We are on the move again. Craig’s job has ended for the summer and we are headed east to see family and get ready for school in the fall. As we drive an old VW Bus all our long trips start with tuning up the engine, changing the oil, checking the valves, tightening bolts, and getting everything a place to live so it won’t fall while driving. This is hard, dirty work, and can be very frustrating if things are not going well. So we decided to go back to Wenden, to get our mail and do some much needed maintenance on the bus.

     Knowing that there are lots of snakes in the desert, we prayed that God would keep us away from the snakes and the snakes away from us, as we would be unable to move once the work stared on the bus. We know of a good place to park as it is out of the way and has some shade as we work. As always, happens the job is bigger and takes longer than planned. So it took two days instead of one.

     As Craig was getting to the end of the job on the second day I was walking around the bus to tell Craig that I was going to find some sticks for a fire, when I came around the bus there was rattlesnake right under the tree headed toward where Craig was under the bus! I told Craig about the snake, he quickly went and got his pistol, and he shot it. We thank the Lord that I saw it as at that time we had no way to get help if Craig had gotten bit, as the bus was not running yet and there are no emergency services nearby. We had been planning to stay and camp that night but decided to move on as God had not allowed us to run in to any snakes up to that point, so we took it as a sign to move on.

Thank you God for your protection!

      The next day with the bus running well, we started out, headed for the Four Corners area by Friday where we are to meet one of my sisters for a few days. Our plan was to get to Payson, AZ as we were looking for cooler weather and a place to rest for a few days before moving on.
We didn’t make it to Payson but God gave us a nice camp site at Powers Spring camp ground, with pine trees, a picnic table and lots of wild animals running around. There was a pack of coyotes and grey wolves, running around the camp the first night and they seem to live nearby as we saw them the next morning.

     Craig was very tired from all the work on the bus and Israel (our dog) was very excited to be in the woods, so I decided to take her for a walk so Craig could get some rest. I usually use my walk time to call my family and catch up on what is going on in their lives, but we are out of service, so I said, “That’s okay, I’ll talk to God.” It’s been a long time since I just walked and prayed. So Israel and I started out to walk the road, as I’m aware that we could be in bear country and I knew that there are coyotes running around (maybe wolves too). I thought it unwise to walk in the woods alone.

     As we started out we saw two coyotes, and signs that an animal had been eating berries all along the road. Fear started to come as I thought it could be a bear, but then I thought if I let fear take over now I will never be able to go for a walk in the woods, and God is with us, so we went on. It was a very pleasant walk not too hot, the sun was out and there was a nice breeze. We saw some squirrels and other small animals, but there were times it sounded like there was something bigger in the woods. I had seen some old cow pies and thought it could be a cow or a deer walking in the woods, so we kept going.

     After we had gone about a mile, we started to go down a hill with thick brush on both sides of the road. All of a sudden there came a howl just off to the left, that was followed by a response behind us. I looked but could not see anything, but I knew that wolves or coyotes were close. Israel was straining on the leash and very intent on the hill to the left. By now I’m thinking this could get very bad quickly! I have no way of defending myself if we were to be attacked. So I prayed, “God, Send Your angels to protect us! I don’t believe it’s time for us to die.” Just as soon as I prayed, I heard a vehicle coming down the road, I looked up and there was a truck, like a moving truck coming down the road being followed by a car. I thought “Good that will scare away what is in the brush.” So we turned and stared to walk back to camp, Thanking God for His protection.

     About half way home we see Craig with his gun looking for us, he had heard the howling and barking along with a scream and came looking for us. I told him about the prayer and the truck and car, and He said “No one has been by today.” We continued walking back together and came to some people sitting out with their dog and Craig asked them if they had seen a truck and car go by, they said “No there hadn’t been anyone by that morning.”
No one saw the car and the truck that passed by Deborah, but surely it did. We are camped in a very remote area but close to the road, and there is only one way in and out. Surely God sent His Angels in response to Deborah’s prayer.

Thank you Lord for your Angels!

Psalm 91: 11, For He will give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways.

Psalm 20:6 Now I know that the Lord saves His anointed; He will answer him from His holy heaven with the saving strength of His right hand.

I’m writing this blog on behalf of Craig.

     For a long time Craig has known and said that whenever he is headed in the wrong direction “God blows up the bus.” By this he doesn’t mean that God literally blows it into pieces, but that it stops working and he is left to pray and discern the direction God would have him go, how to get parts and to be aware of the people he may get to talk to along the way.

     We left Stanfield, AZ headed for Wenden AZ for some much needed work on the bus. Just tune up stuff really but very necessary for our summer plans of travel. As we were driving we decided to stop and get some gas and use the restroom in Tonopah AZ, before getting to Wenden that night. We already had reservations at a motel and were not expecting anything out of the ordinary.
     

     The “town” of Tonopah consists of a Mobil gas station, a Pilot gas station and a small family restaurant with a large parking lot that long haul truckers use to park in and sleep.
We took care of our necessities and started to get back on the road when the bus started acting up so rather than get on the road we pulled over in to the big parking lot, once stopped, that was it, the bus would not start. So here we are in the middle of nowhere again, and the bus won’t go.
Craig is prepared for this, as anything can happen when driving a classic car. He checked all the “normal” things, but to no avail. As it got dark and it became apparent that we would not be able to continue, we resigned ourselves to sleeping in the parking lot. Morning came with the realization that we would have to find the cause and fix it with the items available to us either in the bus with us or at the gas stations. Craig’s search of the bus led him to the fact that somehow we had lost the wire that goes from the front of the bus ignition to the alternator, actually cutting off power to the bus. We don’t know where it went?!?, But it was not there. Craig had a wire and replaced the offending wire and we were on the road again. But not before spending almost 14 hours working on the bus.

     So what did God want us to learn from this? Well, Tonopah is the town where “it all started”. We gave up what we wanted to do and thought we wanted to be for God, and prayed “God show us what You want us to do!    You sent us on this adventure, now show us what to do!” After that God led us throughout Arizona, looking at petroglyphs, taking star photos and learning a little about UXO work, all the way to where we were now!   Getting ready to go back east, visit family, build up the bus, get a trailer, all so Craig can go to school in September and we can keep on the UXO trail, so to speak. In other words we were saying “Thanks, God! We got this now. Glad You gave us a road map for our life.” It wasn’t until Craig realized this, and that Tonopah was the place of surrender that he found the problem and we could get back on the road. God was saying, “I still want to lead you one day at a time.” We are still missionaries, just to a different crowd, and tentmakers too.

So the adventure continues…

PS A word from Deborah –
I was reminded how important it is to be prepared for the things that may happen, if Craig had not had the tools and the stray piece of wire we would still be in Tonopah as neither of the gas stations had the things we needed.

Hebrews 12:7-11
If you endure chastening, God deals with as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. Furthermore we have had human fathers to correct us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Blessings, On the road with Craig and Deborah <><

Living Beyond the Feed Lot!

     For the last two months Craig and I have been staying in a quiet RV park that is close to where he has been working. God blessed us with a good site, with shade and water, He even made us get good sleep in our tent. We have been blessed with the peace of God here. But there is one thing that has got me thinking, we are less than a mile from a large dairy and feedlot. We drive by the feed lot every time we go to town. The bus gets covered in bugs just driving by, the smell is awful, the cows are in large dirt pens with pole roofs for shade and troughs to eat out of, and at night the methane gas fills the air so thick I’m not sure why all the cows haven’t died yet. Craig and I have come to call this “sad cow farming” as the cows can not be happy living in the dirt and never seeing grass.

     Growing up in Arkansas, I got to see dairies that had happy cows, they had lots of grass, people that cared for them and lots of room to graze. With this in mind as we drive by I would feel sad for the poor cows that are a product of our modern way of life and wander what would they do if they could get out? Then one day I saw that one had gotten out of the fence. I thought” He won’t be there very long there’s a fresh field of grass right across the street. “ So every time we would go to town I would look for the cow that was out and see if he had left the lot. And to my surprise he never left, in fact he seemed confused as to why his friends were on the other side. He would wander up one side and down the other. He would eat at the trough with all the other cows and he would sleep in the corner all sad and dejected.

     As I watched this play out I kept asking myself, “Why would the cow choose to stay? There is green grass right across the road.” My conclusion was that cows are herding animals and as such they have a strong bond to their “friends”, he would not leave, he had never been beyond the feed lot.

     God taught me a lesson with that cow. God didn’t create cows to live in feed lots, (It would be like saying God created us to live and enjoy concentration camps!) But the sinful world system has created them. We as humans are trapped in our own sinful reality, just as much a slave to the system as the cows in the lot, but God has made a way for us to be free, to leave the lot and to go to the green pastures He has prepared for us. How many of us as Christians have been freed from the feed lot of sin and still refuse to leave, not realizing that this is not the life God has saved us for?

Let us learn to live beyond the feed lot!

I John 5:18-21
     We know that whoever is born of God does not sin; but he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him.
We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.
And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.
Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.

Blessings from Deborah <>< kow that whoever is born of God does not sin; but he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him.

We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.

And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.

Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.

Easter Sunrise Service 2019,

and all the pieces now seem to fit!

     It was April 6th, 2000 at another Easter sunrise service in San Diego that I surrendered my life to the Lord. So needless to say, That  day of our Lord’s resurrection is very special to me. My flesh birthday is April 4th 1959, and my born again birthday is April 6th 2000.
 

      Deborah and I have been traveling from Oregon since October 2018, and have been in Arizona ever since. We have photographed petroglyph’s at in central AZ, and you can see them at; http://bfeet.net/wp/zen

     We have gotten to go find cool rocks, we have camped in an old gold mining towns, and overall just felt like the Lord has placed us in “Craig and Deborah’s” playground. Turns out though He was just keeping us in the area so one day in December I would be looking for a job in or around Gila Bend, and sure enough, there it was. A UXO Tech postion. (I did not even know what UXO was 7 months ago.)

     We are tent-makers now as most of our financial support for this mission comes from working a job, and not so much from the BRETHREN. Our mission field has changed from homeless folks struggling with drugs / alcohol, to working folks struggling with life issues because they have never met JESUS. Evangelizing here is very much like when we were in Mongolia, you cant just start talking about Jesus, or the Bible, you have to wait until you are asked. The Lord always gives me the opportunity to be asked right there when someone has a question about Geology (Genesis 1 -11), or rules like how come Jews don’t eat pork? The fact that we are here for those questions, is totally GOD!

     I even had precious man ask me about how to really study the Bible correctly, so we talked about hermeneutics. What a blessing that was.

     So without going into a huge amount of detail, this last Easter sunrise service, God Spoke to me very PLAINLY about Our Mission… We really are (Nomads, and tent-makers). We will be planning spending the summer rebuilding the BUS with a bigger engine, so we will be able to pull a micro trailer, (And Deborah’s Loom),  and will start up the job again in October Lord Willing. Shortly after that (Spring 2020). I have been accepted as a student at Texas A&M Engineering Extension so I can be certified as a UXO tech 1.  I aim to be able work anywhere, and Deborah and I will start being UXO Sweep/Tech 1 and “pastors” / “missionaries” to those who ask

    For our help on the field. The work is actually all over the USA, and once I am certified I will be able to pick and choose where we go. God has really given us the Nomad lifestyle, with no particular place to lay our heads just like Jesus (Foxes have holes, Birds have nests …). BUT IT SEEMS THIS IS THE LIFE WE WERE DESIGNED FOR!       Praise Him ! We are praying for help with rebuilding the bus, and acquiring a small light trailer.   The LORD was very plain that this is our new walk with Him, its not about the bus, the trailer, the school. It is TOTALLY about serving Him, and being where He wants us to be. (New New Thing !)

     We DO need help to start, you could volunteer to help buy parts. We have a place to rebuild her in AZ, so we don’t have to travel far. School starts is September, and I have already been accepted, ONLY by Gods Grace!

Craig And Deborah following the Lord …