A short segment of my autobiography to be published soon, titled, "One Life"

bySylviaSuhr

520 followers

Updated 5 years ago

Chapter 3

Getting to know Jesus

I had given my life to Jesus, but this was a special time in my life where now I was able to get to know God in a more personal way. I went for early morning walks in the beautiful rainforest and talked and sang to God. Often, I would walk up steep hills and hear God saying, “Just keep putting one foot in front of the other and it will be worth it when you get to the top.” It surely had magnificent views and spectacular landscapes.

I remember one day I was walking in an area I had not been to before and I walked for about five hours just talking to God and enjoying the countryside. Suddenly, I realised I was lost!

I had the impression that there would be a fallen tree around the next bend, and sure enough it was there. I knew I was safe and sensed that I could never be lost again because God loves me and knows everything about me. He lives inside me. He knows my every thought. After walking for about five hours, I emerged tired but amazed at the grace of God. Even the next day I felt no effects of my very long walk but felt excited to be encountering God in this special way.

One day I received a telegram to say that my mum in England had died. I cried for a few hours.

Then God reminded me of a song we had been singing the night before. It was based on a scripture in 1 John:

This is the confidence that we have in Him that if we ask anything according to His will. He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.

I had sent a letter to my mum a few weeks before, telling her about how Jesus had saved me and changed my life. I believe my mum will be waiting for me in heaven. My sister wrote to me and commented how strange that I would send a letter like that just at that time.

God is faithful!

Marysville is the place were I began to teach scripture in the school. I was so nervous the first time I entered the classroom for my first lesson with five-year- old children. The teacher was a Catholic lady and was very supportive. I think she realised how difficult it it was for me to step out and take on this mission.

Over the following weeks, I became more confident and started to enjoy going each week and teaching the children the simplicity of just trusting Jesus.

I continued teaching scripture for the next seven years in Victoria and then again later when I moved interstate. This was a very important part of my preparation for public speaking and keeping the gospel message simple.

I missed my two younger children while they were away from me but had no way of visiting them for a few months. I managed to get a car when I had been there for around six months, and then I was able to drive for three hours to visit them.

Each time I left my two-year-old boy, he would scream as he watched me drive away, and I would be broken-hearted. I had to stop the car and cried and cried, thinking how much I wanted to take my children back with me to Marysville.

A few weeks later I found a way to bring my two other children back to live with me, and we rented a house in town for another year. We prayed, and God provided everything we needed for our home. This was a very precious time for us. We had a family altar were we would pray every night as a family. We wrote out a list of what we needed and gradually ticked each thing off the list as God miraculously provided.

It seemed that there were quite a few churches in town, but very few people there were open to the gifts of the Holy Spirit. I could find only three people in town who were baptised in the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues.

It was in Marysville that I met Heather. She was such a talented lady. She was a hairdresser. She was also a single mum and was a leader in the guides and had a singles group called Segula. I joined the group, and we had around 15 singles involved.

We would put on plays, have dinner parties and games nights and have such great fun together. Often Heather and I would sing together, and she would play the guitar. I remember us singing a duet of The Rose. Heather died a few years later of cancer. I found this difficult to understand, and my faith was shaken for a while.

My time in Marysville was a special time in my life because the three children and I started to put the pieces back together and start a new life. We lived in the house in Marysville for about a year and then moved a little closer to civilisation to Healesville into a government house. We lived in Healesville for about seven years, and I was able to go to a Pentecostal Church and home groups.

I started to build a dog grooming business again and bought a caravan, which I had fitted out with benches and cages. The extra money enabled me to have the children go to a Christian school, and I could still be home to provide pancakes and muffins for them after school. That was a special time when they would share their stories together about school and travelling on the bus.

I had a friend named Jimmy who lent me his TV and video player with lots of videos of Kenneth Copeland, Jimmy Swaggart and Joyce Meyer, so I spent hours watching them and building my faith for the miraculous.

I decided to go to the Bible College of Victoria part-time and study the word of God and learn more about godly principles.

I was attending a church in Lilydale called Mount Evelyn Christian Fellowship, and I also trained at the Bible College there for a year. My children all went to a Christian school in Lilydale, and since it seemed more practical for us to move there, we moved again.

Lilydale is a larger town, and I was now nearer to friends and church and had more fellowship. We rented a little farmhouse and had chickens, goats, dogs and cats. My youngest daughter, Leisel loved horses and was able to learn how to ride.

Sharon had joined Youth with a Mission, which is an organisation for training people for missions here in Australia and overseas. She was bringing books home like, Is That Really You, God? by Loren Cunningham.

YWAM (Youth with a Mission) Canberra

I read this book and was inspired to join YWAM, so we sold everything we had again and caught the train to Yass to go to YWAM Canberra. The hardest thing was to find homes for the dogs. The children didn’t want to go, but I knew we had to make a fresh start again, and I wanted to go for God full-time and do missions. We lived on base, and the two children went to school there. My oldest daughter, Sharon was at the YWAM base in Melbourne.

Leisel was a very talented artist. She would draw horses every spare moment she had. She also loved to be around horses. This was her passion. One day she came home and asked me if I would buy one of the horses from the local riding stable. I said I would pray about it.

She said, “I mean it, Mum!”

We prayed. God gave us ten reasons why we should buy the horse for her, so Timmy was hers. They were the best of friends for many years. She is now a very talented equine artist.

The discipleship course went for three months, and then we were to do a three-month overseas outreach to prepare us for further missions. We couldn’t go on the outreach as the children were not prepared to go, and so we stayed on base and I worked on staff for another nine months. I worked in both children’s ministry and in the kitchen.

We then went to live at Mountain Trails in Wee Jasper, which is a Christian horse-riding camp for young people. We rented a house there, and I worked on staff as an assistant cook and housekeeper for Gary and Ruth, who were a great support to me.

I home-schooled Allen and Leisel caught the bus into Yass town to the high school, which was an hour’s drive from there. This was a special time for us as a family. We grew vegetables and went on walks together and we got a big black dog named Jed.