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I once heard a definition of a Charismatic Community as “a group of people who don’t know where they are going but are sharing their lives, leaning on the Lord and trying to follow His leading.” When I first joined House of the Open Door Community in 1982 I found a group of Christians of all shapes and sizes, and denominations, living together in a large tumbledown house in Slough, near London. They had started a community lifestyle in 1978, beginning each day by praising the Lord, and had given up the normal things that make life feel safe, like money in the bank, owning property, and living with only your own family!! Instead they trusted in God for their direction, and for their needs. There were about 30 living there when I joined, straight from university, but the numbers fluctuated constantly in the early days. SHARING AND DEPENDING ON GOD - We were “common pot”. Most of those who could, went out to work, and donated their income, but a few stayed home to look after those in need. I remember in 1984 I first witnessed a miracle of God’s provision, when we had to cater for a wedding in the community and had run out of money to buy soft drinks. There was a knock on the door and a man stood there with a several crates of concentrated orange juice – enough for us to drink it like water for many months! I also remember our first holiday camp for young people, which we ran on a system of donations only. At the end of six weeks of catering for 60 young people plus helpers, the donated money and the expenses were equal – apart from 50p!! THE BIG MOVE! - The Community moved to our present situation in the Cotswolds, in 1989. Because a property developer was desperate to buy the house in Slough, (and kept doubling his offer!) we were able to replace it with a much larger property including a small farm. This very quickly became a place where Christian groups liked to come and we understood that we were called to live here in lovely surroundings, and to serve those who came. Members still went out to work, but gradually more and more were needed to work in the developing retreat centre, which had a growing income of its own. FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH - By June 2007 our guest accommodation was full most of the time. Life at the House of the Open Door was very busy. We had up to 12 young people on a continuous rolling discipleship course, we ran a pottery/craft shop, raised money and sent people out to Tanzania, and regularly sent a group on missions to Eastern Europe. As well as all this, five prisons were being regularly visited, as well as many schools, and each May/June we began to prepare music and drama and activities for our annual summer camp, for up to 60 young adults. FLOODED! - Then on 20th July 2007 everything stopped. In the space of only a few hours, due to large amounts of rain for many weeks and very heavy rainfall for 24 hours, all of our six large buildings were flooded up to a height of about a metre. The water went down in 24 hours, but enough damage was done to cause the retreat centre to be closed down for the next nine months. For a few weeks we experienced extreme conditions. First,
wading through dirty water, trying to rescue possessions, then cleaning
up, constantly cold, wet and tired, as the rain continued, and mud abounded!
We lived in damp accommodation, and were without electricity and phones
for a while, and without a kitchen for longer… We held a mini summer
camp in the mess for the 15 young people who had already arrived! And
we coped as you do in an emergency... THE UNCOMFORTABLE SILENCE… - In late September 2007 I wrote in my diary that it was a “Time of silence”. No guests poured in every weekend as they had for 17 years; in fact not many visitors came at all as we had nowhere to welcome them. The community was living in upstairs rooms and caravans. We were acutely aware of every penny, as we really didn’t know how long our money would have to last. Life was uncomfortable, in many ways, - and we looked at the threat of more rain in a different way from before! It was difficult to presume that life would continue normally – after all it didn’t in July… and there was no writing in the sky giving a new mission to the HOD Community, as a few people seemed to expect! We couldn’t start rebuilding until the insurance company gave the go ahead, and we always expected to hear from them “next week” – every week from September to Christmas! There was a strange atmosphere of waiting and uncertainty and a feeling of being stripped of what had gone before. A CALL TO PRAYER - We started setting aside every Saturday for prayer together, and an hour more than usual each day, and we continued the all night adoration rotas we had started a couple of months before the flood, on Saturday nights. As we had begun our vigils originally to intercede for the church and revival and then got flooded, we even wondered if it was somehow connected – whether what was happening to us was a sign of the cleansing and rebuilding that the Lord wanted to do in His people. We prayed intensely for the church. PURIFICATION - Sometimes it felt as though our spiritual walls had been knocked down, and at times the enemy seemed to be stepping right over them, and in among us. We were vulnerable, and each one of us was being tested and tried in different ways. I kept remembering a passage that God had brought to our attention the day of the flood. It was the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal, (1 Kings 18v34) and in particular how Elijah had the sacrifice soaked with twelve jugs of water before asking God to send fire from heaven. As we had asked the Lord to send his fire on our lives given to him, was this the “dampening” that was happening first to make sure that the glory goes to Him? GOD’S PROMISES IN THE DARKNESS... - Two now famous banners were actually being made on the day of the flood, by a young lady who hadn’t long been with us, declaring:“The Lord reached down from above and took me, he pulled me from the deep water” (Ps 18v16) and “He always helps in time of trouble …even though the waters roar and foam..”(Ps 46v1,3) When we looked at them afterwards we were amazed! Looking back, we can see God working His purposes out, but at the time, it was often sheer faith in words of Scripture we’d received that kept us going. But the Lord did show his faithfulness to us, because into this dry, difficult, potentially worrying time, another river had started to flow. AMAZING PROVISION… - A few days after the flood, we calculated that we had enough money for less than two months. As many members as possible were finding work locally, in hotels and nursing homes, but the cost of running such a big property with all the overheads was way beyond what could be earned that way. We sent a letter to everyone we knew. However, even before it had gone, letters and cheques started to arrive. AND WORDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT… - Many times opening an envelope brought me to tears. So many people wrote, and they sent money which seemed more than they could possibly afford. Some letters were from people who hadn’t been to HOD for years, sometimes prayer groups made collections, a few local churches made donations again and again. Many were from guests, the very guests we were having to cancel. They all said how much they didn’t want us to have to close down. This stream of encouragement was a life support during those difficult months, and the amount of money that arrived began to be overwhelming. We started to set aside a fixed amount for each month, and after three months, when it slowed down to a trickle, we had enough to live off until May, with something to support us as we reopened. We took the amount we received eventually to be a sign of how long we would be closed, and it turned out to be right! GOD’S STAMP OF APPROVAL… - It wasn’t until the annual figures came back from the accountants that we realised what the Lord had actually done. I looked through the numbers, and did a little sum and ran to tell people! The amount of money we had received in 2006 from the guest house and through donations was exactly the same as the amount that we had received in 2007! With or without the guest house being open, God had provided for us. JUST ENOUGH - Also, the insurance money that eventually came has been enough to not only carry out flood repairs, but to do much more work, rebuilding and refurbishing in a way that has long been needed, as well as to build a flood defence wall around the properties – it has stretched and stretched , and we have - just enough. We were reminded last week of another Elijah story, about the widow in 1 Kings 17 who gave her last jar of oil and handful of grain to feed him, and then for the rest of the drought miraculously never ran out of food. She didn’t have a large supply - like us she had just enough as she needed it, and only in looking back could she could see the extent of God’s generosity. “THE LORD SITS ENTHRONED OVER THE FLOOD. THE LORD IS KING FOR EVER” (Ps 29v10) - Perhaps that is the main “lesson” we have learned – that we are just as dependent on the Lord now, as we were when the Community began. Our security is not in what we appear to own, or in what we do or do not have stored up for the future. Also, whether provision comes through being able to find work, or through receiving paying guests, or through simply being given to, it is all the Lord’s provision. The Lord gives and the Lord takes away, and the Lord is king for ever!
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