Hello from Tomales!!

I am sitting in the living room of Luis and Margaret in Dillon Beach.  Late this afternoon I walked into Tomales, not knowing where I was going to stay.  I knew that there was one hotel in this small town, but I had seen two church steeples and thought I would see how the spirit led me.  As I walked into town, I prayed for guidance and that I would find a kind soul.  In town I encountered a man and I asked him about where there may be a place to stay.  He replied that there was only one hotel in town, and that I was looking at it.  I thanked him and decided to walk on.  Up ahead there was a church, and I thought that I would look into seeing if anyone was around.  The outer doors to the church were open, but the inner ones were not.  The church was The Church of the Assumption of Mary and I walked past it to knock on the door of what looked to be the rectory.  No answer to my knock.  I headed back to the street when I heard the low notes of an organ being played.  I walked up to the front doors of the church and found that the inner doors were open after all.  I went inside and immediately to the left was an organ, and there was a lady playing it with a man standing beside her.  I introduced myself and briefly told them what I was doing with the Walk, and I asked if they knew anyone who may let me put my tent in their yard.  Just then the Father came from the front of the church, and having overheard our conversation, he said that "that hotel costs $200 per night and you can put your tent up out back."  Right then the couple spoke up and said, "We have a spare room at home.  Have you had dinner?"  Wow!  God is good!  I took them up on their offer and they gave me a ride from Tomales to their home in Dillon Beach.  Luis fixed us dinner, and as he did, I listened intently to the things he shared with me.  He had been raised in Peru, and had suffered many of the same abuses that the Coder children have experienced in their lives.  He had been beaten and abused.  He hunted for birds to feed himself and to sell to other families for money.  He had read about America, and had determined to come here.  He told me how he had not been a believer, and how he had met God.  I cannot begin to write and convey the beauty of his conversion experience and how he so lovingly told it to me.  I was spellbound and kept silent- it was most definitely my turn to be quiet and listen closely to absolutely every word.  He talked about things that I have been struggling with, and about things I had just been thinking about.  It is just amazing!  But not really.  God is good.  He is in control.  I am finding that He is there always, guiding, protecting, providing......He sent me here to listen to Luis.  I am just so thankful to have the privelege of hearing Luis share his faith with me.  I really can't describe how I feel right now, but it feels good!  Luis is a humble man and shared with me all sorts of things.  His faith is beautiful and it is just such an awesome blessing to be sitting in this house listening to him.  Sometimes we know we are where we are meant to be, and that we are in the presence of those we are meant to be near............

Good night,
God Bless,
Craig