EMILY DAVIS

I grew up in a family of great faith. My parents both became involved in Catholic charismatic renewal when I was a toddler (see, for example, http://www.ccr.org.uk), and as a result our family had a bible focussed, Holy Spirit-orientated spirituality. Spiritual conversations were common place, as were dramatic answers to prayer. During the recessional 80s, there were several times I remember us 5 kids being summoned out of bed early, to pray together before school, and we would return from school, keen to hear how God had provided for us that day. Sometimes there would have been a cheque put through the post that covered a bill we’d received that morning. Other times someone would have dropped food round that was enough for all us for supper. I learnt that our God is a God who communicates clearly (as he did with those who blessed us), and is our provider, in a very practical sense.

As I was nearing the end of my time at university, I had a very strong sense of God calling me into mission work, and immediately after university I attended a missionary training course in Ghana. Shortly after my return I became a member of Sion Catholic Community for Evangelism, where I intended to stay for just a year, before working abroad again. As that year progressed I began to question what I was doing next, and if indeed I was meant to move on. It seemed to me that England was in great need of missionaries. Knowing very much what I wanted, it was with some reluctance that I began to ask God what he wanted, and it occurred to me one day that in order to discover that, I would needed to listen. Having asked God whether I should work in England or go back to Africa, I tried to still myself and open myself to listening to God. In that stillness the words ‘Ezekiel, 3, 5’, came into my imagination. I was aware Ezekiel was a book in the Old Testament, and looked up chapter 3, verse 5, which reads: “You are not being sent to a nation that speaks a difficult foreign language; you are being sent to the House of Israel,” (House of Israel being the prophet Ezekiel’s home land). This was a clear confirmation of a ‘hunch’ I’d had for a while. I knew God was asking me stay in England.

I also wondered if I should stay in Sion Community. However, I wasn’t in a financial position to do that, having not long left uni, and having an overdraft that was about to start accruing interest, without the means to pay it off. So I told the Lord very simply that if he wanted me to stay, he would have to clear my debt, and because I knew from experience that God intervenes in the practical, and loves to provide for us, I was able to pray with faith. About 2 weeks before the deadline, I had an anonymous letter through the post, accompanied by £800 cash. The letter said that the sender had been praying and felt prompted to send this to me….they hoped it blessed me!!!

If God’s wants us to be somewhere, and to do something, I have learnt that all we need to do is to be open, and he will manage everything else. I also know that these lessons can be learned very young, and then just practised as we age, and I thank God for my parents, their great faith and openness to the Spirit, and their constant witness to me.