Romancing The Rock

Rather than offer Skye Wieland a standard interview, I asked her to share part of her life with us – either a story about how she met her partner, her testimony of faith, or a story of heritage from her family’s past.  Skye offered to share the story about how she came to know the Lord. Be blessed as you read.

My Testimony

My journey from with God has so many facets and layers, but today, I’d like to share my very initial encounter and the journey that led to that.

I grew up in a home that knew nothing of God. We were agnostic. My parents reasoned that there could be a God out there, but it didn’t concern them. My dad kept books in mysteries of the world like UFO’s and as a teenager; I would often drink all these books in, and began to wonder myself what was the meaning of it all. Why did we exist? What was the meaning of life, really? (Not just the tongue-in-cheek things were read and seen in entertainment such as The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.)

One day however, my mum began search more seriously. She started to go to church, looking for answers. My father was especially in tune with the spiritual world at this time (though not Christian) and while mum was in a place of sitting on the fence, we had some eerie things happen in our home. I used to wake frightened hearing someone in high heels walking our hallway in the dark hours of the night. Dad would awaken to see one of my mum’s passed away relatives, sitting on the edge of the bed, weeping over my mum. Dad got a little worried at this point and wanted mum to stop digging because he thought the apparition was a real relative trying to stop mum from making a decision for Christ. We know now that the enemy is just as real as God and he will stop at nothing to stop us turning to Christ. I was frightened by the things I felt in the house, so without knowing the reason, I kept a bible by my bed to keep me safe, though I never read it.

Finally, mum came to a point where she made a decision to follow Jesus. Dad soon followed in his own way and began a great spiritual head for our household, being quite in tune with the ways of spiritual warfare. As kids, we were dragged to church every week, but I still didn’t own my parents new belief. I had an inquisitive mind that enjoyed sciences of the natural world. To me, theories such as evolution were gospel…and the story of creation and a real God, just clashed with that mentality way too much. I dismissed it as a nice fairy tale.  Being a teenager, I also figured that mum was just going through another one of her phases and that it would soon blow over.

It was only after it seemed to get stronger over the months, rather than fizzle out, that I began to wonder. I also saw changes in mum’s personality. Her short temper was disappearing, she had grace, she was relaxed. I’d never seen her like this. So, finally, I asked her if it was all real. (Now, my mum always had an answer for everything, was always happy to be the authority.) When I asked, instead of preaching at me, she told me to ask God myself. This in itself was so out of character that I was blown away. I said, “But, how? I don’t know how to pray even.”

Again, mum said to go ask God.

This made me quite upset and I turned to my room in a huff. Once there, I prepared for bed and said a clipped upset little prayer. “God, I don’t know if you’re real, or how to even pray to you. Show me what to say…” then it fizzled off. I went to sleep expecting nothing.

In the middle of the night, I woke with a start. I had a scripture reference in my head. I looked at the bible on my bedside table. It had never been opened. I didn’t know any references, but something drew me to look up the index and just see if the book of Luke perhaps was actually there. I sat up, a little excited. I actually felt my spirit quicken and I knew somehow that God was trying to communicate with me. The numbers from Luke were so clear in my head, but when I found them, I was blown away to tears. It was Luke 11:2 where Jesus was teaching the disciples how to pray.

For me, this was a tangible answer from God.

Wow! That gave me goosebumps and tears, Skye. Thanks for sharing. Last week I reviewed Skye’s book, Sarah’s Gift. You can read it here along with more information about Skye. In the back of Sarah’s Gift is a blurb about the second book coming in Skye’s Dare To Follow series. I thought I would share it here. I look forward to reading more of your work in the future, Skye. 🙂

Mark’s Strength

Mark and Sarah van der Merwe think they may have escaped the attention of the ivory smugglers they faced in the past while saving the elephants in Kruger National Park. However, now fighting depression and isolation, the backslidden couple venture back to the place which caused their greatest grief, in order to find closure for their current pain. Little do they know that evil raises its head once more and uses a lost little Zulu boy as bait. Will they show him the way to God, or will they end up in more trouble than they can possibly handle on their own?