crave the Word

My precious Poppy  (Dad) is having surgery today and I spent most of the day praying for him. We were in Mantecca, CA and got a flat tire on our trailer. So we spent time taking care of that and cruised around Mantecca before heading to Costco. After a very long day  we chose a place at the back corner of a park to camp out. We set up our tent and went to bed. After sleeping for about an hour we were awakened by the giant sprinklers blasting our tent. Gaylon was the amazing “water warrior” running barefoot from sprinkler to sprinkler trying to redirect the water away from me and our tent. He was my hero and came back in the tent soaking wet. Needless to say, we seemed to have missed God’s provision for us by choosing what we thought was an O K plan at the time when we were very tired. We packed up our wet stuff and decided that we better find out where God wanted us and headed south out of town. We found a place out in the country under some trees and spent the night on our tarp. We were cold but snuggled up and got some rest. As I was falling asleep, I prayed that we would “walk” into the voice of God.

After spending our mourning in prayer and the Word, we cleaned up Steve’s house and felt like it was time to hit the road. We praise God for Cousin Steve’s hospitality. Thank you Steve!

We had wanted to head over to Palo Alto to visit my Dad after his knee surgery but didn’t think we could make it that far in time, so we headed towards Southern California. I really believe this will be a time of refining and refreshing-Praise God.

My love and prayers to all!

Karen

We fellowshipped at Chet and Melba’s church this morning. We met Pastor James just before the service and Melba introduced us as missionaries on a disciples journey. James asked us briefly about it right before the service started. After a time of worship (which was great, by the way) Pastor James came over to us and asked if he could pray for us. He laid hands on us and totally blessed us.

We went to the country club for lunch with Chet and Melba and met up with Chet’s brother and his wife Wanda. Bill is quite a man of faith and he told about how God had given him a heavenly recipe for his almond carmel corn and how that business got started. It continues to amaze me the people God brings to us that tell us story after story about the blessings of God.

My love and prayers for you all!

Karen

We had a great day of rest. Our time with Uncle Chet & Aunt Melba was a tremendous blessing to Gaylon. It was great to hear about the heritage of faith that Pop (Gaylon’s grandpa) lived. God is so good the way He leads us to places that build our faith. He uses peoples lives and the way they walked in faith to give us stories that can be passed from generation to generation.

What a blessing!

My love and prayers to all.

Karen

Day 1      Oct. 16,2009
 

 Day 1 on our disciples journey was amazing. Our friends Ed & Patricia who Pastor a Penticostal Church in Paradise were going to Oakdale, Ca. and offered to give us a ride to our first destination, which was also Oakdale. . We had a wonderful drive and great time of fellowship. They were so encouraging with their testimonies of God working in their life and how He has brought them through. I never tire of peoples stories of the greatness and nearness of God.

When we arrived in Oakdale, we dropped off our trailer and stuff at Cousin Steve’s house and then Ed & Patricia treated us to a great  “cowboy steak sandwich” for lunch. We so much enjoyed their generosity towards us.

We said our good-byes after lunch and started our first “walk” into God’s greatness. I can’t really describe how truly wonderful that moment was other than wanting to laugh and cry (a good sort of cry) all at the same time.

We walked to Aunt Melba and Uncle Chet’s house and spent a few hours loving on them. It was so great to spend time with them and both Gaylon and I came away blessed with a sense of doing exactly what God called us to do. Aunt Melba gave us a ride back to Cousin Steve’s house. From there we felt like we were supposed to walk to town- so we headed towards the town square and sat on a bench in front of the “Cowboy Museum” and prayed and sang and worshipped the Lord.

Cousin Steve then called us on his way into town and picked us up and took us back to his house where we had a great time catching up on things with him (like, now he is a calf-roping cowboy). He truly is an amazing guy and whatever he is doing, he gives it his all. We had dinner with Steve and his girlfriend Annette, who is adorable and a “sister in the Lord”. We had a really nice evening with them and God really encouraged Annette through us.

Praise God for the first of many days on our journey, we are blessed beyond measure!

My love and prayers to all who might read this.

Karen