14th January 2011

We had lovely gentle rain in the night – perfect timing as the guys are still working on the wall, so rain in the night works out well for everyone.

There is a huge gum tree down by the dam which we are convinced has been drinking all the water from the little dam that is down there. For ages we have been threatening to cut it down – Matt is a skilled lumber jack but this tree got the better of him. Our next door neighbor has a guy around at the moment cutting some trees for him so we asked him to come and do that one. And wow what a process! It took him 3 hours to get it to fall! As it was right by the dam they were trying to figure out how to get it to fall without falling into the dam, which wouldn’t have been too much of a problem, but it would have made a big splash and I’m not sure what else it would have done. The guy was doing all kinds of things to get it to go, cutting extra chunks into it and made a “z” shape but it was all balanced out nicely and not intending on falling. I had the camera and was at the bottom of the hill by the tree taking pictures but I felt ridiculously scared standing at the base of this gigantic tree that I knew was coming down!!! So I retreated up the hill to safety. The tree came down eventually with a power snap and a bang. I felt sad watching such an old tree having to fall like that, but its branches which were once the nesting place for birds will now be the adventure land of many children I think. I almost wished that I was a kid again and could go scrambling through its branches.

Now in all of this – I had my own mini adventure/chaos/horror – depending on who you are reading this. Matt asked me to go back to the house to get some more oil for the chainsaw – we are using our friend’s truck which doesn’t have a handbrake. Just throwing that point out there… I got to the house, picked up the oil and was heading back up the drive way – a somewhat steep road and I went a little too slowly at the top and it cut out and rolled backwards. Remember that point about no handbrake – well yes I just couldn’t get it to start again. By now I am hot and bothered and stuck on the side of the road where I went to try get to a level bit of ground to start up again. I just got it going, was moving and got stuck once more, the engine cut out and started to roll backwards at great speed down the hill – I honestly don’t remember what happened just that I couldn’t get the foot brake to work either and there were trees coming up behind me rather quickly – I just missed them and went hurtling on to the other side of the driveway and up on to a ridge that finally stopped me! I was a nervous wreck and slightly embarrassed to – but found the level ground I needed to start again! I eventually got it going again and made it all the way up the hill to get the oil to Matt – and being the woman that I am I burst into tears! I can laugh at it all now, but say thank you Lord for helping me, I did not want to crash our borrowed vehicle. I am sure all the men folk reading this are saying ah that would have been easy to do and yes it probably jolly well was easy to do – but man I lost all idea of what I was doing in those split seconds! I am alive to tell the tale though and the truck is just fine!

Isn’t faith a glorious thing! I have been looking up verses on faith and studying it a bit more – mainly because for me our water supply is a constant faith trial – and through that I am just so aware of God’s faithfulness and how much more I feel I can just trust Him in all things. A verse that has stuck out to me so much more is Hebrews 11 vs 1 – “Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.” (NLT) The study note for that verse explains faith as the feeling a child gets as a birthday approaches, that feeling of being excited and anxious to know what gift they will get, that perfect birthday surprise. And that is what faith is – waiting with anticipation for God’s surprises. I just love that – He has perfect surprises for us and just longs to give them to us – we just need to wait and believe that they are coming. Another challenge for you this year – keep your faith strong and keep your heart open for God’s surprises.