Wednesday, October 17, 2012

When God closes one door.....

Well, it's been a while since my last blog post!
I've been in a different difficult season of my life, adjusting to the loss of my dear friend and moving onto a new season.
When God closes one door, He sure does open another!

My friend (whom I saw weekly, even twice weekly sometimes) passing away left a big hole in our lives.
But God has been so good to us!

You know, I'm just so excited about this new season.

It all came about so quickly! I didn't have much to do with it except facilitate a night of discussion on homeschooling at a friend's home.

It started off a few months ago. A family in our church had just moved here from another country where they homeschooled their kids. I met up with the mum a few times in the last few months to befriend her and be an encouragement to her (whether or not they decided to continue homeschooling) and besides she has a daughter just a few months younger than Rebekah and they get on really well! I then found that there was another family in our church who had begun home schooling one of their kids.
Besides them, I also have two other friends with younger kids interested in home schooling that have talked to me on and off over the years about homeschooling and how it all works etc.

A couple of weekends ago, our church went away on a camp and while we were there I had an indepth conversation with a man from our church who is here studying, who also successfully homeschooled his 4 children all the way to university! When I was chatting to him, I realised he was such a wealth of wisdom and knowledge. I wondered what it would be like to get him to come chat to these group of women I mentioned earlier (and their husbands)! Well, a thought turned to reality and we met together last Sunday night over dinner, all 5 families, kids and this dad.

Well, it seems this was a divine connection because the family that are homeschooling one child have now decided to pull their other two kids out of school and homeschool all three of them next year! Another family with younger children who were deciding whether to send their child to 'big school' next year have decided to homeschool as well! So, now we have a whole new community (albeit small at the moment) of homeschoolers in our church! How exciting! Rebekah has always wanted to have other friends in church that also were homeschooled and now her years of desiring this have come to pass! You can tell I'm excited by all my exclamation marks!!! :)

We've decided to meet weekly and do some fun things together with the kids....I'm not sure how all of this will eventually play out but we are excited about the prospect of having other families to meet up with weekly.

Rebekah and I will continue to maintain some (not all) of the activities/ park days with other homeschool groups we belong to as we've got great friends all over Sydney that attend these groups, but we are just so excited about the group starting up within our church! God is good! In our season of pain, He has created something good. I'm not sure where this will lead but I do know that we will go where He leads.

12 comments:

Finding Joy said...

God is good and so good to us just as you write about. I am so pleased you have found friends who also homeschool and share your way of thinking. It's wonderful news;))))))

Jeanne said...

What a wonderful way our God works for the good of those who love him. I'm excited for you!!!! Lots of exclamation marks!!

Ruby said...

Lots from me, too!!!!! Great to read the way God is blessing you.

Sarah said...

How truly exciting!!!! I love diving appointments, they are just events that we cannot produce in our own human effort, but only God can bring about. He is so gracious. :)

Sarah said...

*divine :)

Deborah said...

That is truly good news. It's beautiful when we can see the hand of God moving.

I miss your posts and hope you will blog more again soon.

Butterfly said...

I am so, so happy for you! I have been thinking of you and am really glad to hear about this new blessing in your lives. Big smiles!!!

Probhita said...

Isn't it amazing how God does that?!! You and Rebekah must be so excited! Although the void of your dear friend will never be filled, he has opened a new avenue and it sounds wonderful! Happy for you!

Carol said...

We've just had a week away on holiday - good to hear your news!

Jeanne said...

Time for another post, my friend. I miss you! Are you coming to Victoria this year?

Joyfulmum said...

Thanks ladies for your kind comments:) Jeanne, sorry I've been super busy and not much time spent in blog land of late. will have to catch up on all your blogs soon, so sorry!

Joyfulmum said...

and oh, Jeanne I'm not sure about Victoria this year, might be early next year, will let you know:)