While cooped up early in the month, we listened to an awesome sermon by Roberts Liardon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqi_UJ7y9EY
About God’s call and are we willing to do what God says, no matter what. We were discussing ‘what is our purpose here at the lighthouse/Crescent City this go around.’ Each time in the past, God has specifically directed us to do or to say specific things – having prayer meetings, ministering to various people, helping at the mission, William walking the cross through town, Good Friday/Easter service, etc. This time, we feel God brought us here for a purpose and we have fulfilled that purpose: to encourage those who live in this community to believe and to pray for revival, to get out and to do the work, etc.
It wasn’t until the 9th that I (William stayed at the light house to do ‘spring cleaning’) finally got to visit those at the mission (Our Daily Bread) and got caught up on all that’s gone on there the past couple years – good to see the people there. I got back to the lighthouse, carrying all the groceries and a large family (looked like Mennonites or similar) about to leave and they stopped me and asked if I lived there. I answered a few of their questions, and asked if they saw the whales. They hadn’t so while I brought the groceries in, William came out and pointed out the whales. This family is from John Day and were on their way to central CA for a wedding the next day, so William offered to take them up in the tower (the kids were so excited – 9 of them). Good thing they all went up, because William noticed that the light was out. It is official – William is a Bulbie (back in the day, keepers were called Wickies) – he had to change the bulb and the fuse (he was actually excited about it since not many people get to do this). Pretty interesting afternoon, talked with lots of people, great conversations, especially great conversation with a couple from Vancouver, Canada - everyone was especially excited to see the whales – 3 of them seem to be hanging nearby pretty much every day.
March 10 – Our first day to give tours and even though I went into the gift shop ½ hr early to familiar myself with the products, reviewed the directions, looked over the POS, I still screwed up massively! I get so mad at myself when this happens – when I get overwhelmed by chaos, pressured by time, I get confused and can’t think. That is what happened right off the bat when we opened. Around 10:30 or so, there were about 8 people in there, everyone chatting and carrying on, wanting to buy stuff and take tours, I got so confused and started hitting wrong buttons. I still really don’t know what happened, but at the end of the day, nothing I could figure would add up: on the receipt I was $29.40 off in the cash drawer; however, I knew (and wrote it down at the time so I’d remember to write a note) my mistake was a $36. mistake – so how this $29. came to happen, I don’t know and can’t make since of it. So after that 8 went on the tour, there was another lady with several items and I was still so flustered and couldn’t think, I just entered everything in as misc., but after she left I wrote down the items and tried to match them up with prices later. I finally calmed down and figured right after that. Dan had come up to help for the day, so he did the upstairs and tower, while I did the Parlor and William did the Dining Room and Kitchen.
Unfortunately, I forgot to keep a tally of the actual tour people, so I just went to the sign-in list at the end of the day and wrote it down: 41 adults, 5 children. A couple of cool things did happen: I got into a conversation with a lady who, for 4 years, traveled around in a little Dolphin RV and had been to 531 lighthouses – from Michigan, East Coast, South, and she was now going up the Pacific. She had filled up 4 of those little lighthouse stamp books. Another cool thing, a guy came in and was talking with me, then William came in and he looks and said, “I thought she looked familiar (pointing to me) and now I know – you’re William!” and he gave William a hug. He was a person we knew in Ashland, who came out periodically and helped in our park ministry/homeless feed we did there prior to 2013. That was cool touching base with him.
March 11 – 2nd day of tours. Dottie came up and she did the tours downstairs while William did upstairs and tower. That way, I just concentrated on doing sales/admissions and kept a tally of who actually went in: 21 adults, 6 children. The list had 39 adults and 6 children. A couple of issues: there were these 2 teen girls (around 14 or so, I think) that came in with backpacks and attitudes. They weren’t with any family and I asked if their parents were around. They looked at each other and said they were somewhere else. I asked where they came from and they just said “from around here” – they were so evasive I gathered they were either run-aways or just off on an adventure by themselves. I listened to them as they talked to each other and one said that she hoped she got her own room when they moved and she mentioned her mom in that sentence, so I don’t know what their status is. Either way, I wasn’t comfortable about them and really watched them. One of them was eating cheetos and had very messy hands. I saw her touch something and I jumped up and grabbed a couple Kleenex and said: “here, lick your hands and wipe them off and don’t touch anything.” They got all huffy and asked if we had bottled water or sold snacks. I said no and they said that we should. They paid to take a tour and I said it would be a minute or two (I heard Dotty winding down in the other room) so I told them to go out in the foyer, sit and wait. They really had attitudes and rolled their eyes, mumbled, but did go out and sit. I wondered if Dottie had any problems with them. William told me later that they were rather obnoxious upstairs, but he shut them down right off – he thinks that since he was a guy and was rather strict in his mannerisms, they shut up and just listened the rest of the tour.
Total sales for today $328.30 and YEAH! I did it right and the cash drawer came out just right $266.30 (plus the $100 in the drawer). One lady had bought 3 cups, leaving 1 for display – I couldn’t find more cups anywhere to replace them. I’ll try to remember to get more from the Museum.
March 13 – We had such an awesome time in the Lord this morning. We’ve been reading Is. 53, 54, 55 the past couple days (as well as myself personally in Luke and James) and God is so good! We realized today that us being at the lighthouse: Our 3rd time and we’ll be here 33 days (Feb. 28 – Apr. 1)
Blue moon set 7:30 first day of Passover and our sunrise service is 7:30 the next day (Apr. 1st)
The lighthouse light went out last Friday and William replaced the light which light represents the Gospel of Christ. He also had to replace the fuse which represents the power of the Holy Spirit to shine the light of the Gospel. The fuse (HS power) takes more work (faith) to replace – take a hold of the Word and Walk the Word – takes work to enter into faith.
We just thought all of this was so cool and enlightening. We were also discussing our calling. We have been called to do a deliverance ministry, to preach the Gospel in all that entails (feed the poor, heal the sick, etc.). God proved that over and over – for example, just the other night, the enemy was really attacking me. My sinuses really filled up, it looked as if I was getting a full-blown cold (which I haven’t had in at least a couple years) and I was doing what I usually do, “I refuse to accept the lies of the enemy, my body is the Temple of the Holy Spirit, be gone in Jesus’ name”, etc.) and it just kept getting worse. That night, not only was I coughing, sneezing, having trouble breathing, etc. and etc. and I went to bed and I got attacked all over my body – like my nerve endings were all on fire, like someone was taking a miniature cattle prod and poking me one place after another. After suffering for a few hours and calling on Jesus, I went to William and asked him to pray over me. He did, cast the evil spirits off of me, then he rubbed his hands over me (as instructed by the Holy Spirit), and then everything cleared up and I fell asleep. The next morning, I was perfectly fine!
March 14 – The last 2 days have been beautiful – yesterday, sunny mostly, but extremely windy (William had trouble getting the flag off the pole – and today sunny and fairly warm with a bit of a breeze. William’s been busy the past couple days: put 2 coats of Thompson’s Water Seal on Dottie’s birdhouse, built a new mount for it, and now letting it dry. He’ll probably mount it to the tree tomorrow. He had quite a fit with the electric drill – it kept dying on him, he’d try to charge it, it wouldn’t take a charge, he’d wiggle it, then it would, etc. William also spent part of today scraping paint spackles off of the outside tower windows and washing them all. He also called the company that is to put the chimney mount back up – he set the date for the 23rd. He also re-set the night light timer due to day light savings time change. He also loves to walk around and talk to the people as they wander the property – he ended up talking with this one guy, whom he took up to the tower and spent at least 45 minutes up there gabbing away! He was a busy guy! The guy William took up to the tower, came down and William and I prayed over him and we talked for quite some time. It was quite impactful with the guy and God ministered to him in a great way. William told me later that God told him to go get the guy and take him to the tower and talk with him. It always amazes me how God works.
We had such an awesome morning in the Word this morning. We were listening to a sermon by Lester Someral and we got to talking about it. We realized that the established church has it backwards – take a person and say “Jesus died for your sins, now say the sinner’s prayer and come on in.” Which is all correct and all; however, it ‘s backward – Jesus did and said to go out to preach that the Kingdom of God is at hand and to lay hands on the sick, cast out demons, etc. That is what we need to be doing first. The other thing that God dropped into me this morning is that I realized that in 1485, the Bible was first printed on a printing press, then Martin Luther came along and posted his 93 thesis on the door of the church in Oct. 31, 1517 (Jewish New Year 5278 was the end of Sept. of that year) – here it is 500 years later (5 means grace) and I think that it is very important in the end-times timeline, because people finally got exposed to the scriptures after over 1000 years of darkness and learned about true Faith for the first time. I think there is something more here in all of this – and now that we are in year 5678 in the Jewish Calendar – a year of Jubilee and God about to unleash the greatest revival of all times; anyway, I think there is something more to all of this. Very interesting.
March 16 – one heck of a storm yesterday. Got woke up the night before from intense thunder/lightening and then yesterday, hail poured down 3 different times – one time it was larger than the end of one’s thumb and just covered the ground. I watched the mascot seagulls just sit there outside the chart room window, just getting pelted – they didn’t even go under the picnic table! Today and yesterday was very cold and today it rained a lot – very windy and cold.
March 17 – It’s warmer today and sunny – I noticed new snow in the mountains round CC. William hung the new birdhouse in the tree today. Even though the schedule says to be open from 3-4 today, tide didn’t even go down enough to cross over until 3:30, so we didn’t even open. We noticed that yesterday the tide didn’t go down until 3, so I called Dottie and asked her to call Dan and cancel him, due to the fact that we probably wouldn’t open. William did have to chase a couple kids off the boathouse roof! They had the picnic table moved over next to the house and William caught them perched up on crest, just sitting there. He also ended up picking up the ‘bear’ picture that was leaned against the tree, over in the yard, in front of the lighthouse. We talked to a few people as we wandered around. However, we did do a lot of cleaning today – I cleaned a lot of spider webs out of the windows, washed some windows, cleaned the bathrooms thoroughly, did laundry. We went up to the tower to clean and noticed very little water up there, which is good. After all those storms the past couple days, it’s good to know it isn’t leaking.
March 21 – we spent the day cleaning and baking cookies, getting ready for the school kids expected tomorrow. Dottie is so awesome – she had made up a huge baggie full of cookie dough and got it to me, so part of my work was done Yesterday, we enjoyed a lot of time outside – it was partially sunny; however, the most striking part about yesterday was that the water was so very still and there was no wind. It was probably about 55 degrees or so, but it felt so nice out. Had to chase a couple off before high tide – they ended up getting very wet! They were like, “what tide?”!!
March 22 – That was a very nice group of kids – 18 kids and 3 adults from the Azalea Middle School in Brookings. Being a teacher myself, I expected worse from middle school kids – I was very surprised! Their teacher, nice enough, but looked like the heavy-handed, controlling type, which of course, middle schoolers need. He probably asked more questions (and interrupted) more than anyone! Dottie was here, so we broke them in to 3 groups and started them each on a level. At the end, they all got cookies and a ‘have a fun day’ send-off – 1 hour and it was all done.
March 24 – wow, what a day! Incredible storm, high winds, pouring rain, and VERY cold last night and today – and we still had over 20 people come out – even 5 toddlers and young kids! We opened at 10, thinking the storm was too intense and we would probably have 1 or 2 – I was surprised to see how many crazy people are out there! I had to keep the front door locked and watch for people, because the wind was so strong, it kept blowing the door open. People ‘blew’ in here soaking wet and shivering. They were very enthusiastic; however, to see the place – except for 3 very exuberant Pokemon fans – a father and 2 teenage sons – only came in here to do their Pokemon game!! What??? Wow, weird!
There was this 1 couple from Glendevon, Scotland – very interesting couple – talked about the lighthouses they’ve seen in Scotland/Ireland. They were fascinated with this place, said this was one of the better lighthouses they’ve seen, so they stayed and talked with us for quite some time. A family of 7 came in from Washington, 3 generations, of whom the grandmother of the group was greatly affected by William. Most of the time she was in his presence, she was crying. After the tour, the family came into the gift shop, she bought a book and tearfully asked if I thought William would mind signing her book. She proceeded to tell me how much William reminded her of her recently dead husband, how much he liked the sea, would dress up like a pirate, etc. She went back in and asked William to sign the book (he was giving a tour in the kitchen by then, and as William says, she was in tears the whole time, yet was smiling. William signed the book “Be blessed” and some other things, then clueless as to why she was crying, asked her if she was ailing and needed prayer. She said, “no” and that she was just happy. In the mean time, I was in the gift shop and I heard her daughters say, “ya, he really looks like dad.” After the day was over and William and I talked, we thought it funny that she chose the book, “Lighthouse ghosts” and he wrote something in it about being blessed. He had wondered about her all day, so was glad to be clued in as to why she was crying the whole time around him. Anyway, we prayed for her and her family and we’re sure God is doing something cool in her life. Dan only stayed until 2 since it was slow and we handled the rest of the day fine.
March 26 – After such a storm Saturday, I was very surprised to see how calm the water was and how absolutely beautiful and sunny it was all day Sunday. The whole beach and grounds here were full of people all day. I tried to keep a tally of those who came in, and I’m sure I didn’t get them all, but I had 49 adults and 21 kids down. The list had 60 adults and 40 kids, from everywhere like MS, MT, ID, WI, AR, etc. We got backed up with the tours – had some people waiting turns outside upwards of ½ hour – taking groups upwards of 6-10 at a time in (we only did 10 once – never again!). At the end of the day, we were all exhausted and our throats wore out. We brought in over $300 in tours alone. We even turned people away at 4 when I turned the sign over to ‘closed’; however, just as I was doing so, I saw my friend from the Rogue Valley, Heather, so I let her and her husband in. I hadn’t seen her in a few years, but do keep in touch via Facebook, so I knew she was in town and figured she’d be over sometime this weekend. So while Dottie left, we took them to the tower and they stayed and talked a bit. No sooner than they left, another of our friends we hadn’t seen in a couple years came in – Donna – she stayed until 5:30 talking, when we had to cut her off and say go, or she’d be stuck here! We were so exhausted after this weekend we actually fell asleep before 8 pm! I couldn’t imagine doing this every day during the summer – weekends are tough enough! Spent today resting!
Mar. 27 – Well, this day turned out quite different than expected. The power was out most of the day – around 10:30 or so, the lights flickered off and on for ½ hr. or so, didn’t find out until after 2 that it was the transformer that blew, and it was after 5 when it was finally restored. When the power outage first started out, it was really weird – it was like we had ½ power, it would go off, then on, then ½ power fading in and out, then off and on again, over and over. After ½ hr. or so of that, it just went off and stayed off. In the mean time, I called the power company and reported an outage, asking if they were working on the wires or something, they said they’d check and get back with me. After we found out it was the transformer, they ended up here on the hill replacing it around 4 or so. William, in the mean time, was in the basement checking breakers and I called Dottie. Because of the surging power, William then went up in the tower and turned off the light – didn’t want to blow another bulb and fuse.
It’s amazing how reliant we are on electricity. I knew it was out, but pattern person that I am, I put a pot of water on to boil around 4 or so to make tea. I was sitting in the chart room waiting for it to boil and William came in. I mentioned how I was making tea, he laughed and asked how I was doing that, and I said I put a pot of water on to boil. Then I laughed with him as I realized I had been waiting a while and forgot the electricity was out! Oh, what pathetic creatures of habit we are! Good thing it was a beautiful day (just cold and windy).
Spiritually, this is significant. Not only that the light and fuse went out on 3/9, but today 3/27, the transformer goes out – spiritually this talks about the head, the heart, and flesh.
March 28 – Very interesting day. Tide came in about 1:15 today; however, when the pipe was barely visible, 3 kids scampered across (getting quite wet) and left their parents on the shore. I went outside to observe, and there they were standing on top of the picnic table, jumping off, then running to the other benches, standing on those and jumping off – kids with way too much energy! I had to calm them down a bit and told them to go wait down by the water for their parents to come across! I, in the mean time, gathered my art supplies and went to the mission (Our Daily Bread) and spent the afternoon doing an art project with the people there – at least a dozen or so - they had an awesome time creating some real cool stuff.
It was really cool to see how much Jasper has grown the past couple years (and Thomas too). Prior to William giving a word to the people at dinner, Jasper got up and gave a testimony and was praising God for his growth and deliverance, etc. He even prayed for the people. So awesome. We talked with Thomas for a bit as well. God is calling him to the deliverance ministry. William is going to have Thomas come spend the afternoon with him tomorrow at the lighthouse to talk with him more, while I go out and see Reda at her place. It’s interesting, this week has been so busy – here we are cramming everything into the last week.
In the mean time, William stayed at the lighthouse since the chimney cappers were supposed to come out and put that other cap back up. I found out later that they did show up; however, decided it was way too windy to put it up, so they made another appointment for sometime in April. I came back to the lighthouse after 4 pm, picked William up, and we returned to the mission to hang out with the people and have dinner with them. William preached a bit during dinner, which was well received. When we got back to the lighthouse (sometime after 6), there were some people sitting at the picnic table – a mom (in her 50’s) and 2 kids (in their 20’s): she is a school teacher from Wisconsin and her kids go to college there; they were all on spring break and this was the first time they saw the ocean. They were sitting there waiting for the sunset (it looked to be 45 min. away), so I sat there and chatted with them a bit. Then I took them to the tower to see the sunset from there – they were so thrilled, saying this was the highlight of their vacation thus far. I’m glad to make someone’s day
The past 2 times we’ve been down here, William has preached the Sunrise Easter Service (which we plan to do Sunday at 7:30 am), as well as he has in the past dressed up like Jesus and carried the cross through town and up to the lighthouse on Good Friday (tomorrow). He doesn’t feel God telling him to do that this year – we did bring the cross and his outfit; however, he feels that God has something else for this season, which doesn’t include him doing that again. Actually, this whole time down here has been different that the past – the last 2 times, we spent a lot of time at the mission talking and ministering with the people there, holding prayer meetings here at the lighthouse throughout the month; however, this month we have been extremely laid back and pretty lazy, not going much of anywhere. We pretty much exhausted ourselves the past 6 months with our business start-up and this has been a true, restful vacation we needed
April 1 – Sunrise was beautiful. We got all of our stuff packed last night and loaded onto the ATV so that when we got up at 5:30 this morning, we could be ready to take the stuff to the car right at first light, which is what we did – finished loading and right when it was light enough, William took the ATV over, unloaded, and got back by 6:30. Got the rest of the house cleaned and at 7 am, I stood on the hillside overlooking the town and played by flute. I had forgotten to tell William not to pack my flute and music and take it to the car – when he got there, he saw my flute and brought it back, but not my music. So, I stood on the hill and played with only my memory for the next half hour. It worked out great, because I would play a couple tunes I remembered, then kept playing, making something up, then remembered another song, and so on. After the service, everyone said how cool it was to hear that sound all the way to the parking lot and as they walked up the hill.
We had about 40 or more people in attendance. At 7:30, we sang a few songs, then William preached an awesome sermon for about a half hour. About 8:30 or so, we started talking with the people who came, by 9 am the new keepers got there, and by 10, we were off. Such a wonderful month, such a wonderful place. Even though we agreed we weren’t planning to, we signed up again – March of 2021.
