God's Blessings

God has blessed us so greatly in so many ways. Last night, a whopper of a storm came up, winds 40+ mph (I wouldn’t be surprised if they got to 60-80 it was so strong). We had just fixed all the damage done by the storms while we were gone, so we listened to the wind/rains while going to bed, but at 3 am we awoke to great noise (lots of banging on the side, etc.) and William went outside to find our large 20 x 30 tarp that goes over both rigs, mostly detached and flying like a sail, while the canopy was dancing all about, with a 3^rd leg broken! The winds died down/rains stopped briefly while he literally grabbed the tarp in his arms, rolled it up in a big ball and tucked it over and around the table we have out there (full of my art stuff! I should have known better), leaving the roof of the trailer exposed. Now, I kept staring up at the vent above my bed, expecting winds to blow in (since in Oct. apples from the apple tree we are under, broke the vent cover) and I expected to get soaked. William made a comment that we were surrounded by angels and that there was probably one sitting up there to keep the plastic trash can lid in place (which was just sitting there over the vent, not even attached to anything). Then he said, “maybe I did end up putting a secondary tarp over the roof like I was thinking about and it will be ok.” I fell asleep still looking. I did; however, have drops fall on my head from the window which leaked. It wasn’t too bad though. In the morning, looked up there and was surprised to see everything in tack. William went out to survey the damage, I went out to help put everything back together. When he got up on the roof, no tarp was there, and the trash can lid was still sitting there! He picked it up and it was just sitting loosely over the vent! We both laughed and said, “Yes! Angels were sitting on top keeping it there!”

woodpecker in the apple tree - last fall

 

We have been having some great worship and praise times/study times/prayer times both morning and night lately (a couple days ago, it went for hours!), really getting close to God, having wonderful discussion, etc. At the same time, the enemy has been coming against us – William mostly with his back, which is still out, still very painful, still having a great deal of difficulty getting around doing things. Just sneezing throws his back into painful contractions. However, this morning, even though he was still in pain, it felt in place for the first time in a month! Where there was a bulge on one side last night (I massage him every day), it was gone today! We’ve been believing God for total healing. He had gone to the chiropractor at least 6 times while in the valley and none of them set him in, so we had no other option but to believe God for total healing – we came back to Coquille still believing so. By this afternoon, he was so much better, not nearly the pain he had before.

We got done putting everything back together outside, came in for breakfast and prayer and around 10:30 I took off to the art center to finally have some ‘play’ time. It was Nov. last time I painted and I was itching to not only get back to painting, but I wanted to join the quilt ladies this morning to find someone to teach me to cast off with my knitting (I’ve been knitting on that blanket for 8 years now!). I found the ladies all working toward getting ready for “quilt-o-rama” in March – which is where their goal was to make 50 quilts to donate to the homeless mission and to other groups in Coos Bay. I didn’t even know they did this type of thing. So I’ll be going every Wednesday working on this project. In the mean time, one of the ladies, taught me how to cast off and I sat there chatting with them, finishing my blanket. When done, I said, “anyone want my knitting needles, I don’t want to ever knit again!” They all laughed and one took them. That blanket ended up (I spread it out for the first time) being huge! Almost a queen size. Very heavy and warm. William loved it! 

Then, I went over to the painting side with a huge canvas and asked Pat if she would teach me how to do an ocean scene with huge waves, sunset colors, etc. using acrylics. I have very little experience using acrylics and all the various gels, varnishes, etc. We got the scene drawn out, the sky put in and I quit for the day – I felt good having gone out today to do all this. 

 

24"x36 Acrylics - my first try at the 'eye of the wave'

Jan. 24^th – William always says that, “the closer we try to get to God, the more the enemy comes against us in sudden attacks.” That’s what’s been going on; we’ve been having such awesome worship, bible study, discussion times lately, discussing where and when God will send us next, etc. William’s back is still out AND he has suffered from hives from head to toe for the past 2 days! He had been using Tylanol and Ibuprofin for the past few weeks for pain in his back, but when he ran out of muscle relaxers and his back was still out, so he started taking another med - Naproxen – he’d been taking them 4-5 days or so (until yesterday when he realized) when 2 days ago he broke out in hives and started itching severely. Large patches of huge bumps, bright red, getting the entire area red as he scratched … anyway, he went online yesterday and looked up side effects of that drug – 2^nd and 3^rd ones down on the list were hives and severe itching! His hands are so swelled up today, like huge water balloons! All he feels like doing is lying around and sleeping …