Worldwide Christian Family

There are many things about running the Christian House Sitters web site that bless me. One of them is the way it is helping me to make friends with Christians all over the world.

This morning I received an email from a lady who lives in Australia. She wrote

We are heading to the Gold Coast for 2 weeks holiday in September and a house sitter for our little dog sounded perfect…. what a pity you aren’t based in Melbourne! Please let me know if you ever branch down under!

How lovely to be able to write back saying that we do indeed offer a House Sitting service in Australia. Because of the internet we can help folk no matter where they live.

Many of our members are becoming friends as well. They join then send me emails telling me about themselves. As a result I now have new friends in New Zealand, Australia, America, South Africa, England, Scotland and Wales. This after having the site up for only 2 months.

As Christians we often talk about the ‘Christian Family;’ we are all brothers and sisters in Christ. I am enjoying getting to know members of my Christian family I had never encountered before. And at the same time I am able to help them enjoy a better holiday.

I love my job.

God bless you, 

Ray

www.christian-housesitters.com

Something for God to Do Box

The following was sent to me by a friend.

It blessed me so I decided to share it here.

God bless you,

Ray

www.christian-housesitters.com

 Good Morning.

I am God and today, I will be handling all your problems.

Please remember that I do not need your help.

If life happens to deliver a situation that you cannot handle DO NOT attempt to resolve it. Kindly place it in the ‘Something for God to Do’ box. All situations will be handled IN MY TIME, not yours.

Once the matter is placed into my box do not hold on to it worrying about it. Instead focus on all the wonderful things that are present in your life now.

If it is a situation you think you are capable of handling, please consult me first to make sure it is a proper solution.

Remember I neither slumber nor sleep, so there is no need for you to lose any. Rest in peace and remember I am only a prayer away.

God is Generous and Giving

God is a generous and giving Father.

Today I was contacted by someone who lives about 4 miles away from Disney World in Florida to say that they are willing to offer their home, free of charge, to another Christian for a full 2 months during the summer.

What a fantastic offer.

In return they will have a Christian to look after their home and pets.

Five years ago Marilyn and I had a holiday in that area. It was out of season and 2 weeks cost us a lot of money. We had a fabulous time. Discovering that there is much more to Florida than theme parks.

We are thrilled that the Lord has made it possible for one of His children to have a fabulous holiday.

That is one of the many joys of running Christian House Sitters. Helping our fellow believers have free holidays. We at present have homes available in some fabulous locations including USA, UK and South Africa. At the same time helping home owners have a holiday without the worry or cost of having someone look after their property.

God is generous and so are His children

Ray

www.christian-housesitters.com

In His time…

Patience has never been my strongest quality. I am reminded of the well known slogan. “God grant me patience but please hurry”

Setting up the Christian House Sitters web site has been a learning experience in so many ways. I expected many of the new experiences but in my naivety I never realised that the Lord was going to use this site to teach me patience.

Waiting for Him to send in the right houses.

Waiting for Him to send in the right Sitters.

Waiting for folk who have promised to list their properties but just never seem to get around to actually doing it.

Dealing with the impatience from some of our members who can’t seem to understand that I have absolutely no idea when new houses or sitters will be arriving on-line. Some days we get loads of visitors to the site yet no new members. On other days we may have much less visitors but people join up.

Why? I really do not know. All I can say is that this is God’s site. He knows which of His children need someone to look after their homes and pets. He knows those who need but can’t afford a holiday. He is the perfect match maker.

I must stop being impatient and trust His timing.

Ray

www.christian-housesitters.com

What do you rely on?

What do you rely on?

I have had to ask myself that question many times over the years. Recently as we launched the Christian House Sitters web site it has come to the front once again.

I have done my best to produce a good website. I do my best to give a first rate service to all of our members. I have done all I know how to do in order to make the site better known such as making sure we are listed on the various search engines, asking friends to spread the word, etc.

But what am I relying on?

Am I relying on my computer skills?

Am I relying on my friends?

Am I relying on Google and the other search engines?

If so I am may as well close the site tonight.

1st John 4:16 puts it this way. ‘We rely on the love God has for us’

This is His site, His ministry and it was His idea. He will no doubt use all of our resources and there is no excuse for being lazy or doing less than my best but if the site is to be a success it is because of God not my efforts.

I pray that this site will be used by God to bring Him glory.

Ray

www.christian-housesitters.com

Free. We all love that word.

Something For Nothing.

What a great concept. I was chatting to a friend recently (yes I do have a friend) and in our conversation I mentioned that everything has a price. there is no such thing as something for nothing. He immediatly disagreed saying salvation is a free gift from God. We receive it but it costs us nothing. Naturally he is right but although it costs us nothing it cost God the life of his Son. Salvation may be free to us but not to God. Let us recognose the cost and appreciate his gift.

Talking about something for nothing we have added a section to our Christian House Sitters website offering a number of free resources. Even if you are not a house sitter or house owner please accept this invitation to use these wonderful free resources.

They include two live news feeds of up to the minute world news from a Christian perspective. Fabulous bible study tools. A Christian search engine,.Free Christian e- cards and lots more. Have a look and enjoy them

God bless you,

Ray

www.christian-housesitters.com

God moves in ways we don’t expect

Marilyn , my wife, and I have just returned from visiting our daughter and her family. They live about 200 miles from us so we don’t see them as often as we would like although naturally we keep in contact by phone, text and email.

Each time we visit their house we are reminded that God does the unexpected. A couple of years ago they went to a house auction looking to purchase a low cost house that needed a lot of work.

As the auction progressed the expected price was soon greatly exceeded putting it out of their range. Naturally they felt dissapointed but as they were sitting in the middle of a row decided to wait through the remainder of the proceedings.

At the end a house they had seen but rejected because they knew it would be out of their price bracket came up for auction. There was no serious bidding. They made a bid and got the house.

Later they chatted to the man who out bid them and purchased the house they originally wanted. He admitted that he made a mistake. He got the two properties confused in his mind and that is why he bid so high. As a result of his mistake he could not afford to bid on the other house. Leaving it for our daughter.

It is a beautiful home.

We believe God set it aside for her.

In the same way we believe that our house sitters and house owners can look to God to match the right owners with the right sitters.

www.christian-housesitters.com

Why can’t people read?

Am I allowed to have a good moan?

Yes why not after all it is my blog.

I am feeling frustrated by Christians who can’t read. Or is it simply that they do not bother.

On our web site Christian House Sitters we  clearly explain what is involved in joining. This is explained on the home page where it says that House Owners can (at the moment) join free of charge but house sitters are charged an annual membership fee of just £20.

We go on to explain that proceeds go to support Christian work in South Africa.

We also say ‘before joining please read the FAQ page’. On that page we once again explain the costs etc.

Then when they click on the register tab and get to the registration page we once again explain the costs and procedure.

Yet every day I have someone joining as a sitter but ‘forgetting’ to pay’. When I email them they normally respond by saying ‘oh sorry I did not realise there was a charge’

Help. How can I make it clearer.

I really wish we could do it all free of charge but the web site costs money and part of our reason for existing is to raise money for Unsung Heroes a Christian ministry in South Africa. (See a previous post).

They are after all getting the opportunity of a free holiday by becoming a registered house sitter.

Enough. No more moaning. I just felt the need to get that lot off my chest.

The Cost of Pet Care

A lovely sounding lady emailed me from America this morning. She had been looking at our Christian House Sitters web site and was astounded that she could get a Christian to live in her house and look after her pets while she and her family have a holiday.

She said that last year they employed a pet sitting service. The sitters visited her dog for 20 minutes each morning, giving it some fresh water, this visit lasted 20 minutes. They visited again during the day to take the dog for a half hour walk and for a final 20 minute visit to feed and settle the dog in the evening.

She said this cost her $48 per day. They were away for 2 weeks so dog care alone cost them $672.

The dog and indeed her home were left unattended overnight.

With our service she can have a family stay in the house, look after the house and look after the dog and it will not cost her anything. At the same time as saving $672 she is giving another Christian a holiday and supporting Christian work in South Africa.

She was beside herself with appreciation.

I am so glad we are doing something right.

www.christian-housesitters.com

He has done it again

He has done it again.

Last week Marilyn and I were feeling frustrated because so many people had said that they wanted to list their houses  on the Christian House Sitters web site yet so few had actually got around to listing them. We kept telling our sitters that more houses were ‘in the pipeline’ but I am sure some began to think it was on a par with the proverbial ‘the cheque is in the post’ type comment.

Saturday Marilyn came in and told me that God had encouraged her to pray specifically for 4 new houses to be listed by today. We prayed.

Since then we have listed 3 seperate house-sitting opportunities in Scotland and about an hour ago were promised a house in Cambridge. It should go live by tomorrow.

God is indeed faithful.

www.christian-housesitters.com