Pursued - Dani Cherrie

The Story Behind The Book

If someone had told me that at the age of 30, I would marry a man who would love me unconditionally for the rest of my life, (impossible) I’d become a mother of 2, (against all odds) I would enter into ministry alongside my husband who already was a Pastor (insanity) – I would go through 9 years of chronic fatigue and depression (more insanity) and still be sane – I would have said they were crazy!

Yet 18 years ago we started a church called “Winepress’- in our garage with just the two of us and a big vision: to ‘Love God, Love others and Make a Difference’ in our community and beyond. Today it is a healthy thriving community of many hundreds that continues to grow and outgrow its facilities. This led to a decision to purchase 21 acres of land in the town of Officer, Melbourne’s southeast growth corridor (after getting an unbelievable deal!)

In June 2004 we held a dinner for all who call Winepress their home. Arthur and I shared how we saw the land practically being used to impact our community with a message of hope. We invited a friend of ours, who leads another thriving church, (www.cccw.org.au) to share with us his story in building a facility in response to their own explosion of growth

Our friend spoke about giving up something you love for something you love more. Arthur and I were challenged by the message. We were about to extend/renovate our own home and we were asking others to give financially toward Winepress vision! It didn’t sit right. We needed to lead the way and give up something we loved for something we loved more …………. His Church.

After turning a white shade of pale at the amount of money we sensed to give, we sat down as a family and discussed the personal cost of doing this.

After much discussion, we agreed that if God was asking us to do this then He would also supply what we needed, so we decided to go for it. We made a public pledge to our church so we couldn’t back out. Then we thought, “How will we ever be able to give this huge amount?” We discussed selling our home and renting, cashing in our tiny superannuation and life insurance, selling one of our two cars and the caravan.

Then an idea came …….

Often in the past when I’d shared my story, people made comments like - “Why don't you write a book?” Here was the opportunity. Maybe we could sell a few copies in-house and make a start!

I’ve kept journals for most of my life so I had all the raw material I needed to write a book anyway. Diaries have always been a safe place to download and de-clutter my hyperactive mind.

As soon as I mentioned the idea to a few people – the offers started coming in……

• One person offered to type up my diaries
• Another (a budding young author) offered to write the diaries into a story.
• Another offered to sell it on-line as an e-book
• A printer offered to do first print run free.

The idea was gaining momentum!

Six weeks later Arthur and I were invited to a conference in New Zealand for larger churches. (500 plus)

On the first night we all went out for dinner at different restaurants and got to know each other. Philip and Heather Baker (www.riverviewchurch.com.au) happened to be sitting next to us. After a great night of laughter and good Indian food, Phil asked would I share some more the following day as part of a getting to know you exercise he’d organized. All I had to do was speak for three minutes on the letter ‘S’ for story. I was nervous so Arthur helped me put something together.

Afterwards, an amazing thing happened. I was immediately surrounded with offers to speak at other churches and questions about whether I’d written a book. A man we’d never met before, Ric Benson (www.kbc.org.au) approached me and asked if I would be willing to write a book. It was all too much – I just cried.

After we asked around (to check him out), we met up again the following day and after telling him the story about the pledge we’d just made, we agreed to go on a journey with him. He was thrilled because he had sensed God was asking him to commit his church to fully sponsor the writing of the story and what better way could there be than to invest into building God’s kingdom! His offer included a journalist and a researcher.

An amazing two and half year journey began. It was to be filled with new friends, laughter, tears, frustrations and lots of answered prayers and supernatural happenings.

Finally, all 192 pages of the book are finished and ready for publication. The book is my story, as I remember it.

I admit that it does not make me look good, but it does make God look AWESOME! The story is a message of HOPE!

We serve the God of the second, third, fourth (and one hundredth) chance. He will use whatever it takes - the good, bad and the ugly, to get our attention. He wants us to keep running in the race of faith because He has a better plan. He wants to spend eternity with us! If He can use me - He can use anybody!