Page 54 - November-December Together

TOGETHER NOVEMBER – DECEMBER 2021
God’s Providence
END NOTES Through Adversity

A new chapter in my life
It was over thirty years ago when I was alone and hurting in an unfamiliar
bed. I had left the family home and was staying in a small flat which
God had led me to. I awoke and with tears in my eyes I said ‘Sorry God!
Sorry for the pain I must be causing you, my wife, and my two young
daughters’. The cause of my anguish was that my wife of fifteen years
had said she did not love me anymore, and another man was in her life.
Friends were dismayed and prayed for reconciliation, but to no avail. I
stopped going to church, it was just too much seeing the confused faces
of those I knew. Months later I found myself back in a different church, Gary and Mary Lee
one God had shown me a few months earlier. It was here I would meet
my wife of now thirty years, Mary, and a new chapter in our lives would
begin together.
Spitting feathers His future for us
Nine years ago, we had unexpectedly said ‘Yes’ to taking on the These thirty years have seen us at Bible college, running a
ownership of Bridge Books in Exeter. It had definitely been God’s plan and conference centre, serving in China for six years, and nearly ten
not ours. Bridge also ran a successful ‘pop-up shop’ for a festival near years serving God and His people at Bridge Books. Now we sense
Exeter. We worked hard to ensure that the pop-up shop was successful for that God will take us to a new ministry. At only sixty-five we are
both ourselves and the event organisers, in fact we took £10,000, double not finished and are ready for a new chapter in our lives. Please
the previous years’ takings, which was ten per cent of the shop’s annual pray with us that others will now say ‘yes’ to this great ministry at
turnover. To our dismay, the following year the pop-up was not offered to Bridge Books in Devon.
Bridge but given to another Christian bookshop. Mary and I were spitting
feathers. How could they? ‘In repentance and rest is your salvation,
How were we going to replace that much needed £10,000? After our in quietness and trust is your strength …’
initial shock and ‘feather spitting’, we prayed. Rather, we reminded God
that this was His ministry, His business, and He would need to replace (Is. 30:15 NIV)
the ‘lost’ income. All, of course, now said with a calmer heart and mind.
And through multiple bookstalls and opportunities He wonderfully did!
For, like you, we have seen God provide many times over the years when Gary & Mary Lee – Bridge Books, Exeter. 978-1-4335-6771-1
disappointments and surprises come our way.
£23.99

Staying Together In his latest book, Do You Believe?, pastor and best-selling author Paul David Tripp unpacks
Issue 52 | Nov/Dec 2021 | £6 We do trust you enjoy receiving and reading Together magazine and find it interesting and informative. As a valued twelve core doctrines and how they engage and transform the human heart and mind.
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