September
21, 2017 continued
After doing laundry, at 10pm we went back to Valtiroty Shiloh’s
Tabernacle and ate dinner with the gentleman.
He is quite the character! He is
from Romania and came to US as a young man and went to Loma Linda and Andrews
to become a pastor. Although he says he
didn’t learn anything there on how to become an evangelist but learned it all
in Romania as a child where they educate from a young age to all the children
how to be evangelists no matter what their profession in life. He then was sent to Israel to pastor. When he arrived in Israel there were 40
Adventists, and his church had 15. He
was there for a little over a decade and in that time the SDA membership grew
to 1500 with his being over half of them.
He spoke 7 languages and church was in multiple languages. He would have a different language group meet
in his home each day of the week for Bible study. His main method of growing the church was to
tell everyone to let him know whenever someone new moved into their community. So each day he visited the new people,
befriended them, spoke to them about the straight up word of God, studied the
Bible, and his church grew by the grace of God.
While traveling through Mitchell,SD with his family, they stopped at the
Corn Palace. Across the street they
noticed a doll museum and felt impressed to purchase it. They thought it ridiculous, but inquired as
to the price. The owner said she had
just dropped it from $400,000 to $250,000.
They had no money. They returned
to their home near Loma Linda, CA and continued to feel impressed they were to
purchase it. He decided to put out a
fleece. If the lady would sell it to him
for less than half, he would buy it. He
called her and she said she would sell it for $120,000, so he went to all of
his family members and friends, collected money, and purchased it. He still didn’t know why. A few months later God revealed His plan – to
turn it into a center of evangelism. He
constructed his replica tabernacle – although he is not an artist he painted
beautiful scenes on walls and built these structures – truly an act of
God. He told miraculous stories late
into the night. One was of a Pastor of a
non-denomination church who visited and told this man all the biblical truth
and said, “It is so hard for me to pastor a church where I cannot teach
biblical truth. Please pray for
me.” He does Bible studies with many
local people and people traveling through who live all across America. He
reaches 3,000-4,000 people per year.
Pray for this self-supporting Pastor living by faith! He is a modern-day Paul! We hated to leave his company – but finally headed
to bed shortly before midnight. But it
is one more friend we have made for eternity!
And we will have time that will not run out then for him to tell us more
stories!
September
22, 2017
We drove out to Ingalls
Homestead near De Smet, SD. This is
where most of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books were based from such as On the Shores of Silver Lake, and The Long
Winter. This is where she met her
husband and married. We saw how they
lived. The wind was blowing fierce. It reminded me of the picture on the front of
one of her books – I just wanted to put up my skirt and go running through the
tall prairie grass with my pigtails flying.
It really caused us all to see the beauty of simplicity. As we saw how hard they had to work to eat
and how little they ate, it made us realize how blessed we truly are.
One story I found very
interesting that showed how much religion has changed in a short amount of
time. There was a sign that showed ma’s
new sewing machine that Pa brought home Saturday afternoon. Ma was so excited to try it out, but she
patiently waited until Sunday was past and joyously put it to work on
Monday. Back then even the Sunday keepers
kept the day holy from personal hobbies and work!
We then spent a long day
driving: through Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and arriving in
Michigan, Wyoming.
September
23, 2017
In Michigan, WY is a Jeff Young
(a gentleman we met on our mission trip to Panama and then again Mexico the
last two years). He is a leader of a very
active youth group who he brings about 10-20 each year on the Mexico Mission
trip. Their church had the church
service first. Benjamin had been asked
to play the piano for the service; what a treat as we all miss having a piano
on board! Following church we had
Sabbath School (and very full classes since church was first!) and then a youth
potluck. After youth potluck we headed
to a nearby SDA church that is comprised of Haitian refugees. The youth sang together and did special music
for each other. Afterward we headed to
downtown Detroit and handed out water bottles and glo tracks and spoke, sang,
and prayed to the homeless. It was a
joyous blessing! Finally, we headed to
the local Spanish church where the youth put on a vespers of special music. Benjamin and his very good friend Dante
played a piano/organ duet. The organ
there sounded amazing! They played
several piano duets together before and afterward. They are two brothers linked by their love
for piano. On the piano they are like
speakers who finish each other’s sentences; they do not practice but just sit
down and play together in the same spirit.
Oh, we wish we could enjoy their music longer! Our family also sang “Little Talk with Jesus”
for the program. Afterward we hung out with
our closest friends till after midnight talking and singing hymns
acapella. We hated to see each other go –
not knowing when we will see each other again – but we have the hope of heaven
and companionship for eternity!
September
24, 2017
Sunday we headed to the Adventist
Historical Museum in Battle Creek, Michigan.
All of us except Serenity were there in April, but Serenity wanted to go
and we were happy to go again. We still
learned more! It was inspiring to hear
the stories of great sacrifice made for the cause of Christ and the great
miracles wrought. It was inspiring to
sit in the church where Ellen White had her vision of the civil war. She prophesied there would be war and people
in that very room would lose their sons.
Two men who were very into politics at the time walked out thinking this
lady was crazy. 3 months to the day
civil war broke out, and this gentleman lost his sons. Dave’s favorite part is the room where EGW
wrote the Great Controversy – one of his favorite books. We drove by the gigantic and architectural
beauty of the Sanitarium that is now used as a federal building. In April we went to the cemetery and saw the
gravestone for the White family and Sojourner Truth among many others – but Serenity
is wise – she said she doesn’t care about gravestones! Lol So
we drove into Detroit and parked at and SDA church – after accidentally turning
into the Muslim church. We saw the men
all lined up and bowing toward the eastern wall.
September
25, 2017
Monday we went to the Henry Ford Museum (Dave was here in 1985 at the age
of 15). Entrance fees are expensive everywhere
we are learning – to do all the stuff there it was $72 per person as a package
deal. Fortunately, they had a family membership
and for $260 total we had two full days. The kids might need to start playing
their fiddles and put out a hat…. lol We began with Greenfield Village. We saw the Firestone family farm – they run
it as a working farm 24 hours a day with everything being operated in that era
just as they did. We saw pottery, glass,
blacksmithing, and weaving. We saw many
buildings from that age including Edison’s workshops. In the Henry Ford Museum we saw the
agriculture equipment, old furniture collection, the history of power in
America, and how time has changed our society.
We then watched some Imax films on National Parks, Aircraft Carriers,
and Dreaming Big. It was a hot day in
the 90’s – a sweatbox in the motorhome! We
drove to Walmart and bought groceries and ate supper but were told we couldn’t
park there for the night – so we headed across the street to Target to park for
the night.
We received word that our very dear friend Mike Ludwig had died suddenly
of a heart attack. Mike came down with
Parkinson’s several years ago and has fallen a helpless victim to this
disease. He was tired of fighting the
disease. He was such a godly friend and
an inspiration to us. We had a great
time flying remote controlled airplanes two weeks ago at our church parking lot
in Startup. He will be missed as an
amazing friend and knowledgeable biblical resource, but we know God knows best
and that he mercifully laid him to rest but that we will see him soon when
Jesus comes again! And his body will be
strong again – and we will sing hymns together with loud voice, have lots of
time to sit and talk, and travel the world together without the need of an
airplane. His testimony was always
inspiring.
September
26, 2017
Tuesday we chose to be in the
A/C. We toured the Henry Ford Rough
factory where they make Ford F150 trucks.
WOW! That was amazing to see such a gigantic assembly line at work! The kids were not impressed with how slowly
each worker worked. They thought the
assembly line could be sped up! Watching
the robots put in windshields was cool.
It made Dave want a new Ford truck – thankfully our Dodge still
works! In the afternoon we finished the
Henry Ford Museum: mathematics, liberty and justice for all, heroes of the sky,
driving America, presidential vehicles, and railroads. Dave is shocked at how
much it has changed. A lot of the things
they had before or no longer here. It
also presents a very purposeful socialized agenda. We had lots of educational discussion in the
motorhome that night with our kids. We
are truly living in the last days when history has been rewritten and
individuality promoted.
Everyday
Life
ORGANIZATION: There are many
differences of life in a motorhome – some of which we foresaw and others we did
not. Of course there is the issue of
space. We all live simply with
little. We have organized our cabinets
and everything has fit well – in fact we have space left over! We are learning to keep our items in their
storage places so we can walk through our small space. We have learned to shut the doors/drawers all
the way after having one closet door break and come tumbling down. Backing up involves a running boy to the back
to act a back-up camera.
EATING: For breakfast we either eat pancakes or oatmeal. The trial is that if it is hot outside,
turning on the stove or oven within minutes heats our motorhome to over 100
degrees. For lunch we eat salad or
sandwiches, and for supper we eat salad again.
Part of this is to keep the heat down, the other part is to eat healthy!
(2 out of the 6 people have discovered that sitting in a motorhome on vacation caters
to unwanted weight gain – not good since we are only 2 weeks into the trip…) Of course there is also the challenge of
sometimes preparing food while driving.
I had just finished cutting a gigantic bowl of fresh pears when Dave hit
the brakes and it went flying through the motorhome… Benjamin said it was extra
protein! Dishes involve very little
water, soap, and a calculated wash, rinse, and air dry process.
SCHEDULE: We all wake up in the
morning, make up beds, get dressed, read our Bibles, eat breakfast, have family
worship, and then hit the road for our next destination. We eat lunch in our motorhome whether on the
road, or we come back to it. Supper is
again in the motorhome either on the go or parked in a parking lot. Because we all have a small space we must all
go to bed at the same time – and hold still.
If the kids roll too much, I get seasick in the back! Showers are twice a week, although if someone
gets desperate there are baby wipes or very quick showers. Our hot water heater does heat up enough for
6 continuous showers – PRAISE THE LORD!!!
But we just don’t have enough water for showers every day.
WHERE WE PARK: Parking at night
can be tricky – SDA church parking lots are a joy! Rest stops
are great too! Wal-Mart parking
lots or anything else we can find are ok, but we fear being woken up and asked
to move in the middle of the night. By
finding parking lots though we will save a lot of money. However, all of these accommodations mean
bright lights, lots of road and other noise, and no privacy. Driving down the road is also a noisy process
as windows jiggle, bumps are hit, and the engine winds up to pull us up hills.
I am longing for a nice quiet camping spot somewhere up in some woods! Or a place along the beach where the sound of
the waves will drown out all the other noises.
I had complained about our new
home in Newport, WA being too quiet – but I take back my words; I am ready for
the silence! J
WHAT WE HAVE
LEARNED SO FAR ON OUR TRIP
INDUSTRIALIZATION – While the industrialization
of our nation brought all these added perks, we realize it has brought even
into our world faster than none other.
Two bank robbers actually wrote Henry Ford a letter thanking him for
producing such a fast and reliable getaway car.
We may laugh, but do we realize the tendency to evil all these luxurious
in life bring us? One luxury is not
enough, it must constantly be evolving to find some newer and better gadget so
we can be even more lazy. The say that
shortly 90% of the earth’s population will live in the city. That sounds scientifically and socially great
– one question – where is the food going to come from? You can’t have 90% of the population living
off welfare or working at a computer as a college educated individual if there
is no food. The city will die in a
week. Think about that scientists… The farms are dying across America. The farmer can’t afford to keep paying all the
expenses. Nobody can get into farming
anymore because you can’t afford the farmland.
When this generation of farmer’s die, where will our food come from?
THE FAMILY – When we were at the
working farm the weaver mentioned that in those days the father’s job was to
financially support the family, and the mother’s job was to produce large and
upright families in the community and society.
That hit me hard. It shows why
our nation is falling apart – the family foundation has fallen. This is a goal that needs to become
preeminent in my mind. The next day we
entered the section on women’s liberty.
Do we not realize that all the “liberty” we gained was enslavement to
now bear the responsibility of both father and mother? And so we have sacrificed the mother’s
duties, to pursue just the financial duties.
The women’s liberty movement caused us to lose our personal freedom to
raise prosperous families, and in the end will cost our liberty when our
society falls apart from not having upright citizens.
THE LAND OF AMERICA – We have a
huge land – we have driven 3400 miles and this land still goes on! (Dave says it is time to change the
oil!) Everywhere we look there is
beautiful land and prosperous land. Even
South Dakota was beautiful and lush. Every
place we go has its own beauty and its own natural resources. God has truly blessed our land! There is so much potential. It makes me want to become a farmer.
SPIRITUALITY – Our Nation has
lost its focus on God. Our goal has
become money, personal prosperity, building up of a mighty kingdom – self-indulgence
in food, sports, hobbies, and all around self-pleasure. We are trained to have pity for each
individual’s cause, rather than pointing each individual to Christ – who is the
ONLY answer to all of our individual causes.
We don’t know what sacrifice, hard work, or denying oneself for
something higher is.
HISTORY – We have forgotten
where we came from. We forget the many
people who sacrificed their lives – dying in war for freedom – dying from
starvation to try and get to the west coast – dying from starvation while
trying to farm enough and to feed their families. This nation was built on self-denial, and yet
I walk around thinking I have a “right” to all of my luxuries because “everybody
else” has them. Have I stopped to
realize how blessed I am just simply to be alive and breathing? How blessed I am to be able to travel across
this nation and buy food, be safe, and learn all this stuff? Have I stopped to see how blessed I am to not
have my husband and children off at war or dying of starvation before my eyes?
THE FUTURE – There are only two
set things in the future: Society to
crumble, and Jesus to come. So where do
I stand in this? First of all I need to
prepare to see Jesus. I need to get
ready for that great event. I want Jesus
to be my very best friend and for everything I do to be for His honor and
glory. I want to sacrifice myself for a
greater purpose as those before me in history have. Second of all I want my family to be
ready. I only have 4 kids – nothing like
the 20 kid families from those days in history – but I need to be purposefully
planning and educating my children to be best friends with Jesus and productive
members in society. I need to teach them
to be humble servants and to be ready to nobly die for the cause of Christ and
for the benefit of their fellow mankind.
I think this can only happen as we go back in some areas of simplicity. Maybe we need to wash clothes by hand again
and see the sheets blowing in the wind; maybe we need to put our hands in that
warm soapy water again and wash dishes by hand as a family; maybe we need to
learn how to garden again and enjoy the fresh produce – to make up new recipes
depending on the ripe vegetables for the day.
We have become creatures of robotic habit – we need to let our
creativity flow and get back to the simple basics of life that bring true joy.
September
27, 2017
Wednesday we got up and headed
North and drove into Canada headed to Niagara Falls. It was beautiful land – although we are
discovering America has beautiful land everywhere! Different, but beautiful. We finally arrived at Niagara falls and it
was HUGE!!!! And beautiful! We walked all around – until we were
exhausted. The funny thing is the part I
enjoyed the most I think the was view of the river North of the falls – it was
gorgeous and so spontaneous with tons of little falls everywhere.
After the falls we headed back
into America and headed North. We
stopped at a huge whirlpool just south of the falls at a huge bend in the
river. We then traveled North up to a
fort from a war in 1812. We then drove
East along the coastline. We all fell in love with the beauty of Northern New
York! Dave said it was a good thing we
had already bought a new house in Newport, or we would have stopped in upstate
New York and become farmers. The old
houses are gorgeous and filled with so much character – the scenery is
beautiful! It like deciduous trees of
all kinds I have not seen before and green like Western Washington. It is rolling hills with farm fields and
natural forest interspersed with views of lakes and rivers. (Although the great lakes look like
oceans!) We stopped at sundown at a
farmer’s market. We bought a ton of
fresh yummy produce. Afterward Dave went
to the house nearby and knocked. A guy
came to the door and knocked back with the same tempo as Dave’s knock and
opened the door smiling. He was an
African man and said he owned the farm and that yes we could park in his
parking lot. It was a breezy, dark, and
quiet night – perfect! We slept like
babies… Dave said tonight he would try
to find me a nice place to sleep. I
doubted because of history over the past two weeks, but he succeeded!
September
28, 2017
I awoke to the sounds of Zulu people
working. I felt like I had woken up in
the movie “Faith Like Potatoes.” I
wanted to walk out into it. But instead
I enjoyed the sounds of this unique group of people – their dichotomous talk
that sounds so harsh and yelling, and yet they laugh and smile so often. We then drove to Edson Hiram’s house – a founder
of the SDA movement. It was such a neat
experience to stand there on his farm – with cornfields all around – and imagine
what they lived through. It was
inspiring to be reminded of his story – how his family came to the hopeful
message of Christ’s return, the great disappointment, and he said everyone wept
like nobody had ever wept before as the clock struck midnight. The guys went out to the barn (must be
equivalent to today’s man cave) and prayed.
They felt that God would reveal to them in time and so they left. The next day, not thinking of themselves,
they decided to go visit others and encourage them – but on the way, as he was
walking through the cornfield, it hit him – he realized the sanctuary was up in
heaven, not on earth. He ran back
home. He had never done this before, but
he prayed, randomly opened his Bible, and it fell open to Hebrews 8 and Paul
discussing the sanctuary in heaven. It
all matched together. He then sold his
farm and the family silver to pay himself to publish a tract for other’s to
know. The tracts traveled – one all the
way to the east coast where Joseph Bates got it, and traveled back to Hiram
Edson. Hiram shared with Joseph the
truth of the sanctuary, and Joseph shared with Hiram the truth of the
Sabbath. And here we are today…
We headed to Albany, NY. On the way we stopped and saw some really
cool Erie Canal History. And finally we
are at a laundromat doing laundry and boiling up some fresh sweet corn on the
cob and fixing a cabbage salad for supper.
More history tomorrow….
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