crave the Word

Karen Day 10

Gaylon Ratliff — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 22:03:37 +0000

Karen Day 10

Our dear friends in Riverside, CA drove up today to pick us up in Turlock. We haven’t seen them in 3 years and it was so exciting when they drove up, all I could do was laugh! Praise God for special friends like Scott & Kristy that the passing of time does not take away the true love that is there.

On the way back to their home in Southern Cal. We had a wonderful time of catching up on our families and encouraging one another in the things that God is calling us to do.

We stopped along the way at a church in Glendora to enjoy a choir concert by the Cal Baptist University Womens Choir. Scott & Kristy’s daughter Holly, sings in it and we were totally blessed by the music. I think that the words to the songs were even more meaningful after having been walking in the presence of Almighty God. It was so powerful and moving that Gaylon and I cried through at least half of the concert. So beautiful, they sounded like angels.

My love and prayers to you all,

Karen

Karen Day 9

Gaylon Ratliff — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 23:52:14 +0000

Karen Day 9

Spent most of the morning at Jack in the Box in Turlock at Hwy 99 reading God’s Word and seeking Him, charging our cell phone and computer (no internet access though).

We have no direction yet to get up and walk, so we wait and pray, because that’s what this journey is all about-not our plans but His will for the day. In my mind it makes no sense to sit and wait but in my spirit there is a peace that goes beyond any understanding. He says “am I enough?” My answer to Him is, Lord, You created the heavens and the earth, You are in everything I see. There is nowhere that You are not there. You are Lord of all and I choose You. I choose life and love and all You have for me. Yes! Yes! Yes! You are infinity beyond more than enough! God, my provider, my shelter, my comfort, my peace, my joy, the glory and the lifter of my head, my strength, my hope for the future, my Savior, my friend, my counselor and healer. I choose You!

I am being transformed into God’s creature by the renewing of my mind, being conformed into the image of my Savior and Friend Jesus. As I peel away the ugliness of self, I am finding that I am nothing in myself but I am everything in Him. A new creation.

Praise God! Hallelujah! Amen!

On this amazing journey that we are on, I find that He is changing me, refining me, molding me so that I can do His work. He has called us to be a light to the world, but how can we be a light to the world when we don’t make time for the one True Light? We are like our cell phones, if we don’t charge up our battery, we have no power! I want to walk in His power, being His hands, His feet, His voice.

Walking into the voice of God! Jesus said, “He who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. John 14:12

We talked to some homeless people today and shared some of our pretzels and trail mix. Stephanie was a woman who had lost everything because of drugs. With the help of our precious Savior, she has been off drugs for 1 year. She was so cute and excited to share what the Lord has done for her and it was evident that He was living in her. The three guys were a bit messed up but it was a joy to love on them.

My love and prayers for you all,

Karen

Karen Day 8

Gaylon Ratliff — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 23:48:14 +0000

Karen Day 8

Ron showed up at the house this morning with bananas and maps of central California. I had just been getting something ready for breakfast as we were packing up our stuff when I thought it would be nice to eat our bananas with breakfast, but then I remembered that we ate them yesterday. What a blessing when Ron showed up with bananas. That was just another one of the many kisses from God we’ve received since we started this journey. It was also one of the best bananas I’ve had!

God’s provision tastes better than what we work so hard to provide for ourselves.

After asking God about our direction, we felt led to go another way. We headed towards Turlock and within a short time a man and his Mother stopped to give us a ride. She was here visiting from Pennsylvania and was so proud of her son that he would stop and go out of his way to give us a lift. Praise God for our 15 mile ride into Turlock.

My prayer is that as you read my posts, that you will see the greatness of God in the small things and that it would build your faith for believing Him daily. He says, seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you. I know He has my attention!

We spent the night in Turlock under the stars thanking Papa (our heavenly Father) and Jesus (our brother and Savior) for another day to live and breathe and to be a light to the world.

My love and prayers to you all.

Karen

Karen Day 7

Gaylon Ratliff — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 23:33:16 +0000

Karen Day 7

Wow! Has it already been 1 week? Time has flown by and it seems like we just left, but we are really missing our girls and family and friends.

Today we are at the Blues Café in Patterson, CA learning how to post our blog. We have not had a place to do it until today. Sorry to keep you all wondering where we were. I’ve been writing as we go but haven’t had internet access till today.

This morning we ate at a diner for breakfast and there was a couple there and the man couldn’t sit to eat because he was in so much pain. They got up to leave the same time we were done and Gaylon asked if we could pray for him. They were Christians also and we talked and encouraged each other in the parking lot for about 20 minutes. We also prayed for his wife because she just had shoulder surgery. I thank God that we had that moment to pray for them and believe that His healing touch would set them free.

We met a man at the Blues Café who said that he had a vacant house out side of town that we could stay at for the night. It was a beautiful home and it even had electricity. Praise God! We slept warm and cozy thanking God for His amazing provision. Ron was loosing this house in a few days-his business had dried up and here he was, being a blessing and thinking of someone else’s needs. Now that’s powerful!

God’s grace-its amazing!

My love and prayers to you all,

Karen

Karen’s Day 6

Gaylon Ratliff — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 22:42:54 +0000

I woke up this morning with thoughts of “walking” into the voice of God. Hearing His voice and being led by Him. Praise God, that’s where I want to be. In His perfect will.

As we were walking out in the middle of country, a lady driving the opposite way stopped in the middle of the road and asked if I wanted some coffee. I said “sure”, and she handed me her cup of coffee and said I needed some coffee to warm me up. We thanked her and prayed God’s blessing over her as she drove away. Not only hot and comforting, but it was exactly the way I like it (vanilla cream & sweet). How awesome is that! It was a precious kiss from God.

A few hours later on that same country road, these two ladies stopped and asked us if we were on some sort of quest. We shared that we were on a disciples journey. She held out her hand and placed $6 in our hands and said “God wanted us to have it”. Praise God! A little while later, out in the middle of nowhere we came across “Jimmie’s Place” where we used the blessing God just had given us and had some lunch and charged our cell phone. Sitting at the bar were several farmer boys who were very interested in what we were up to. God provides ways for us to talk about Him and minister His life and love to total strangers. It’s so much fun! We walked for a while longer when Jose and Manuel stopped to give us a ride into Patterson which was about 13-14 miles further. Gaylon had just prayed about 5 min. before they stopped to pick us up. He was just telling God that he was getting tired but would keep going if He wanted us to. Praise God!

We ended up at Mc Donalds for some dinner and to see if they had internet service (which they didn’t). We had some dinner and met Johnathan and Brian who were training to be pastors at the Assemplies of God. They loved doing street ministry and were such a blessing to us to talk to. We gave them some Speakables and blessed them on their way out.

From there, we walked to the Pentacostal Church. The service was great and the people there were so welcoming and loving. We camped out in the yard at the church and got some much need rest. God’s provision is so off the chart compared to what we try to figure out. All in all, we walked about 20 miles for the day. It was a great day!

“Walking” into the voice of God!

“I’ll be talking about that!

My love and prayers to all

Karen

Karen’s Day 5

Gaylon Ratliff — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 22:08:55 +0000

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.

Karen’s Day 4

Gaylon Ratliff — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 21:49:45 +0000

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

Karen’s Day 3

Gaylon Ratliff — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 21:40:04 +0000

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

Karen’s Day 2

Gaylon Ratliff — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 21:22:56 +0000

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

Karen-Day 1

Gaylon Ratliff — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 20:06:41 +0000

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

Day 1 Oct. 16,2009

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