Another Adventure 2016

2016 Adventure - Jan 12-20

January 12

The excitement of beginning this journey had kept me up for the last few nights, together with having to make sure that I had fulfilled all my duties and responsibilities and passed on those that would need to be done while I was away. I pray that everything was done that needed to be done.

Shortly after 9 am we said "goodbye" and headed out on the highway. We breezed through the border crossing and enjoyed clear skies and clear roads. Stopped in GrandForks to have lunch and purchase a few groceries for the next couple of days. Supper was a sandwich and chips made and consumed while driving. Good roads and great company made for a good day. 

Manitoba, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Nebraska we have enjoyed the ride. We found a quiet 66 Fuel station just past Lincoln Nebraska where we enjoyed a peaceful sleep.

January 13

Woke up feeling refreshed and ready to begin another day singing praise to our God. Entered Kansas in the morning and soon there were only small traces of snow near the bushes or on the small streams. Yay, it is warming up!

We stopped in Hesston, Kansas to fuel up, have our lunch and enjoyed a wonderful invigorating walk through a nice neighbourhood.. Spent the day reading aloud "I Will!" by Thom S. Rainer all about Christians and their willingness to serve God. A good read for anyone questioning the purpose of Christians meeting together for corporate worship. Drove right on through Oklahoma with only stops for fuel. Enjoyed a shared steak supper in Shamrock, Texas.

Our night stay found us at a Love's truck stop on the outskirts of Amarillo.

January 14

It was not as quiet last night, obviously this particular truck stop is quite busy.  The warm shower was refreshing and renewing, a great way to start the day. After a lovely breakfast of bacon and eggs in the camper we found the nearest Walmart and stocked up on water and some sandwich meat.

This part of Texas and New Mexico are barren and flat with a few mostly abandoned towns along the way. The further we drove along the #70 highway the higher the elevation and occasionally we could see snow topped mountains in the distance.

Stopped at a little shop that make art from stumps or flat pieces for wood. Some nice stuff. Travelled as far as Alamogordo and spent another night at Walmart.

January 15

Not sure why the semi beside us started his engine so early in the morning and then just sat there, but alas such is the life of camping in parking lots. This morning we made the short drive from Alamogordo to the White Sands National Monument. For only $5.00 per person you could enter the park. Driving to the the end of the path provides the best opportunities to explore the white sands (created from gypsum). You can rent or bring your own plastic sled to slide down the dunes or slide down on your back side. Either way you will be covered in sand. It looks like a great place to picnic in warmer weather. We enjoyed our time here. And although we did walk on the dunes we opted to not slide down and get covered in sand.

On the road again we headed to Las Cruces where we filled the camper with water and topped up the propane. We found Old Town in Mesilla and enjoyed walking through the shops and visiting with the shop keepers. The weather was cooler this afternoon but we did not let that hinder us. We ate our first Mexican meal at La Posta. It was different having servers that looked Mexican but were American born and bred and spoke English as their first 

language. 

Found another Walmart parking lot where we laid down and cracked open our books and spent the next few hours happily reading. There was quite the number of campers in this particular lot.

January 16

Beautiful sunshine morning. Saturday morning Farmers Market in Las Cruces was enjoyable and saw a few neat things. Since we only had a very small bowl of cereal for breakfast we treated ourselves to a wood fired pizza for our second breakfast. It tasted very good, thank you. Our next destination today was Rockhound State Park. It was a nice park with a well maintained campground. We were here to do some hiking which we did, a bit. My knees are giving me trouble again with going up and down so we did not walk that far and we walked quite slowly. I guess I better find myself some physio exercises for my knees.

We headed to Deming to check out the historical buildings but there was not much to see, so we finished off yesterday's supper and hit the road again for St. David, Arizona.

We arrived safely at Dennis & Nancy's and enjoyed a delicious supper and had a good visit in the evening. Quiet night sleep in their yard overnight.

January 17

Nancy had prepared a big bowl of fresh fruit was which thoroughly enjoyed. We brought Dennis along with us to church as Nancy had to go early. After a traditional church service we enjoyed a soup potluck lunch. We said our goodbyes and travelled on to Sabino Recreational Area in Tuscon, AZ. We took the tram up to the top and then down again to stop #8 where we disembarked and took in the beautiful scenery. We walked down and took little off tours and had to remove our shoes as we walked across the water flowing bridges. The water was cold but very invigorating. With some searching we found the dam and realized that many years ago when this park area was first created that the visitors would have driven up to this point in their cars and enjoyed a picnic and a swim in the cool water. 

Early supper in the RV before heading to Phoenix airport to pick up Matt and Allan & Hilda. Along the way Dan & Sandra contacted us and we ended up all meeting together for a late supper at Cracker Barrel. Don't really want to discuss the airport signage and mixup. 

After a good supper and nice visit our group got on the road to Nogales. Tim & I stayed in our camper in the hotel parking lot while the other three stayed in the hotel. 

January 18

The room had a nice kitchenette where we made pancakes and warmed up our bacon (we had pre-cooked some at home).  After fuelling up and purchasing some sandwich meat and strawberries we headed for the border. Unfortunately or not we did not look carefully where we were going and ended up going through the city of Nogales instead of the truck route which we normally take. It was a little crazy driving through the the city but in some ways it was easier than the truck route.

Getting our Visa's took over an hour as there was a group of RV caravan people ahead of us who needed much more documentation. Back on the road the sun was shining and we were enjoying the sights and anticipating reaching our destination. We stopped near a Chinese Mexican restaurant to make our sandwiches and eat our strawberries.

We reached San Carlos around 5:00 pm and were happy to have made it safe and sound. It was quite busy with people as the group that was heading into the mountains was getting packed up to leave the next morning.

January 19

The group left around 8:30 with Art and Brenda driving them to their starting point (the closest you could get with a car).  This morning we checked out a couple of beaches in San Carlos. Our first beach was the rock beach where we were able to see quite a few dolphins swimming around. That was exciting. Our second beach was the dune beach and it was here that Al went for a swim. We thought he was a little crazy but he thought it was not that cold.The sand here was soft and very nice to run through your feet.

We found some leftovers and enjoyed a good lunch at our new home. In the afternoon we drove over to visit Brian & Clarissa and had a tour of their orphanage. We were going to first pick oranges and then help make juice but when we saw how many oranges they had already picked we just made juice instead. It is a lot of work but the juice is delicious! They really need a commercial juicer so we will be keeping that need in our prayers.

We returned home to enjoy our supper of refried beans and tortillas and meat (the meat was a combination of three kinds of meat with spices). It was delicious.

January 20

This morning we went for a walk around our new home and visited with some local residents along the way. After lunch we went to visit Maggie and her orphanage. She was so excited and happy to tour us around her home and share the exciting things that are happening. They have built a second story for sleeping quarters with more washrooms as well. The children here were loud and happy. Maggie loves them dearly and you can see it in her eyes as well as theirs. She is also sharing the love of Jesus with these children and the young moms with their young children. (Maggie has a shelter in Guaymas for orphaned children and battered & abused women with no place to go. Please pray for her and those that help her as she ministers to these needy people.)

Life Update

In the process of attempting to 'clean up' old papers I realized that I have a blog and I have neglected it. After re-reading some of the posts that I made years ago I felt that maybe it was time to post an update.

God is good, All the time, God is good.

God has been so good to me, in the good times and in the difficult times. He is always with me and always will be with me.

Much has happened since I last posted. For starters I now have TWO grandchildren. Luke, born in 2013 and Juliet born in 2015. A GIRL, first one in my family since me, which was pretty exciting for all of us. It is such a joy to spend time with these two little ones and I thank the Lord for them.

Jordan is back working in the kitchen at CMU as well he takes shifts at another restaurant, he is an amazing dad and it is so much fun watching him with his children. Michelle is an awesome mother, so loving, patient (although she does not always think so), so creative and just loves being a mom. They were able to buy their own home last fall and it is so perfect for them and the back yard is perfect for kids with a high fence to keep them safe.

Matt completed his University Agriculture Diploma and joined us on the farm. He purchased his grandparents home on the farm and has already made some renovations to make it his own. Tim is really enjoying farming with his son and it is nice that he is close by (although he could come around more often).

Nick is working on his third and final year at Millar College of the Bible and is planning to follow God wherever He leads. He has found himself a wonderful young lady who also deeply loves the Lord and wants to serve God and for that we thank the Lord. We have prayed for years for our children and for their future spouses that they would have a heart for God and serving God would be the most important thing in their lives.

Selena, the daughter God gifted us with later in life, is living and working in the city and has found herself a young man whom she is very fond of. Being farther away makes it more difficult to get together but we trust God that He will lead her where He wants her to go.

Our children are growing up and life is changing, God is working and we put our trust in Him.

Reflecting back on older posts, I thought I should share an update regarding my anxiety. The methods I used in the past did work but I would like to share more. Knowing who you are in Christ (a child of God) and believing it daily, moment by moment is very important. A couple of friends of mine who were struggling with anxiety or depression went to see a Dr. Brian Graham, a trained chiropractor, who uses a method called B.E.S.T. to help remove the emotional interference from ones body. They saw excellent results so I thought I would give it a try. I am impressed with the results. In a similar way, Dr. Fuller (another chiropractor) helped remove food sensitivities or allergies from my body (I can now eat anything - which is not necessarily a good thing), Dr. Graham has helped me remove emotional interference from my body. As Brian says, God - the creator of my body, is the great healer. My body is amazing and God has created it to heal itself, and "do you know all the benefits of walking?"

With the help of God, through ways like the "Steps to Freedom," and Dr. Graham, and listening to the Holy Spirit (2 Timothy 1:7 "For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.") I have grown in my understanding and my anxiety is only a temporary thing and does not 'put me down.' I call let stuff go, I can give it to God and let Him take care of it.

Fear is a terrible thing and satan uses fear to stop us from doing the work of God, fear causes us to think that others are out to get us, fear causes us to not speak with someone when we know we should, fear causes us to not share the Love of Jesus with those around us. I desire to stop being afraid and instead to trust in the Holy Spirit and His power. Through reading God's word and praying I can do all things through him who gives me strength.

John 15:20 says, "Remember the word that I said to you; 'A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours." Why then do we think that our lives in Christ should be 'perfect', that we should not have any hardship? Do we not know and trust and believe that God is our maker it is He that is with us always until the end of the earth? 

I could go on and on but this is not where I wish to preach a sermon, this is a reminder for me to keep on trusting my Lord and I pray that all who read this will trust Him too.

God is good, All the time, God is good.