us journeying the course with representatives from several other nations who wanted to reach women in their world. My colleague Bek and I and our team went on to train women all over Asia. Although it was a good program, it didn’t serve us well cross culturally. This is when God spoke again and told us to write our own material which would work in all cultures, demographics and contexts.

Almost eight years on, we (Bek and I) have trained women in our ‘Flourish Program’ from forty nations and it is being used in those forty nations, and the demand for it continues. Why? God spoke, we acted, then He breathed on it to do more than we could ask or imagine.

If I had chosen not to pick up the phone that day to ring my friend, someone else would have been doing what God had called me to do.

What doors of opportunity stand in front of you? If God has spoken, act upon it, and then watch Him breathe on it in a miraculous way.

Deb