In 1991, I applied to do a Discipleship training school with Youth With A Mission, (YWAM) at the Kings lodge near Nuneaton in England. I remember while I was driving my car to the Kings lodge, God speaking to me......The words came gently into my mind at first and I didn't notice as I was driving but then I became aware of these words "I have longed to do this in your life!" As I listened they began to sink deeper into me as I pondered what this could mean. As I drove closer and closer to the YWAM Kings lodge the words came over like the waves of the sea, over and over.....until I was so overcome I began to weep, and weep as I realized it was God Himself speaking. I had no idea what the Lord was meaning to do, but looking back I can see His gracious hand on my life, leading me into a deeper understanding of Himself and the gifts He had given.
During the Discipleship Training School a friend recommended a remarkable book called "Power in Praise" by Merlin Carruthers, while reading it I began recognising areas in my life I had been ungrateful to the Lord, and one thing that I realised was regarding the gift of painting - being so close to it I had never actually thanked God for the gift but now I also began realising the error of calling it only "half a gift" and was sorry. I changed my thinking and started thanking the Lord for the good gift.
This was the key which unlocked further blessing and revelation, even though to me it was still an enigma, now with an attitude of praise and thanksgiving I was asking God to show me if in fact he wanted me to paint, remembering the prayer I prayed years before and the awesome way the Lord made it known He had heard.
The Lord showed me how faithful he is by doing just that. During the YWAM DTS I went with a team to do an outreach to a local prison at Rugby, little did I know what the Lord had planned!
The Christian Union from Warwickshire University had organised the meeting with the prisoners and during it everyone was asked to draw on a piece of paper the following:
1 - Your first impression of God as a child.
2 - A turning point in your life.
3 - Your present relationship with the Lord
After we had drawn our pictures, each person in the groups were to share with the others about what the pictures mean, for me sketching and explaining the pictures about my testimony wasn't a big challenge, but the response from the prisoners made me realize just how much value the gift has - it was then it dawned on me, I realized God was using this experience to show me how I could use the gift for His Glory - The first picture I painted was based on the old Broad and the Narrow Way picture which can be seen below. Some years before my Auntie Florence kindly gave me an old copy of the picture with a booklet of the "History and Explanation of the picture" The version I made can be seen below right and painted it during the Discipleship Training School. We eventually took on outreach to Wales for 6 weeks.
The Lord had indeed answered the prayers I prayed years before, and now I was to paint for Jesus sake and the Gospel! That was back in 1991, since then I have pursued this call in different ways up until the present time, and there is much more I could tell - but for now I just write this, I hope you have enjoyed reading and found this helpful.
I give thanks to God for the wonderful way He knows us and His infinite patience with me, He knows what we need each step of the way - His faithfulness and love endures forever and ever. Amen!
