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How Vision Kept Robin Close to God During Times of Isolation

by | Tue, May 26 2020

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Robin and Phil
Robin with Vision CEO Phil Edwards in Batemans Bay, NSW.
Visionathon Radio Appeal

As a teenager in the 50s, Robin sung along to the top 40 pop songs every Saturday afternoon. A lot has changed in the 40 years she’s been a believer, but some things stay the same. Now she tunes into our top 20 every weekend, and sings along to her favourite Christian songs.

Raised in an Anglican family, Robin turned her back on God in her 20s. But after that everything went downhill. At the lowest of her lows, she called out to God for help, and returned to Church soon afterward. Six months later, a charismatic Anglican preacher moved into their parish in Forbes. “Even though I didn’t fully understand what I was doing,” she said, “I went forward to the alter call, and was baptised in the Holy Spirit.”

Back then, she says she was an anxious, angry person. Now, she couldn’t be more different, but she admits it has been a long journey. “I have my moments, I might tell you. We’re not always on top of things. But you go down and as the Scripture says, you fall, but you get back up again.”

“It’s just been more that I’ve been relaxed and trusting in God, and the joy has been developing, year after year after year, and the love relationship with the Lord. And the two things go hand in hand of course.”

Robin’s favourite scripture is Psalm 91, which sustained her through her treatment for breast cancer in 1995. “I walked into my house just after the diagnosis had been given to me, and clear as a bell, not audibly but in my mind, came that verse. ‘With long life I will satisfy you’.”

That message kept her strong as bushfires swept through Batemans Bay, threatening her life and her home. She also read another promise that day, in the Word for Today, where God told her “I am walking beside you”. “I stayed at home. I did not evacuate. And all the time I had these words in my heart. ‘I am walking beside you’. And I wasn’t scared. I just knew God was there.”

Robin’s property survived unscathed, even as fires reached homes on the opposite side of her street. She believes that protection was miraculous. Facing the fire together has brought her and her neighbours closer. Many of them thanked her for her support. “I think they felt the calmness, because I was able to go up to them and hug them, and say, ‘it’s going to be all right,’ and give them reassurance.”

Robin has been finding reassurance in Vision for more than 20 years. On her long trips through rural New South Wales, Queensland, and Western Australia, the radio keeps her connected with God. She remembers one time when she was especially glad to find us. “I always talk with God while I’m driving,” she said, “but somehow or other I just had got to a point where I was getting a bit depressed. And so I desperately needed that radio station that day.”

For her, what sets Vision apart is our commitment to broadcasting the Word. “My goodness, these people are actually praying on National Radio!” she thought when she first heard us. “It just blew me away. And then you’re quoting Scriptures. And I thought this is fabulous. It’s so uplifting. It’s the life that’s in the Word of God, and the hearing of people actually talking to God in prayer. That is the outstanding thing about Vision, apart from the music of course.”

Robin chose to partner with Vision because she wants to see other rural Australians uplifted. “I want you to fulfil your dream of Christian media to all of Australia,” she says. “I find again, going to the outback areas, they need it so much. They are such beautiful people out there, but they need the Word of God.”

Whether it’s through a sermon or a pop song, we know how important it is to bring people the living Word. Since we spoke to Robin in March, the isolation that impacts Australians in the outback has reached into even our busiest cities. Please help us keep reminding people like her that God is walking beside them, even, and especially, in our hardest times.

The Vision family stretches far and wide and when a family member is in need, we all unite together.

Will you join with us this Visionathon to ensure that this ministry can keep going and keep helping people find True Hope right where and when they need it.

Click here to make a tax-deductible donation online or call our Visionathon phone room on 1800 316 316.

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