Changes in Plans & Trusting Yahweh God!

No home school co-op for us this semester. I have to admit that I am disappointed for both of us. Yet, I do know that our heavenly Abba knows all that we truly need. He apparently does not think we need this, as He has not provided for the gas for us to be able to go.

We are praying that He will some day provide a good fairly economical small truck which would enable us to sell our van. We had to borrow on our van to put in the septic. The plan was to sell the van and keep the car. When the car got totaled, we got stuck with a van payment we never planned on.

It is one of those Catch22 things. We cannot sell the van unless we have another reliable vehicle. We cannot get another reliable vehicle unless we sell the van. In the meantime, we just keep plugging along and have to accept that we simply cannot go much of anywhere. Even our church is in the next town about 12 miles away.

Rural living = being far away from everything! Yet, it also equals nature and privacy and lots of room for our son to run around outside in. Pros and cons. Of course, it would be nicer if we actually had a house to live in! That would at least take some of the sting out of not being able to go much of anywhere.

Learning to be content in difficult situations can be a definite challenge...but it is not impossible. Through all of this, we have had to really keep our eyes on Yahweh God...and our hearts. If we are living for Him...and keep that perspective...it really helps. If we are living for ourselves, then it gets really tough.

Still, even in the best of times, there is so much to do here just to try and have a somewhat healthy living environment that it often does feel very overwhelming. There is only so much that one couple in their fifties and one 12 year old boy can do. So, we have to keep on working on being content with life being a struggle and a challenge.

Struggles and challenges are not bad...they make us grow! Boy are we growing! *laughing*

From our little RV on the hillside to you in your home, I hope that you are not running from the struggles and challenges that can make you grow! Embrace them and trust Yahweh God to help you through it.

A Crazy Week & a Right Attitude!

Man...what a week this has been! It feels as if too much has all been coming together at once. Over the last 8 days, I have had one friend have surgery, one friend go into detox, one friend I felt I needed to distance myself from, started our next home "school" year, registered and tried to understand a job site, took my son to the doctor for a tetanus shot, discovered that someone I love very much was deeply hurt by someone else whom I love very much, pulled apart our son's bed area and cleaned up mold and mildew, caught up on finishing recording last "year's" school information and started proofreading the final proof on a book for someone.

Hmmm...was that everything? I have to laugh at all of this. There are times when it just seems like a lot of life hits all at once. It can feel overwhelming. When that happens, it helps to sometimes remind myself of how overwhelming it must have felt for the Son of God to have to take all of our wrongdoing through the ages onto Himself. Wow! He was perfect, sinless. He never blew it. I blow it all the time and He took all of my blow its and all the blow its of everyone else throughout all of time all at once on that dark day.

Well, it was dark for Him, but light for us. Because of what He did, we can have light and hope in our days now...even in the midst of what seems like total darkness. I lived for many years in a dark place, even as a follower of Yeshua/Jesus. He was my only hope during that time. I made it out alive. I made it out with some semblance of sanity; but I never would have been able to if not for Him.

I owe so much to Yahweh God. I owe Him my life. I am grateful that He enabled me to survive. Yeah...I still have PTSD. Maybe I always will...I don't know. I just know that it does lessen quite a bit if things are not happening to stir it up!

I have hope in Yahweh. I have healing in Yahweh. I have been blessed by Him in so many ways. It says that every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of Lights. Well, I know that my heavenly Abba/Father has sure brought light into my darkened world.

There are many who wonder at our ability to live in our current situation. This little RV is very tiny. Yes, we are crowded. It does get to us at times. However, we are also able to see how much we are blessed. There are a lot of people across the world who have less than we do! Even in this country, we have more than a lot of people.

So, we work with each other. We try to each esteem the other more highly than ourselves. We try to remember that each of us has our struggles. We love Yahweh and we love one another and we try to keep that love in the forefront.

It is only by the grace of Yahweh God that we are able to live as we do. It is He who helps us to have a right attitude about things...something we do NOT do perfectly by any stretch of the imagination! But we do try...and it is well worth the effort!

From our little RV on the hillside, I hope that you are able to take the things that are bringing you down to Yahweh God. I hope that you are able to receive the healing and love He has for you. I hope that, whatever your situation is, you are able to keep a right attitude about it.

Shalom and blessings!

High Winds, Leaky Roofs & Torn Tarps!

We had really high winds Sunday night. It tore the tarp on our roof, which still leaks. We really need to clean and seal the roof, but that requires a few days of good weather when Dave is off work. In the meantime, we have the ongoing expense of replacing the tarp. We would also like to actually put a wooden roof over our RV roof, but that takes time and manpower, neither of which we have.

The tarp covering our laundry room also needs to be replaced. It is wet in there again. Of course, the best solution is to finish the laundry room. It is one of those things that really needs to be finished once it is started, though. It is one and half stories high and difficult to cover with a tarp, especially given the high winds we seem to keep having off and on. We cannot leave it exposed to the weather once it is started.

So, that, too, requires enough days of good weather and time off work. With extra manpower we could get it done much faster, but everyone is either unavailable, or physically unable, to help. Whenever Dave does take off work, the weather switches around on us! It either gets so hot it sucks the life out of you, or it rains. Such is life.

So, we will just keep on tarping both the RV and the laundry room for now and pray that the wind, the weather and our budget hold up. What fun!

If anyone out there is thinking of living on their land in an RV, make sure you have enough money to pull it off. Of course, if you are like us, you may not have a choice. In that case, do the best you can and trust Yahweh God for the rest. That is all we can do.

I am reminded that we do not live for this life. If we did...forget it! No, we live for Him. This is but a shadow of what is to come. Now we see through a glass darkly. Reality is in the spiritual realm. That is where real life is. That is what we look forward to.

In the meantime, it is our desire to be able to connect with people and encourage them. It does get frustrating when it seems like we have to spend so much time just trying to maintain the ability to live in this little RV. We would much rather be spending our time with people.

We will choose to keep trusting in Him. We know that He really is leading us and guiding us, no matter what things look like! He refining us. Our faith is much stronger now, even in our frustrations, than it was when we first got here! *smile*