Faye - There Was Nothing Left To Do

Faye grew up curious about spiritual things. So when her mum suggested she go and speak to Mrs Robinson, the local spiritualist, Faye felt perhaps she had found her people. Faye was told she was very psychic. But when the visions changed, and Faye saw a sword and shield, a load of bread, and a door to Jesus, Mrs Robinson’s explanations seemed inadequate. It was an unexpected word from a speaker at one of their meetings that led Faye to the truth, and changed the trajectory of her life from that point on. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:02

Oh, g'day there, and welcome to The Spirit, where we share stories of faith from the heart of the country. We've got a cool jug of Cotti's Cordial and a plate of Savoy crackers with cheese and tomato. Pull up a chair, settle in, and join us for a chat. I'm Darcy and I'm here on the lands of the Barapa Barapa and Yordy Yorda, who I acknowledge and offer my respect. I'm in a little place called Kahuna and I'm speaking of Faye. G'day, Faye. Hi, how are you doing, Darcy? Very well. Thank you so much for having me over and having a chat.

SPEAKER_02 0:38

You're very welcome. Welcome.

SPEAKER_01 0:40

Thank you, thank you. Yeah, so Faye, did you grow up in Kahuna or did you start life somewhere else?

SPEAKER_02 0:46

No, I was actually uh born and raised in Melbourne, spent most of my life in Melbourne.

SPEAKER_01 0:51

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 0:52

Um my parents retired in Kahuna, and that's my connection to Kahuna.

SPEAKER_01 0:56

Okay, okay. So I'm guessing life in Melbourne was very different to life out here.

SPEAKER_02 1:01

Definitely was very different, although I spent a lot of time out of Melbourne as well as an adult.

SPEAKER_01 1:08

Yeah, yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:09

What did your work look like, Faye? I started work as a telephonist, first of all, um, with the PMG, which used to be what telecom was uh called.

SPEAKER_01 1:20

I was hearing about this recently, and that you you could hear people's phone conversations.

SPEAKER_02 1:24

That's right, you had to actually sometimes listen into them. It was all plug-in and listen and it was very interesting. I bet. At some place. Um it was very interesting, private and confidential.

SPEAKER_01 1:37

Yeah, yeah, I'm sure. Yeah, you won't share any secrets. No, no, good, good, good. They're all safe.

SPEAKER_02 1:43

Um so I worked as a telephonist, I worked as a a veterinary nurse for a little while, all when I was a a teenager. Um, and I wanted to be a vet nurse, but um there there wasn't really that opportunity uh in Melbourne. So I ended up I had a boyfriend in Horsham, and so the vet in Horsham wanted someone, so I applied for a job up there with the expectation that I would get that job, but I didn't. So I then trained as a herd tester. Ooh. So a herd tester used to go to all of the um this is old fashioned now. Yeah, used to go to the farmer settlements because a lot of the soldiers got a soldier settlement and were given dairy farms up around that area.

SPEAKER_03 2:31

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 2:32

And what used to happen was that they used to sell the butterfather of their cows to the butter factories, and that was what they got their payment on. So we the a herd tester used to test butter fat content, and they would cull cows uh or keep cows according to their butterfat content. Wow. That's what an interesting job. So did you just get trained on the on the job? I went to the Department of Agriculture to have a to have training at that particular time. So I was around about, I think I was 19 at the time, 19 or 20. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:06

And how did you find getting on with all the farmers?

SPEAKER_02 3:08

I mean, they would have been yeah, it was really good fun, actually. Yeah, I I really enjoyed it, and I enjoyed that sort of lifestyle as well. So Horsham was a a good place to be at that time. I've tried, I've actually had a look at farms around here because there are plenty of dairy farms around here.

SPEAKER_03 3:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:25

Um, herd testing is a completely different deal now. Okay. Digital and there's even a digital farm, a dairy farm not far from here where everything is digitalized. I think I've heard about that. Yeah. Cows come in and they go bit, bip, bip because they got chips and they get fed the right amount and milk the right amount.

SPEAKER_01 3:45

I can't even get the PowerPoint slides to work at church on Sunday, Pay. I wouldn't have the first clue.

SPEAKER_02 3:51

Yeah, it's really interesting. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 3:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:54

Needless to say, I haven't milked a cow for many years.

SPEAKER_01 3:57

Okay, okay, yeah, fair enough. Fair enough. Yeah. So did you stick with that job for a while?

SPEAKER_02 4:03

Well, actually, um, it was actually when I was uh I came back home from there and um uh from the country and came back to Melbourne and um got a a job in Melbourne, but I became a Christian and um my encounter with God was the thing that changed my whole lifestyle. Interesting. I had been curious about spiritual things.

SPEAKER_03 4:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:29

Uh my mother had told me about um a group that she had gone to, but it was actually a spiritualist group. So I went along to these meetings and at that time I was told that I would I was very psychic, I was told, and um I actually got invited along to be trained as a medium in that um in that group. And so, you know, I thought, oh wow, this is good.

SPEAKER_03 4:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:55

People didn't talk about religion, people didn't talk about spiritual issues, yeah. Like you didn't talk about your bank account, you didn't talk about politics.

SPEAKER_00 5:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:05

And so these people discussed it, these people talked about spiritual things, and um, so I went along to that group and actually uh became a medium in that's in that spiritualist church, and I was there for um a few years.

SPEAKER_01 5:21

But can I ask though, what do you think what was what was it that got you interested in those kind of script given that people didn't necessarily talk about it? Can you kind of remember what what it was that was drawing you in that direction?

SPEAKER_02 5:34

There were a couple of things that have happened. I'd had a few experiences when I was uh a kid that I couldn't explain.

SPEAKER_03 5:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:40

Um, and also the fact that in the back of your mind you say, there's gotta be more than this. Yeah, there's gotta be more than just living 70 or 80 years and dying and going into a hole.

SPEAKER_00 5:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:54

Why? And and why would I even think about you know, there being a purpose somewhere along the line, there's gotta be a purpose in life. And so that that curiosity was there, and because these were the people who would talk about spiritual things, yeah, um, and would and you could talk to them. Of course, the problem was their teaching was you can go to any spiritual guru, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:20

Sure.

SPEAKER_02 6:21

And they will, you know, they'll tell you, you know, you can we'll read the Tibetan Book of the Dead and the Egyptian Book of the Dead and Confucius and all of these leaders who supposedly are spiritually mature, yeah, more mature than you and I. Yeah. So uh we had a guru at that time who would teach us when we would sit in a circle and meditate. We would then talk about the experiences that we had as we meditated, and the lady's name was Mrs. Robinson, and she was sort of the the leader of the group who would introduce.

SPEAKER_01 6:54

Does that sound very spiritual, right? Sounds like your next door neighbor.

SPEAKER_02 6:58

She did. She was like that too. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:00

Oh, that's just Mrs.

SPEAKER_02 7:01

Robinson. That's Mrs. Robinson. So she would interpret things that you have actually experienced. We knew that we were going to have a special meeting. So we were getting together on the Monday, the Wednesday, and the Friday for the special meeting on the Sunday. We were going to have a special speaker. On the Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, each of those nights I had a different experience that I knew was different from anything that I had ever experienced before. Um, and on the first night in my meditation, I was given a sword and a shield, and I didn't know what they were. And I said, Well, in my head, I sort of said, Well, what are these? And I was told the shield is faith, and the sword, it's the sword of the spirit. I thought, well, that's strange, but I knew it was different. Mrs. Robinson told me that was just for protection. I thought, oh, okay. The next Wednesday night, went there, I had another uh vision, and in this vision I was in a darkened room with a table, and on the on the table was a loaf of bread, and Jesus appeared on the other side of the table. Now I knew it was Jesus, but I don't know why I knew it was Jesus.

SPEAKER_00 8:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:12

I didn't know why it wasn't Confucius or Mohammed or someone else, but it was definitely Jesus who came up, took the loaf of bread, broke it in half, and handed me half and said, Come sup with me.

SPEAKER_03 8:24

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 8:24

I didn't even know what the word meant. True, yeah. What? So Mrs. Robinson said, Oh, that means there's a death in the family. And I said, Oh, I don't think so. It sounds a bit strange, but all right. On the Friday night, I have this vision again that is different from anything I'd experienced, where I'm standing outside in the dark and I put my hand out to open a door that was there, and then I withdrew saying, Oh, I don't think so, I'm a bit scared of that. Then the door opened by itself, and here was Jesus clothed in light, and he started to come out of the door, and I fell down backwards because he was so glorious. And as he started to move past me, in my heart I was saying, oh, if only he'd look at me. And he turned his face and he looked at me and he looked through my life. He knew everything I had ever done in my whole life, he knew everything about me. I was engulfed with acceptance and love, and I couldn't talk. I was so overwhelmed by this. And Mrs. Robinson said, Someone very high up in the spirit realm was with you today, Faye. And I'm going, uh, uh, I couldn't just couldn't talk.

SPEAKER_00 9:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:38

As I was driving home, I thought, oh, I've pushed, I've pushed too far. A bit of a risk taker, so I've pushed things too far. I'm going nuts now.

SPEAKER_01 9:46

You felt a bit freaked out too far.

SPEAKER_02 9:48

I was so freaked out by this. So I thought, oh, okay, that's it, not touching anything, just leave it all alone. You the Sunday came along. A gentleman came into the spiritualist church and he stood up in front of everybody in this gathering and said, Well, I'm here today to tell you that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that Jesus Christ came to earth to take care of your sin, to make you completely new. He took your sin upon himself, he buried it in the tomb, and he rose again because he's coming back again. I thought, wow, why hasn't anyone ever told me this? I've never heard this in my whole life. Absolutely astounded. So this man says, anyone who wants to become a Christian, you know, just raise your hand. So of course I raised my hand.

SPEAKER_03 10:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:46

And I felt this burden fall off me that I'd never even knew I had.

SPEAKER_03 10:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:51

And was absolutely astounded that this would happen. So after the service, after the meeting, the man came up to me, gave me his phone number, and said, You might have to get in touch with me. Here's my phone number. So I got in my car and I was just elated. I'm thinking, wow, this is so fantastic. And when I got home, because I'd been involved in spiritualism so much, I had my sister and my brother-in-law there. And my I walked in the front door of the house and my brother-in-law attacked me. And I knew that this was spiritual. I knew this was not normal. When he he actually drew his fist back to punch me, and I knew I would be really in trouble. So I I just thought, what would what about Jesus? You know, just the thought came into my head, and I was completely engulfed in what I call the the cone of silence that that um smart. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. He sort of has this tube come down. Well, it was like this tube of of grace and peace came down. And I said to my brother-in-law, go and get a knife and do this properly if you want to do it. And I would have let him.

unknown 12:00

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 12:01

But I saw the shadow move off his face, and he dropped his hands and he walked out of the door. So I went, I was so scared I didn't want to stay in the house anymore. So I went to my other sister's place. Anyway, so after talking to her and blubbering all over the place and everything else, she said, Go and sleep in my niece's room. So I go into this room, and there's a Bible on my niece's shelf. So I went and I picked up the Bible. So I opened the Bible, and the first page of the Bible that I have ever now I've never read a Bible, okay? And I open it up at Ephesians chapter six, and I read, Take the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, and the shield of faith. And I went, Whoa, really? Wow, that's amazing. So I flip it over and I read about this. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone, you know, hears my voice, I'll open and I'll come. It was King James English, I'll come su with him.

SPEAKER_01 13:02

Yeah, who says sup? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:04

I thought, that's a real word, even. Look at that, look at that. And so I turned the page again, and all of a sudden I read about John who hears this voice behind him, and he turns around, and here is this being clothed in light with eyes as flame as fire. And John falls down as if he's dead in his presence. And I shut the book and I thought, the Bible was written for me.

SPEAKER_00 13:29

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:30

Wow. And it was written for me. It was written for everybody else as well. Yeah, yeah. Because that's what Jesus came for.

SPEAKER_03 13:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:38

So my experience of Jesus was like that. And I knew. What a start, Fab. I knew that Jesus was the answer to everything.

SPEAKER_03 13:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:46

I rang that man.

SPEAKER_03 13:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:49

That man became my mentor for the first 18 months of my Christian life.

SPEAKER_03 13:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:55

The story was he had been a spiritualist medium.

SPEAKER_03 14:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:00

He had this date in his diary, but he had become a Christian himself. And God said to him, Keep that date, I want you to go. And he kept saying, I shouldn't be going. I don't want to go back in there. Why would I want to go back in there? And God said, Keep this date, I want you to go, and I want you to preach the gospel there. So he, in fear and trepidation, came to that meeting and preached the gospel, and thus I got saved. Because you see, that's who our God is. So from that point, there was nothing left to do except follow Jesus. Yeah. And that's what I've done as much as possible.

SPEAKER_01 14:46

So, Faye, um, there are some people who I think are really uncomfortable speaking about anything to do with God, and we kind of mentioned that. And then there are other people, and I've met them in you know, some of the towns around here, even who have this real strong sense of the spiritual realm, and and perhaps like you were as trying to reach out and have some pretty wild experiences. What would you how do you reflect upon you know how you came to Jesus? And I don't know what what do you say to when you meet people who are in those kind of situations where they're maybe exploring this stuff because it can get pretty scary.

SPEAKER_02 15:25

Absolutely, and it is scary, yeah, because it's so real. Yeah. And I think that sometimes, especially in our Western um world, we're inclined to poo-hoo it and totally doesn't exist. It doesn't exist, it's not real. But the spiritual realm does exist. We have a Holy Spirit, you know, who comes to us to embrace us and tell us and lead us in the way of truth. But there are other spirits, and because I've lived in other, I've lived in other nations as well, I realize that in the West we're the ones who are blind to it. You know, we've made ourselves blind to it. And sometimes the church is a bit a bit reluctant to talk in terms of spirituality. So people think that the church doesn't have the answer, but the reality is that the church does have the answer.

SPEAKER_03 16:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:13

And we need to be able to um uh you know tell people that it's real and the experiences they have are real instead of just wiping them off and saying no, that's not real, we need to say, you know, there's there's a bit of a warfare going on, yeah, yeah. And and we might be blind to it and want to pretend it doesn't happen, but it's been going on for a long time, in fact, since the beginning of creation.

SPEAKER_01 16:40

Yeah. So I think of one woman, young woman who I met, and she was telling me about how she'd go out into the bush and um see spirits. And um you know, what would you say to someone who's experiencing those things? They they believe that there is a real spiritual world. How do you explain to them where Jesus fits in or you know what what's your kind of way of helping them?

SPEAKER_02 17:05

For me, I realise that as human beings, we're still spiritual beings. And unfortunately, we think that we can explore the spiritual realm um in freedom and without fear. And I think that we are deceived when we think that we can um delve into that realm when it's a very dangerous realm that we're not really equipped to be in. If I'm talking to people who who have those experiences, I want to acknowledge the fact that they do have those experiences. But Jesus is the only way. And when we look at what Jesus did in his lifestyle, he actually set people free from those spiritual bondages that they had allowed or explored in their lives. Um Jesus was the one who came and set them free so that we could be fully human.

SPEAKER_01 18:04

Well, if we might jump ahead slightly, Faye, you just mentioned there some of your travelling around. Yep. So you've ended up out here at Kahuna. How long have you been here? From Melbourne to up here?

SPEAKER_02 18:17

I've been up here for ten years now. But um I also um I I joined up with BCA, which is Bushchurch um Aid. Aid, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 18:30

I mean, it could be a lot of things, Aid. It could be so Bush Church, I suppose.

SPEAKER_02 18:35

Bushchurch aid. And and I had heard about Bush Church Aid, of course, because I've I've worked in parishes and you know all around Melbourne for 20 years or whatever. And I've always had a heart for the territory for a start and for and for outlying areas. And Bushchurch Aid are just fantastic with that whole area. And so I became a Bushchurch aid nomad, which means that um it's usually traveling and it's traveling with a purpose. Uh Bush Church Aid nomads are all registered. So made up of people from all sorts of walks of life, all sorts of careers, who love to travel. So nomads actually often will be told, oh well, there's something going on, you know, can people come and help? So I joined the BCA nomads quite a few years ago now, and it's almost travelling with a purpose, and that travelling with a purpose is really important. So, for instance, I spent three months in Cooper Pete.

SPEAKER_03 19:33

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 19:33

And um, amazing town, just absolutely amazing, and and was dumbfounded at the number of tourists that come through uh the church. There would have been over 2,000 people that I would have seen in the time that I was there who come to have a look at an underground church.

SPEAKER_00 19:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:52

So you they come to the church and there's uh a fish sign on the wall uh carved into the wall. So you get an opportunity to talk to people about what this fish sign was and what it meant. And and you would say, Are you heading south, you're heading north, you know, which way are you going? And um, so you have an opportunity not only to talk to people who are traveling, but also to actually share the gospel with them as well. You wouldn't get that opportunity. Who's gonna come and have a look at your church and say, Oh, that's a nice window?

SPEAKER_00 20:20

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:21

Yeah, but an underground church, yeah. Bang, it's just wonderful.

SPEAKER_01 20:26

So I had one more question for you, which was Are there any interesting people that you've met on your travels as a nomad? Perhaps a um person that you could tell us about or a story that you could share of they're all interesting. Yeah, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_02 20:41

They're all interesting. I'm sure that's true. About someone who may stand out. Um, I used to go to Nungalinga College, uh, which is an Aboriginal college um in Darwin, and some of the ladies there are just phenomenal. These are the aunties. And the aunties who go back into their communities have real authority.

SPEAKER_00 21:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:08

Um, and so some of those aunties that have been there are going back into their communities and making such a huge difference in their communities as young people understand that you listen to your elders. And I think there's so there are so many things in that culture that we need to learn as well, you know. So I guess those aunties, those those Aboriginal aunties that I've met have impacted my life personally as well.

SPEAKER_01 21:33

Yeah. Faye, thank you so much for speaking with me. It was a real privilege. I really appreciate it. Very welcome.

SPEAKER_02 21:39

Yeah, very welcome, no problems.

SPEAKER_01 21:43

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