How little, and yet how much, has changed since the Newsletter we sent to you last January. Perhaps the greatest surprise to Anthea and I is that, at the moment, we remain in our Warminster home, despite it having been on the market throughout. Perhaps this is just as well, because our question and prayer about our ‘What Next?’ remains unanswered, at least as far as our domestic plans are concerned which, in itself, raises interesting and challenging questions. To what extent, for instance, does God concern himself in the minutiae of our lives? Does He care where we live so long as we continue to love and follow Him? Or will He, as many have told us, bless us wherever we settle and it’s up to us to decide our own next steps?
Even as I write I sense the contradiction in this. In our ministry, we are constantly delighted by the care and compassion Father God shows towards those who seek Him. He constantly delves into the most apparently inconsequential of details to unpack what turn out to be deeply important truths for our guests, helping them to become, step by step, closer to the them He originally made them to be. How could a Creator God who cares so much about the smallest details not care about the big decisions in our lives?
Perhaps our perspective is wrong. Perhaps it’s us who, whilst being so concerned about our every day, miss the point of why we find ourselves not having moved yet. What’s true is that a move, and all it entails, would have taken up an awful lot of valuable time during the year and placed additional pressures on us, time that has perhaps been better spent and pressures we have been better without. Could that be it?
Where is this taking us? Really, it’s to take trust seriously. This time last year we didn’t know how we were going to scrape through financially, or if we’d be invited to go anywhere to teach and minister. As you’ve heard, we had no idea where we would be living…life was full of imponderables. Yet, here we are, we’ve never gone without; thanks to our friends Bruce and Merly we were invited to Spain twice to teach and minister; ‘Wonderfully Free…no going back’ is now available in Spanish and Dutch, as well as German and Russian; a new devotional journal, ‘Standing Firm…living free’, aimed at anyone receiving inner healing (not just Sozo guests) has been published and, probably of most importance, we have been increasingly working with those who have experienced trauma, and seeing significant breakthroughs. It’s all been good! Our year of the unknown turned out to be full of good things, and so we enter this year equally unsure but with the determination to have wholehearted trust.
There’s been three books, well three we’ll tell you about, that have been exceptionally important to us in 2023 and we thought we’d recommend them to you. The first, by Gabor Mate, is ‘When the Body Says No’. Mate has a background in family practice and a special interest in childhood development, who identified that the vast majority of those who suffer from any of the many autoimmune/inflammation rooted conditions invariably experienced childhood trauma. This book has greatly influenced the way we think about inner healing.
The second is ‘Love, Medicine and Miracles’ by Bernie Siegel. A cancer specialist who has identified that mental approach can determine whether one heals from those same autoimmune/inflammation problems, pointing to the huge benefit of inner healing and the knowledge of who and whose you are.
One could say that the third takes inner healing to the next level. ‘The Gift of Being Yourself’ by David Brenner, speaks to the benefits of a deep relationship with God and how we grow in our knowing of our true selves, our authentic selves, through that relationship. It’s a short and impactful read.
As ever, thank you for your interest in our Wonderfully Free ministry. We very much value your support.