Southeast Showers
Greetings sisters in Christ!
Let us praise the Lord...
We are rejoicing because when you live in a van, you have to be resourceful about where you shower and when you find a primo spot like we just did, it's a time of celebration!
Here's our shower set up.
We open a van door, pop up our blind and put a plastic tote inside to catch the water. (We use all natural soap and water the lawn when we're done.) This offered us rare privacy with that big thick hedge right along the perimeter of the parking lot. When we were finished we laid our towels on the bushes and they dried in about a half hour.
I'm also rejoicing because the past couple weeks I have been hesitant about where we are heading (into a highly populated state) and to be honest, I was dreading it. (Brother Jim was thinking hard about it as well.) Instead of focusing on what I don't like, I worked hard at turning my will over to the Lord and saying His will be done and I trusted that He will give me just what I need.
So....yesterday we began that leg of our journey and pulled into the town where we were going to stay and I asked brother Jim if we could take a walk right away because I wasn't feeling well. It sort of offset our plans but agreed and seconds after we got out and were walking, a man was walking toward us hollering "Hey, what are you all about?" He walked up to us, introduced himself and it turned into a conversation about the Lord for almost 3 hours! Meanwhile, as the men were discussing the things of God, I was thanking Him for my ailment because without it, we would have been someplace else. I was also rejoicing because I knew then, that even though there were hesitations about coming this way, we were where we are supposed to be and I had peace and joy.
In this life on the road you have to be tough because you go through so many things and thoughts that I can't explain. I was just talking to brother Jim about how we 'see' and learn things that cannot be put into words and it reminds me about the Spirit groaning for us...
It was surreal. I've seen people do that before but each time it strikes you, the vulnerability of man and how stubborn they are in doing things their way. We saw a beggar man on the corner when we pulled into the lot, he's got an RV to live in. He lifts the hood and leaves it open so that people will feel sorry for him and give him money. There's another beggar on the other corner that looks like he has an RV over there. This morning we were walking and saw this sticker on a car in the lot...
I took the picture and as we were walking away, a woman called out to us, begging for money. She said we look like Israelites and brother Jim looks like Moses with his staff (you can read about his scripture stick here https://titus24sisters.blogspot.com/2019/11/salt-and-sticks.html). Long story short, we offered her some food but she didn't want any, she wanted cash. (She was another one that used God's name for ill gain.)
They (just like the unrepentant world) want to live life their way, not God's and so they reap what they've sown. In our humanness we feel pity for them because they choose such lives but when you offer life giving truth to them (the gospel) and they reject it, you have to be tough in your heart and mind, turn them over to God and walk on. If you allow your mind to linger on the lost world and look at them with too much pity, or too soft of a heart, it will soften you and sweep you away. It's a battlefield out here in the real world and we are living in amongst it, with what society calls the lowly and unpleasant. I told brother Jim it truly humbles you when the world looks at you like it looks at the beggars and I'm not quite sure of the lessons I am to learn but I'm seeing things that soon will make sense as we experience more. I'm actually looking forward to being stretched even more in the upcoming weeks.
We all have a calling, yours is different than mine, but we will grow and mature if we continue in the truth, striving on in holiness and obedience.
Have a joyous evening sisters and march on.
Love to you,
Sister Deb
The biblical gospel...
https://www.dontperish.com/the-gospel.html
Let us praise the Lord...
1 Praise ye the Lord. Praise the Lord, O my soul.
2 While I live will I praise the Lord: I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being.
3 Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help.
4 His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.
5 Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God:
6 Which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein is: which keepeth truth for ever:
7 Which executeth judgment for the oppressed: which giveth food to the hungry. The Lord looseth the prisoners:
8 The Lord openeth the eyes of the blind: the Lord raiseth them that are bowed down: the Lord loveth the righteous:
9 The Lord preserveth the strangers; he relieveth the fatherless and widow: but the way of the wicked he turneth upside down.
10 The Lord shall reign for ever, even thy God, O Zion, unto all generations. Praise ye the Lord.
Psalm 146We are rejoicing because when you live in a van, you have to be resourceful about where you shower and when you find a primo spot like we just did, it's a time of celebration!
Here's our shower set up.
We open a van door, pop up our blind and put a plastic tote inside to catch the water. (We use all natural soap and water the lawn when we're done.) This offered us rare privacy with that big thick hedge right along the perimeter of the parking lot. When we were finished we laid our towels on the bushes and they dried in about a half hour.
I'm also rejoicing because the past couple weeks I have been hesitant about where we are heading (into a highly populated state) and to be honest, I was dreading it. (Brother Jim was thinking hard about it as well.) Instead of focusing on what I don't like, I worked hard at turning my will over to the Lord and saying His will be done and I trusted that He will give me just what I need.
So....yesterday we began that leg of our journey and pulled into the town where we were going to stay and I asked brother Jim if we could take a walk right away because I wasn't feeling well. It sort of offset our plans but agreed and seconds after we got out and were walking, a man was walking toward us hollering "Hey, what are you all about?" He walked up to us, introduced himself and it turned into a conversation about the Lord for almost 3 hours! Meanwhile, as the men were discussing the things of God, I was thanking Him for my ailment because without it, we would have been someplace else. I was also rejoicing because I knew then, that even though there were hesitations about coming this way, we were where we are supposed to be and I had peace and joy.
In this life on the road you have to be tough because you go through so many things and thoughts that I can't explain. I was just talking to brother Jim about how we 'see' and learn things that cannot be put into words and it reminds me about the Spirit groaning for us...
Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
Romans 8:26-27
We know we are going to learn a lesson or gain insight and wisdom but sometimes it's just the beginning of the layers God may be piling, one atop another, until we have the picture and meaning.
I'm so thankful for what I've been through in my life because it has shaped me to be tough enough to endure this calling of being a preachers wife, on the streets. It's a raw world out here.
Last night we took our walk around the lot and saw a beggar man sleeping under the overhang of the stores.
It was surreal. I've seen people do that before but each time it strikes you, the vulnerability of man and how stubborn they are in doing things their way. We saw a beggar man on the corner when we pulled into the lot, he's got an RV to live in. He lifts the hood and leaves it open so that people will feel sorry for him and give him money. There's another beggar on the other corner that looks like he has an RV over there. This morning we were walking and saw this sticker on a car in the lot...
They (just like the unrepentant world) want to live life their way, not God's and so they reap what they've sown. In our humanness we feel pity for them because they choose such lives but when you offer life giving truth to them (the gospel) and they reject it, you have to be tough in your heart and mind, turn them over to God and walk on. If you allow your mind to linger on the lost world and look at them with too much pity, or too soft of a heart, it will soften you and sweep you away. It's a battlefield out here in the real world and we are living in amongst it, with what society calls the lowly and unpleasant. I told brother Jim it truly humbles you when the world looks at you like it looks at the beggars and I'm not quite sure of the lessons I am to learn but I'm seeing things that soon will make sense as we experience more. I'm actually looking forward to being stretched even more in the upcoming weeks.
We all have a calling, yours is different than mine, but we will grow and mature if we continue in the truth, striving on in holiness and obedience.
Have a joyous evening sisters and march on.
Love to you,
Sister Deb
The biblical gospel...
https://www.dontperish.com/the-gospel.html