Adventures

Here we record the adventures that we take as a family, near and far.

The Power of Prayer

Allow me to brag on God and the power of prayer. We needed some clothes for the boys, and they just weren't in the budget. The farm and remodel are kinda hard on clothes. We prayed every day last week, specifically for this need, among others.

So, Sunday, after church at the park, someone randomly came up and asked if we could use some clothes for the boys, which of course we did.

They proceeded to give us several bags of clothes that were EXACTLY the right sizes, much of which appear to be brand new. There were work / play clothes, dress clothes - even a new suit for one of the boys - and more.

I don't think that it was random. I think that it was orchestrated by God in response to specific prayer. Thank you, Lord, and thank you, Random Person who listened to the Lord and met a need!

God Loves to Answer Prayer!

Every day, we have been gathering as a family to pray for some specific requests. Today, God poured His blessing, and showed us in minute detail that He answers detailed prayer. Over 34 specific prayer requests were answered today, some of which were seemingly small and insignificant, while others were so large that they were beyond our human means, yet God cared about every one of them.

Psalm 68:19, "Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Selah."

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Rattlesnake

machete

A few years back, I won a hatchet-throwing contest at a men's retreat and was awarded this machete. Today, I was very grateful for it, as I used it to kill a rattlesnake that was pestering my kids and animals. I'm super thankful to God for His protection, and let me tell you: it was way more exciting than watching a nature documentary. Boy can those things strike!

First, I cut it in half with my machete. Then we stoned it with large rocks. Then Enoch cut off its head with a shovel. Then we beat it to death some more. Then we drowned it in a bucket of water for five or ten minutes. Then we beat it even more. Now the boys are out digging a deep hole in which to bury its head.

As a preacher, I got so many sermon illustrations out of this experience. For example, when the old serpent (the devil) raises its ugly head in your life or family, you better go after it and MAKE SURE it's really dead. As you wield your machete of Scripture, you can use the tools of honesty, diligence, accountability, and humility to beat the living daylights out of that sin problem!

Best we can tell, it was a Northern Pacific Rattlesnake, which rarely grow above 2.5 feet. This was a big one, though. According to my tape measure, it was 39.5 inches long, and a little more than 3 inches around in the middle. I included a basketball in the picture for comparison.

snake

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God Still Answers Prayer

God still answers prayer. Within seconds of gathering the family to pray about a specific and urgent need, God answered it precisely in a way that was clearly only God.

Dare to teach your kids that God hears and answers prayer, then live it by praying specifically and watching God work.

Faith = Hearing from God + Believing Him + Obeying Him

5 Love Languages

I'm pretty sure that Gary Chapman was wrong - the five love languages, at least in our home, are Carbs, Protein, Fruits & Veggies, Dairy, and Bacon, but mostly bacon.

#4boys #FamilyOfBoys #FarmWork

Exhausted, but Joyful

Sitting here tonight, I'm exhausted, but very happy and excited to see what God is doing.

The last several weeks have been tough, from a human perspective. It seems like we are in the middle of on old west range war. I sit here covered in mud and manure, having worked late in the night to replace a water main that was deliberately destroyed on the farm where we live. Yesterday, I spent much of the day blocking a gate, in order to keep someone from coming in; all the while listening to him misquote Scripture to this (in his words) "so-called preacher," as if out-of-context Bible verses will convince me to let him come on private property to steal.

We've reassembled / rewired the well twice, rebuilt the generator three times, repaired a bunch of other sabotage, and gone without water and power on several days. I've also installed several security lights and cameras.

I'm not complaining in the least. God is at work here. There needs to be a church here. People are asking God for a church here.

I'm excited to see God work, because He is answering prayer directly over and over, in spite of - and somewhat as a result of, the difficulties we face right now.

Some direct answers to prayer that God has provided over the last few weeks -

  • A truck
  • A phone
  • A washing machine
  • A propane stove / oven (hard to find one that is propane top and bottom, but needed since power is limited here)
  • A good propane fridge
  • A lap pool (needed for health reasons due to past injuries)
  • And there is more, but all of these were things that we asked the Lord specifically for, but told almost no one about most of these needs. And God provided in great, specific detail!

The greatest blessing to me came this afternoon when I stopped at the house of someone who has been faithfully coming to services. He was on the phone with a friend, inviting him to come to services, and telling him all about what happens at church and that he is planning to get baptized.

When he finished his call, he told me that he found a place that we can use to baptize him. Since we don't have a building yet, and meet for services at a park, we don't have a ready baptistry. Yet, he went out of his way to find a place where there is water so that he can be baptized! On Sunday, we finished going through several things concerning salvation, and he has a clear salvation testimony, and now is ready to be baptized.

We had a great visit with a neighbor this morning, who in the past has not been particularly open to our ministry. Yet, today, she shared with us that she has seen God work through these problems and wanted to know if we could study God's Word together.

It was also a real encouragement to me to receive a surprise visit from my sister and brother-in-law yesterday. Sometimes, you just need family around!

God is working. As we have faced these things that pose a threat to the ministry that God has given us, God has overcome so much that it is hard to put in words. Thank you for praying for us, and please don't stop.

Some things for which I am thankful today:

boys in truck

  • Hard-working boys
  • A new-to-us truck that fits all of us and will be a great asset for ministry and farm (thanks for the help, Briggs!)
  • A phone (thanks Bro. Haxton!)
  • A wonderful guard dog
 

A Windy Day on the Farm

Son: "Mom, I just saw a chicken blow past!"

Yep, it is a windy day!

Pre-fried Chicken

Me: "Why was the live chicken stuck inside the bbq grill with the lid shut?"

Son: "Because I put it there."

Me: "Why?"

Son: "No reason."

Me: "Leave the chickens alone. They aren't dinner... yet."

Crossing the Creeks

flooding creeks 01

flooding creeks 02

We hiked across the creeks yesterday, passing the Suburban along the way, to hitch a ride into town with a neighbor and get some supplies. The water had come down to about a third of the level that it was when the bank collapsed under our vehicle. I'm thankful for a wonderful wife and kids who have pulled together to help me get supplies across the creeks and cleanup the mess of the storm, with amazing attitudes.

Our prayer now is that God will provide some means of transportation for us to get to town in time to minister on Sunday. It should be a beautiful day, with lots of people out, and I don't want to miss the opportunity of reaching out to them with the Gospel.

An Adventure of God's Protection and Guidance

"Wanna have some fun," my husband, Jared, asked me as the storm that had been going on since late last night seemed to be subsiding. We always check out our property line and surrounding areas after storms to assess any damage. It is often a muddy, slippery drive, but relatively safe. There have been a few times that we didn't make it back up the hill and had to go on a short walk. "Sure!" I said as I struggled to slip on my rubber boots.

We got in the car and checked out the area up next to the cow pens. It was a little slippery, but not bad. There were several small creeks running through the property, but they weren't any problem for our Suburban. We drove out the gate to check out the creek that was just outside.

We drove up to the creek and stopped, we were discussing how deep we thought it was when suddenly we found ourselves out in the middle as the bank collapsed. We were out in the middle of a very fast flowing, very deep creek. The Suburban started to fill with water. We quickly opened the door and rolled down windows, so we could get out and tried to figure out what was important to grab. Jared got his wallet and I grabbed my purse and phone. Oh, and a bottle of RC Cola. (We thought that it might be helpful to have something to drink and a some carbohydrates, if we were stuck for a few days.) Though we searched frantically, we could never find Jared's phone. It must have fallen down by the floorboards. Jared got out and I climbed over the seat to get out his door.

We tried to go back towards our house, but the water quickly rose up to Jared's armpits and was flowing very fast. We had to go to the other side. Jared carefully made it to land and I followed. I tripped and was swept about 30 feet downstream but made it safely to shore with Jared's help and encouragement.

We were both soaking wet and on the wrong side of the creek. We walked upstream looking for an easier place to cross. The creek was very wide and flowing fast. We walked until it was dark, but never found a safe place to cross. We were concerned about the boys, but we had no way to contact them. We kept praying for wisdom and at every place we tried to cross, God directed us to turn around. It started raining again. Finally, it was too dark to see anymore so we made our way to a neighbor's house. They weren't home, but we checked all the doors and windows. Everything was locked. We were cold and wet and starting to feel like we were getting sick. There was nothing else we could do, so we decided to break an already broken window and climbed inside. (We knew the neighbors and have since communicated with them about what happened. They were glad that we were safe and had a dry place to stay.)

We made it inside and started a fire with the firewood they thankfully had there, hung our clothes to dry and wrapped up in blankets. We got a little sleep, but mostly shivered, prayed, and thanked God for a dry place to rest till the creeks would dry enough for us to get across. We prayed for the boys to be safe and to be comforted. We prayed for our ministry in Los Molinos and the sweet people that we have met.

God brought to mind the verses that I had learned to music from Isaiah 43, "Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. For I am the LORD thy God,"

At first light, we slipped on our still wet clothes and shoes and headed towards the creek to see if it was passable. It had gone way down and we were able to safely cross.

We made it back home, cold and sore, but safe and with RC Cola in hand (Yes, we were making "Me and My RC" jokes). As we came up the hill, one of the boys shouted and we saw them up another hill with a rope in hand. They were planning to go looking for us and had a rope to rescue us. We were so happy to see them safe and sound and they were happy to see us. God kept us all safe.

Enoch was convinced that we were playing some sort of test to see if they would be okay overnight without us. Ezra thought we had made it across the creek and couldn't make it back, so we probably stayed a night in a motel. Ezekiel wasn't sure what happened, and EdWord had cried himself to sleep.

We are all safe. We have enough food for a few days and another neighbor is going to give Jared a ride to town in a few days. I don't know what is ahead of us concerning a vehicle, but God has always provided in the past, and we are excited to see what He has provided for us.

Living by faith is not easy, but it is so comforting to know that no matter what comes our way, we have a loving Heavenly Father Who cares for us and provides our needs.

RIP Henrietta

We had our first casualty on our farm today. Our favorite chicken, Henrietta, choked and died today. The boys are making her a tombstone now.

The four boys' different responses to the chicken's death:

Enoch (the chicken farmer): "I did everything I knew to do to save her. She was my favorite. I hope we don't lose the rest this way. I can't afford that."

Ezra (announcing the status every minute or so before she died): "She's still with us."

"Enoch's doing CPR." "She's not gonna make it." "The chicken's gone. She's not with us any more." "Can I paint a tombstone for her?" "Can we have a funeral for her next Tuesday?"

Ezekiel: "Do we get to eat the chicken now?"

EdWord: "Can we make a feather duster with her feathers?"

henrietta 1

henrietta 2

henrietta