This is really an overview of the year after we came back
from Colorado. I keep a ‘spiritual
diary’ and have written a great deal, so these are clips from that – I give
more detail to the stories I spoke of in the January 2016 newsletter.
God has called us to a unique life – traveling from place to
place, as God leads, ministering to a variety of people in a variety of ways. It is not an easy life, yet more fulfilling
than anything I have ever done. The
enemy attacks us especially hard in areas of finance, health, and material
possessions (RV or car especially) to try to discourage us and make us stop
what we are doing (Paul went through such trials as well – 2 Cor.11:23-27). Quite the opposite happens; however, we rise
up in praise to God even more, dancing and singing, warfare prayer, fasting,
and miracles happen! God has carried us
through some of the hardest times because of our faithfulness to His Word! You will see through these stories, how God
has been so faithful and good to us. He
says in his Word that when we are faithful in the little things He has given
us, He will give us more – that He has!
One of our biggest lessons coming back to the Rogue Valley
Oct. 2014, was in the area of spiritual warfare BEFORE setting foot into an
area. We left Colorado with less than
$600 and went to Coos Bay (Oct. 10-13) for a brief time of relaxation before
going to my mom’s in Central Point. Here
are a few examples from my diary of what we went through:
Oct. 28th –This has not been an easy two
weeks. William is staying at his mom’s
and I at Bethany’s – we only see each other a few hours each week. But we’re going on anyway – living on
faith.
The whole thing with mom’s motor home is a nightmare – she
said we could use it to take to the coast for a month or so, but when we went
over there Sunday to start it (jerry rigged in the first place) we couldn’t go
anywhere because the clutch went out!
Still transmission problems – they said they fixed that last time they
used it. Now I don’t know if we can take
it – it depends on whether or not it can get fixed in the next day or two.
When we first got back into the valley on the 9th
and went to mom’s, we got there late afternoon/early evening, she had
originally told us we could stay in her upstairs apartment and that it was
available. When we got there, she
informed me she still had a tenant living there, dying of cancer. William proceeded to just go upstairs (in her
house) and lie down, but he felt uneasy, came down and told me he was leaving
and going to his mom’s to stay (we should have been clued in at that point in
the spiritual realm). Methias was with
us, having followed us from the coast, and told mom he would work for her in
exchange for parking his truck there to sleep.
Then Albert came in – I hardly recognized him. He looks like a 70 year-old man! And I saw the spirit of death all over him –
I could hardly look at him it was so strong (that should have been my second
clue). He informed us that he too had
cancer. I stayed on mom’s couch that
night in the front room. Above the large
windows is this hideous painting of a fat man’s bald head, dripping with
colors. Even though the couch was
extremely comfortable, I could not sleep – I heard ‘whisperings’ and
‘mutterings’ all night (I should have really been clued in by then).
The next day, Methias got to work tilling the garden and I
with her mess on the front porch (I ended up falling and hurting my knee - it swelled up real huge!), sorting it all out. That night, she cooked a pot roast and I was
starving! I took a few bites of it and
got nauseated , unfortunately, I attributed it to stress and didn’t eat any
more. Again, the next night, I made stew
out of the leftovers and got nauseated.
I made enchiladas the next night and same thing. Not only that, but William said he was
nauseated from that meal as well (the only meal William came up to join us
with). I was throwing up by Friday. However, I felt perfectly fine whenever we
left the property – when William came to pick me up various times throughout
the week and we went sightseeing or whatever, or when I ate anything at all at
St. Vinnys or our picnic in Ashland, I was perfectly fine.
What really weirded Methias out was that he ‘felt’ the weird
spiritual things going on as well – he got up before sunrise Friday morning and
took off to the coast. Mainly because
of that, but also because his dog got a hold of one of Albert’s pet chickens
and he threatened to take a gun to the dog.
Overall, Methias said he felt too weird there.
During that same time, I could not sleep nights and was
tormented all night. That weekend, I was
throwing up violently and by Sunday morning, I called William to come get me
out of there. I was finally clued in
that something big was going on spiritually.
I spent that Sunday night at his mom’s still not feeling well and I
called Bethany, who took me in. I spent
the next week throwing up constantly, taking a lot of baths (I think that is
why I stayed hydrated), and trying to get rest.
I finally got a break through that Wednesday night after Bethany went to
her prayer meeting; however, I felt no physical relief for several days – I
just sensed a spiritual breakthrough.
Anyway, the whole end if it all is that I learned a huge
lesson – several in fact. Never let your
guard down! What we had forgotten was
that the enemy saw us coming. Because of
the work we had done in this valley prior AND through a generational
curse. Because my mom is a non-believer,
I placed myself under her authority by staying there! That is why my brother looks like he did – he
placed himself under her authority. What
William and I should have done before coming into the valley, was to go into
warfare prayer and make sure we were covered.
Never again, will I forget that – even if I’m going on vacation!
Nov. 11 – Wow, what a hard time it’s been. I was walking the beach this morning and was
so thankful that God has once again renewed us spiritually and
emotionally. Thankfully, William and I
started out in Roman’s 5 this morning and prayed together – we hadn’t done that
in a while. We have both just come out
of a dark place (I was really getting bad mentally) in the past couple weeks,
we have to remember to start our day with God or the bad starts to take over
again. I think the enemy is so mad at us
that we got away from him again in the valley (despair and anger) that when we
got to the coast on Mon. the 3rd, that he doubled the attacks on us
this past week (health problems, constant pain, overwhelmed, despair, cold, no
$$, etc.)
Actually, I was walking the beach this am thanking God for
bringing us to such a beautiful, mild place, so that this time that we’re
living in that tiny RV, being cold a lot, having to move every day, tote in
water (from up above at the Bastendorff campground), going to find places to
wash dishes (in cold water), taking showers (either at the B campground –
sneaking in, or 2 tokens for $1 for 6 minutes in the Charleston harbor), etc.
and etc. It isn’t really that bad for
the most part, at least we have a some-what indoors situation, even though very
small. There are several just camped in
the open on the beach, in the dunes, trees, etc. There are so many homeless living in cars and
tens, I’m thankful for what we do have.
I’m sure God has the perfect place picked out for us to spend the rest
of winter and next year.
I am so thankful William said to go in and get foodstamps –
we got $307 worth on the 5th – we got to eat decently for the first
time in ages!! Thank you Jesus! (Before leaving the valley, a friend of mine
from Talent gave us 2 boxes of food – those pre-packed, 30-day survival boxes,
bags of apples and pears – thank you Jesus!)
Nov. 21 – devotional Nov. 4, 7, 8th – we
discussed the power of money by giving it away. We have been quite sick again lately – I
have had bronchitis (which I used to get all the time in the 80’s and 90’s)
which I haven’t had in at least 12-15 years!!
I’m coughing so much, it makes my stomach hurt. I’ve been sick all week – the worst yesterday
and today. William was sick last and
this week – the worst the last 2 days – such a fever, chills and heat,
headache, coughing – he thinks he may be getting pneumonia.
Nov. 26 – William is sick again, even worse than
before. His back keeps going out on him
as well. Not only that, but he has been
getting severe knee pain as well. Poor
guy just can’t get a break! We are
running of propane so we haven’t been using the heat much. It’s been raining a lot, this RV leaks a
great deal, we are constantly wet and cold.
Water drips on my head all night and my pillows are soaked, as is most
of my blanket and mattress below. I may
be wrapped up in the blanket all night and warm, but it is still wet. What’s even worse is that I’m in a hole – to
make the bed work so we both can sleep , William has to have that narrow
blow-up mattress (real hard) which leaves me about a foot and a half of room,
which is down from his mattress about 2 or 3 inches. I’ve got it built up with the layers of
sleeping bags, but during the night, they get bunched up and move so I go down
about 6 or 8 inches or so. I can’t put
any weight (when I turn I like to put my knees up) on his mattress because it
makes him bend funny which puts his back out again. So I’ve been quite uncomfortable for the most
part; however, God is letting me sleep well!
Amazing.
We went to the health center 2 days ago and they told us we
couldn’t see a doctor because we had no insurance and they didn’t do sliding
plans or anything (we didn’t have $$ anyway), but these very nice ladies at the
Waterfall clinic actually took time (after we waited in the waiting room for
over an hour) to expedite us through the medical insurance system so we can get
help – William was so sick, he actually thought he was going to die two nights
– he said it brought up so many memories from when he was a kid and suffered
through serious asthma attacks, losing his breath so much, he didn’t think he’d
breath again. This happened to him
again, he’s been sitting up a lot at night because he can’t even lie down and
breath. He’s had such a fever he’s been
soaking everything – then he gets the chills so bad, he shakes the bed! He’s been sitting up until 2 or 3 every
morning because he’s putting off lying down.
Anyway, after another hour or so, we got in the system, got
the paper work we needed, they told us that until we got our card, we could
only go to the emergency room. William
was feeling so bad after that, we just went back to the RV and went to the
emergency room on the 25th.
Bottom line, we managed to get him a lung treatment for asthma, got some
antibiotic and steroid (thank God, for
free) for him to breath. We couldn’t get
the inhailer or the muscle relaxer for his back though – those cost over
$100! His back had gone completely out
on him the 24th while he was having a coughing fit. He couldn’t even move for quite some
time. What was really cool; however,
Methias managed to get William an inhailer a few days ago on the streets AND
not only that, he had some antibiotics that he had kept back from something
months ago – William started taking them the 23rd, so when we got
the prescription, I started taking the stuff Methias had and William got the
new stuff.
Dec. 2 – I had to come up with a way to earn $$ (I had applied at the local community college
and even followed up with e-mails, but so far, no luck) and with William being
so sick, I knew it fell to me. So I
decided I was going to play on the streets and put out a hat; however, it has
been raining so much I couldn’t, so the week of the23rd, I started going from
place to place (restaurants, mall, Egyptian theater, etc) and asking if I could
play my flute there. I played for 3
hours the day of Thanksgiving at the Italian restaurant and for 2 hours each
night at the Blue Heron. That was the
first time I’ve ever done that – played for money like that. I used to play ‘formally’ for weddings, etc .
back in the 80’s and 90’s for $$, but never by putting a tip jar out. Wim de Vriend has been so wonderfully nice to
us – letting us eat dinner for free at his restaurant those 2 nights. He wants me to play every weekend through
Christmas and for the week before Christmas .
My neck and back hurt so bad after and the next day; however. I haven’t played this much in ages. He took us to church on Sunday and gave us
$200 for what we lacked in the car payment – he heard our story and wanted to
help. What was so cool, was that on the
1st when I called to pay the car – I didn’t get charged the late
fee! God is really blessing us!
Dec. 29 – Methias has
been massively impacted by us, said that we were the ‘realest’ people he ever
met. Even though we’ve been through so
many rough things the past couple months, he has witnessed us still praising
God every day, no matter what. I guess,
if being a witness changes a person, then I guess it was all worth it.
We ended up having a very nice Christmas and week – we
parked the RV at the Mill for $150 and we had full use of the hot tubs, pool,
and weight room – which I especially took full advantage of. We couldn’t really afford it, and in the end,
we don’t have the $$ to pay the car payment.
We spent Christmas day at Wim’s house – he invited us to come for Christmas
dinner at 4 with him and his family. We
had a good time talking with various people and in the end, his wife gave
Methias a hat and scarf she had made – he was so happy and surprised he got a
gift. He wears it every day! They ended up giving us this huge basket of
fruit and Dutch treats. He has been such
a blessing to us this past month.
Wim really enjoyed singing while I was playing my
flute. Every night I played at his
restaurant, he had me play his Dutch Christmas carols and a variety of other
German songs, while he sang them. There
are several Dutch people who live in this area and several came into the
restaurant over the past month – Wim would single them out and sing the Dutch
songs to them. We also went to Wim’s
church – a Baptist church in New Winchester, where I played my flute a few
times.
Mom ended up giving us that motorhome in January as an early
birthday gift to me. We’ve been very
thankful to have it!
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