September
29, 2017
We spent the night at a Walmart
parking lot and in the morning I went inside to do some grocery shopping while
kids took showers and ate breakfast. I
returned to water running out of the side compartment of the motorhome and
through the parking lot while my family was contentedly eating breakfast. I of course called Dave and investigated and
discovered that our grey water (drainage from showers and sinks) was full and
overflowing. The joys of life in a
motorhome! And the water was all gone,
so no shower for me! By the time we took
care of all the issues, half the morning was gone. We went into downtown Albany to the NY
capitol building. IT WAS AMAZING! Those old buildings are beautiful! Also saw the governor’s mansion and went to
the NY State Museum. We spent hours
there and discovered why New York calls themselves the “Empire State.” They really think they are the empire as they
were much of the foundation of America and think they are the backbone; maybe
they are.
We then headed North to Saratoga
Battle Field – the first battlefield during the Revolutionary war that the
British surrendered to the colonists. In
many ways it was a turning point for the war.
What shocked me was that this was after 2 years of war and the war
didn’t end for another 6 years. The
founders of this nation were persistent and patient; unwilling to be
defeated. This is something we need to
have when growing in Christ. I find when
I win I battle I think the war is over – but the war keeps going – it is a
serious of battles – we must be faithful to continuing winning the battles each
day.
We then headed north and found a local SDA church parking lot to spend
the night. The benefits are you can wake
up and walk into church whenever you are ready regardless of who can’t find
their Sabbath shoes! But, in this small
area, we seem to always be able to find our shoes. We have lost the second set of keys for the
motorhome as of a week and a half ago – still no luck… maybe they are in the bottom of a washing
machine at a laundromat somewhere across the nation… We attempted to watch our first DVD on our
DVD system in the motorhome – one on the life of William Miller – the power
went out after a couple minutes. We
discovered our house batteries haven’t been charging the last couple days –
Dave will have to diagnose and fix that!
Fortunately we have the generator that we can run to charge our house
batteries until then.
September
30, 2017
We awoke Sabbath morning to more
sopping wet carpet. This time we think
we discovered where the leak is coming from!
So hopefully we can figure out a creative way to stop it because
caulking isn’t going to work…. We then went
into church – you never know what you are entering… we were pleasantly greeted and had a wonderful
Sabbath School, church service on the signs of the times – the real news and
fake news, and they invited us for a yummy home-cooked potluck. We had some great deep spiritual conversation
and headed to William Miller’s farm nearby. We arrived to 3 huge busses – the
SDA Union presidents from around the world and the NAD employees were there for
the day. Ted Wilson saw us standing off
in a corner when he walked out of the chapel and he turned out of his way and
came and shook our hands along with his wife.
They were both such genuine, simple, and sweet people.
We visited the original home,
saw much of the original furnishings, the original barns, the chapel on his
property with beautiful stained glass windows that he build in 1848, and
ascension rock. His story inspired me in
many ways and reminds me of how God works in our lives daily. William Miller as a young adult left his
Christian upbringing and believed God created the world, but then just left it
and didn’t have personal relationships with people or intervene in the world. While fighting in the war of 1812 he was in
Northern New York and they were outnumbered 1:3. They knew they were doomed to
lose. However, in the battle he saw the
hand of God at work and even the US Navy at the end of the battle gave credit
to God for the victory (the only time in U.S. history.) William Miller came back home a changed man
ready to seek God. He decided to read
his Bible from to back and study it until he knew who God was. In the past he had chosen to have nothing to
do with the Bible because he felt it contradicted itself, but he found that as
he studied the Bible deeper, there were no contradictions but rather the word
of God became simple and clear. He began
to study prophecy and realized we were living in an important time of prophecy
when the “sanctuary would be cleansed.”
His understanding of it at the time was that the earth was the sanctuary
and so Christ would come, however he was also against setting an exact time for
Christ’s return. He was studying this
for decades and he heard God speaking in his ear “Tell it to the world!” He did not want to and fought it for years,
but it kept getting louder. Finally he
told the Lord, “If you want me to go tell the world, then send me someone here
with an invite to go preach this at their church.” A half an hour later his nephew arrived on
horseback and said they needed a preacher the following day at their church and
were asking William to come and present his Bible study on Christ’s soon
return. William was angry at God! He stormed out of the house and wrestled with
God; but in the end he gave in. So many
learned of his message and wanted to hear it that his sons began to run the
farm and William traveled all over preaching.
So, on the morning of October 22, 1844, while many of his friends and
family were at “Ascension Rock” on his property looking up into the sky
awaiting Christ’s return, he was in his home studying his Bible. Later he realized the sanctuary was up in
heaven according to Hebrews 8 and shortly after he also discovered the
beautiful truth of the seventh-day Sabbath.
His current church of course kicked him out, and so he built a beautiful
little chapel on his property.
Ascension Rock is a huge
beautiful area of black marbled/volcanic looking rock that looks over a
gorgeous valley toward Vermont. As I
stood there I thought of my relationship with God. God has tarried because he loves each of us
and he doesn’t want any of us to be lost.
Have I responded to Christ’s love fully?
Have I given him my all? Am I living
ready for him to return today? Am I
longing for that day and for my mansion in heaven, or am I making this world my
home? As I stood on this rock with
others from around the world and sang “We have this hope that burns within our
heart,” I imagined the soon coming of my
Lord and best friend. What a glorious
day that will be! And yet how much more
of my life I want to surrender to the Lord.
I want to give up every ounce of my selfishness and truly live for Him
because of how much He has done for me.
We met some beautiful godly
people. Al and Lisa Lothian (he is originally
from Jamaica and her from NY.) They told
us their story of coming to the Lord, of how they both work in New York City
but just bought a farm out in the country at the Lord’s bidding and are
drastically changing their lives. We met
Travis, Cesilia, Elijah, and Abigail – the caretakers for the William Miller
Farm. We had a wonderful day of
fellowship – as if we were in heaven!
(In turns out, Cecilia and I said we thought we had seen each other
before – we tracked it down – 19 years ago we worked together as Nursing
Assistant’s for a short time in TN.) We
shared with each other the miracles God has wrought in our lives and how he is
working with us now. What beautiful
fellowship it was! It is so precious to meet people all across the country who
are joined together through a common cord of truth in Christ. We have family everwhere.
We parked our motorhome on
William Miller’s farm and slept so quietly and peacefully away from the hustle
and bustle of the city. The crisp fall
air caused us to snuggle under our covers, and be thankful for the rich
blessings we have from our Lord, Saviour, and best friend, Jesus Christ. Thank you Lord!
October 1,
2017
Sunday we woke up and joined the
caretaker family for worship and breakfast.
We helped a little around the farm – Dave with a tractor, I cleaned
bathrooms, and the kids enjoyed running around and playing. It was so hard to leave our new and good friends
– but we are thankful we will have more friends in heaven we will never need to
say goodbye to again! We then headed to Fort Ticonderoga. It is a beautiful fort that has been built
for tourists. It was a spot on the river
that was used as a strategic battle point at different times for the French,
British, and colonists. The boys enjoyed seeing all the old cannons, including
the demonstration of shooting one. We
saw how shoes and outfits were made, fires were kindled, and wars were fought.
We have now driven 4,000 miles. God has
been so very good to us! We have been
safe, our needs have been provided for, we have learned a lot, and most of all
we have been inspired.
Dave discovered two problems as
to why our house batteries aren’t charging – the relay failed and we have some
corroded connections. So we drove into
Vermont and parked in an auto part’s store parking lot for the night.
October 2,
2017
Monday morning Dave woke up and
went into the auto parts store. They did
not have the relay, but he purchased a heater core because we are also leaking
antifreeze somewhere. We were able to
call ahead and order the relay from a store we will drive to tonight. This is why I married a mechanic! I don’t think I could dare take a trip like
this without bringing my personal mechanic along! Levi realized he forgot his Bible at the
William Miller farm, so we drove back a half an hour to retrieve that before
heading to Calvin Coolidge’s birthplace in Vermont. We followed our GPS which brought us down some
beautiful windy roads, onto a gravel road, and ended at a snowmobile park
headed up a mountain. We were officially
lost… One thing we have learned about
these Northern areas, unlike ours, there are tons of backroads and not very
many towns. We are wondering - who lives here? Dave thinks it is rich people. The GPS redirected us and we ended up on
another 1 lane road and this time came head-to-head with a grandma who couldn’t
back her car up, and we had come about 2 miles up and down and around narrow
corners in our motorhome so we couldn’t back up. She began to back up, like a snake – I was
afraid she was going to end up in a ditch.
Finally she backed up to a place we could squeeze by. We continued winding around until finally we
came to a “highway” – but in our neck of the woods it is worse than Old Owen
Rd. We decided not to trust the GPS
anymore and go by our cell phones for directions…. On the way though we did stop at a beautiful
custom furniture store where we could see them building amazingly beautiful
furniture all by hand. One bar stool
sells for $500.
When we arrived we didn’t know
much about President Coolidge – but we were inspired and much more
knowledgeable when we left. We were
inspired to see his determination and stand in calling the National Guard when
the police force went on strike. When
his young son died while he was president he went back home and worked the farm
with his dad for a couple days – haying with a pitchfork to emotionally
recover. Eventhough he was president of
the U.S. he was always happy to help with the hardest of work. He said that when he saw the president of
the U.S. when he was a young man, he was inspired to think of how this man
represented the honor and dignity of the U.S.
It caused me to think – do I remember that as a child of God I represent
the King of the universe? With as much
reverence and piety as the presidents of old showed, do I have such reverence
and piety in the way I live my life as I represent the king of this
universe? This is my heartfelt desire…
We drove through more backroads
– many of them dirt (I am so thankful Dave is an amazing driver!) and went to
Sugarbush farm. Here we saw how maple
syrup is made – from the walk in the woods to the container. We also saw how cheese is made and we tasted
their many cheeses and different grades of maple syrup. We enjoyed petting the baby cow and gigantic
draft horses. We also discovered Vermont
is a tourist state and second home state.
Most of the homes in Vermont are vacation homes for the rich who live in
big cities to the south. This is why we
see beautifully manicured homes, but no cities of any size. That night for supper we had onion cheese and
crackers along with the delicious Fuji apples we still had from the farm in New
York. We drove into New Hampshire and
picked up the relay Dave needed and parked at Wal-Mart for the night.
October 3,
2017
Tuesday Dave got up and changed
the relay in the Walmart parking lot while we fried up onions, peppers, and
veggie meat to make breakfast burritos.
Our gray water tank got full again and so we decided to let it slowly
leak out as we drove along to avoid finding a place to dump and pay $20. We are learning people don’t camp out here –
so finding dump stations and campgrounds is not as easy as the west coast.
We drove to Washington, New
Hampshire. See, you can be in Washington
and New Hampshire at the same time! It
was beautiful country roads all the way with old buildings. In Washington was a church that in 1952 was
built by the local families – Farnsworth being the largest with 22
children. (a funny story is that when
the father woke his 9th son up and asked him to take the horse and
go get the doctor for another baby to be born the son didn’t want to. The father told him the Bible says to be
fruitful and multiply and fill the earth – the son retorted this was true but
God hadn’t told him to do it single-handedly.
lol. All the children slept in a
small attic inside a small house.
However, many of those children went throughout the world and did a
mighty work for God.) These families
formed a church in 1842 because they wanted to follow the Bible not man-made
traditions. They called themselves the
“Christian Society.” In 1843 they
accepted the Advent message that Jesus was returning soon. In 1844 Rachel Oakes, a 7th day
Baptist who had just moved to the area, shared the 7th day Sabbath with
them and they accepted it. Thus they
were the first congregation that kept the 7th day Sabbath and
believed in the soon coming of Jesus. In
1862 they officially became a 7th day Adventist church and are still
active today in the same building with woodstoves in the back to keep them warm
and blankets spread on the wooden pews.
They have a 1 mile “Sabbath
walk” that talks about the history of Sabbath from creation to Heaven. There are granite stones throughout the walk
that show through history how God has continually shown his followers the
importance of all of his commandments, including the 7th day Sabbath
and how through history mankind has either forgotten it or turned it into their
own rules. It lists names of people and
places of Sabbath keeping all throughout history. It is situated in beautiful woods and ponds
where one person walking through says she has seen moose. It was inspiring to read these inscriptions
and to think of the blessings God has for us in his Sabbath – a time to come to
him, rest securely in Him knowing He has created us, provides for us,
sanctifies us, and redeems us.
I did some historical readings
before arriving and what I found really interesting was the 7th day
Baptist church history. They were a
group of people who kept Sabbath but did not feel it their duty to spread the
message. Their General Conference
convened and decided that God wanted them to spread the message of
Sabbath. From 1843-1845 they fasted,
prayed, and put great efforts into producing tracts and spreading the message
of 7th Day Sabbath. They
became very discouraged because Christians wouldn’t accept it because of their
church traditions – they were more committed to their religion than to
truth. They found as they traveled the
U.S. there was only one group of people who embraced the Sabbath truth –
Advents who were studying the Bible and seeking God’s truth in all aspects of
their lives. I want to daily seek God’s
truth and be careful to not follow man-made tradition or my selfish
desires. But, is it just coincidence the
only time in history when the 7th day Baptists purposed to spread
the Sabbath truth was between 1843-1845?
I don’t think so…. Rachel Oakes
went to the grave discouraged and bewildered more people wouldn’t accept the
plain Sabbatical truth that she so diligently attempted to spread. She was a faithful sower of the seed though –
and if she could just see now the more than 19 million across the world who
believe in the Sabbath. Jesus promises
“In due season you shall reap if you don’t lose heart.” I am thankful Rachel didn’t lose heart – and
I anxiously wait to see the look on her face when she sees the reaping from her
work. Today is the day to work. When Christ comes we shall reap. Let us not get discouraged when we don’t see
the harvest today – let us be more diligent in sowing seed – “in due season we
shall reap” – and it will be worth it!
Heaven is cheap enough!
The scenery here is
beautiful. The trees are turning
beautiful colors – the rolling hills go on forever – there is another stream,
river, or swamp around every corner, and the old buildings tease our minds to
go back to those days in history.
Hitting the road again we found a highway and headed into Maine. We spent the night at a Walmart on the
Canadian/American border
October 4,
2017
Wednesday we awoke, crossed the
border into New Brunswick, and headed straight towards Prince Edward
Island. We debated yesterday back and
forth whether we were going to go or not.
We finally decided to because if we didn’t, we would regret it. The scenery just keeps getting more beautiful
each day as the colors change. We are in
the highlands where the trees are narrow and about 30 feet tall at the
max. The colors are a splotched array of
dark green, light green, light yellow, vibrant yellow, orange, vibrant red, and
dark red. It is a feast to the eyes. The world is gorgeous that God has made. Why have we stepped away from Him and become
so selfish in pursuing our own desires that just lead to misery – when He has
provided everything we need that will bring simplicity, satisfaction, and
purpose to our lives? Why do we chase
more money, more processed foods, a fancier home, a fancier car or more
powerful truck, when it will all be destroyed in 1 second and in the end will have
brought more sorrow to our lives? How do
I get out of this American rut and back into the purpose, determination, and
attitude our founding fathers had? How
do I live in the world but not be of the world?
Oh how I long for heaven!
We drove across an 8 mile bridge
to get from New Brunswick to Prince Edward Island (PEI). We saw a documentary at the visitor’s center
of the 4 year process to build this bridge – it was truly an engineering feat
that really opened up PEI to the rest of the world! We immediately noticed something different
about PEI – there is a variety of farmland everywhere and businesses and
industries of all kind. Because the
bridge wasn’t built until 20 years ago, PEI was self-reliant for
centuries. It was interesting to us how
noticeably different it was from anywhere else we have been in terms of a
variety of industries.
We visited “Green Gables” – the home that inspired the story Anne of
Green Gables. I realized how fairy tale
the story is – the house, lovers lane, and haunted woods look nothing like the
movie. It ruined the movie for me now. We would have had to pay $60 and I would have
been very disappointed, but Canada has free admission to all their National
Parks this year to celebrate their 150th anniversary.
Prince Edward Island is huge and beautiful! We drove for hours through beautiful farm
fields and around grassy knolls with the bays and inlets all around. We went to PEI National Park and some of us
walked the beach while others played in the sand. We drove into Charlottetown to find a Walmart
for the night, and while there we saw beautiful wild red bushy foxes in the
parking lots. They were beautiful and kind of creepy to think they were all
around us while sleeping. I was hoping
they wouldn’t try to tear off our septic pipes like the wolves had done to our
previous motorhome 2 years ago. I didn’t
hear any knowing…. Just a whistling all night. When I got up in the morning I
realized the whistling was from the wind going by the rear end of the
semi-truck parked beside us.
October 5,
2017
Serenity woke up with the flu – poor thing… Hopefully it doesn’t spread
through our little home and family…
Sterilization can be difficult in such a small environment. We drove out to Greenwich and walked across a
large boardwalk across “Lake of Silver Waters” and onto some more beautiful red
sand dunes that went forever. Dave and I
went for a walk along the beach and Benjamin jumped waves in the Atlantic ocean
and built sand castles while his brothers stared at him in disbelief. We then
drove to Fort Amherst which had beautiful dark red cliffs all around this
beautiful Charlottetown Harbor. It was
picturesque with even sailboats going through.
There is one thing constant in PEI – the wind. Fortunately it has been unusually warm
weather these two days we have been in PEI.
We headed back across the bridge into New Brunswick, drove into Nova
Scotia, back into New Brunswick, and made the dash back across the border to
the good ‘ol U.S.A. Praise the Lord, by
the end of the day Serenity was feeling just fine and back to eating again.
October 6,
2017
Friday we awoke in Calais and
drove south to Eastport to see “Old Sow” – the largest whirlpool in the Western
Hemisphere that is caused by the extreme tides coming through a narrow
passage. The tide was coming in so fast
you could watch it rise. We asked the
locals for directions, they directed us to someone’s house and told us to just
walk through their yard and watch it from their yard. We arrived, and several others were doing the
same. After seeing Old Sow we drove to “Reversing
Falls.” With a low tide, there is a 15
foot waterfall in this bay, but as the tide rises it actually completely covers
the falls and becomes flat. We arrived 2
hours before high tide and saw extremely tumultuous water for a long way and it
was making a very loud noise. A
motorboat attempted to get through at the most distal point and gave up. We sat in chairs and read as the boys drew or
explored. Every few minutes we would
stop and watch the water rise. There
were seals all over frolicking in the currents and a Bald Eagle on top of a
tree screeching periodically as it watched nature transform. Slowly the water rose, the waves decreased,
and before long, it was perfectly peacefully quiet and tranquil. While driving the dirt road out we came
across the corner and saw a loon. No, I’m
not looney… that is a really rare kind of bird.
I have only seen once before in my life.
We stopped and watched it for awhile.
What a treasure!
The Northeastern part of the
U.S. is basically vacation homes – few residents – few businesses. A hundred
years ago it was fields and farmland, but most of the farmland has returned to
forest. People talk about the world
being so populated – but they must not have left the cities much. There is vacant land all over this country
and the world. Homes here are just
rotting and falling down and there are for sale signs everywhere. It shows how America is truly changing from self-sufficient
farms and the small business, to a computer-dependent, government-dependent, unstable
fake economical system in the cities.
As I see the beauty here something amuses me – we have so much beauty in
whatever area we are! I have traveled
much of this world – there is beauty everywhere! God has revealed Himself everywhere! As I saw Prince Edward Island I thought, this
looks a lot like Camano Island. As I see
the beautiful fall colors the Northeast is known for, I think this looks a lot
like Stevens Pass when the colors change.
As I see the beautiful coastline of Maine I think this looks a lot like
Deception Pass area. God has put beauty
all around us. Are we getting out of our
secularized homes to enjoy the beautiful home around us God has prepared for
us? Perhaps if we did we would be cured
of our physical, mental, and spiritual ailments. Wherever we find ourselves, let’s enjoy God’s
beauty around us!
Al, the friend we met last
Sabbath was talking about how in Puerto Rico, said the mass devastation that
has occurred from the hurricane, is showing us where America is headed. All the other islands are
semi-self-supportive. When a hurricane goes through they figure out how to live
and they recover. Puerto Rico on the
other hand, because it is part of the U.S., expects its help to come from the
U.S. government. They have lost their
knowledge and sense of responsibility and ability. Al, who has lived in New York city his adult
life, said that when 911 occurred, the first thing New York City did was shut
down all the bridges so nobody could leave.
What are we setting ourselves up for? I can see prophecy setting up to unfold as
predicted. No wonder EGW says those who
live in the country with a small bit of land and a garden to grow food will
live like kings in the end times. We saw
this during World Wars. This is nothing
new. History has repeated itself
countless times. I see the crisis being
set up for America. We are losing our
food sources and our ability to be self-sufficient. I say people in the cities are like mice in a
cage. And I remember from when I was a
teenager what happened when my mice didn’t get fed for a couple days – they ate
each other.
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