Thursday, March 31, 2011

HELLO FROM SUNNY ACRES!! Thurs March 31, 2011

Hello there,

I'm sitting in my new-to-me room in the Sunny Acres farmhouse.  It is room number 1 and it was vacant- now I know why- it is between the community kitchen and the bathroom!  I am still moving my stuff in and hopefully I will paint it before I get too moved in.  Right now the thermometer in my room says 80 degrees!  It is quite warm!  The sun is out and it is hot!  I'm not used to this, but I think I can adjust!

Last night I walked over to Erik's house down the road about a mile.  Remember Erik?  He is the one that I made friends with up the coast on my walk and then he put me up on his couch for about a week at the end of my walk.  He was outside talking with a neighbor and I surprised him!  He knew I was coming sometime, but wasn't sure when.  Also, the first night I was here my daughter Kate called me up and came to get me.  We went out to dinner and she told me about her recent trip to New York City.  She was thinking about moving there, but after her visit she has concluded that she is a "California girl"!

Anyways, I continue to unpack and get settled in.  I like the people here.  They are very friendly and they seem to be happy that I am here- so that is a real blessing!!

I will continue to write as I have time..........

God bless,
Craig

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

I'm in SLO at Sunny Acres! Tues, March 29, 2011

Well. we rolled in here last night!  It was a two day trip, but was a good one.  I will write more later when I have more time..........

God bless,
Craig

Friday, March 25, 2011

MOVING! Either today or tomorrow! Friday, March 25, 2011

Hello everyone,

Dan DeVaul has been here since Tuesday night.  He drove up here with his girlfriend, Ellie, and brought two trailers to take back- one for him and one for me.  I have been packing and getting ready for weeks to move down to San Luis Obispo to help Dan with Sunny Acres.  It is a big move for me.  I've never moved this far and this "big" on my own.  Add to that the challenge facing me and Sunny Acres, and I fully realize the meaning of the words that a friend spoke to me several weeks ago, "Wait until He asks you to do something that you can't."  I've been thinking about one of the recurring themes in the Old Testament, where God Himself is the one who fights the battles for His people.  Remember the story of Gideon in Judges 7?  Gideon starts with 32,000 men and God reduces that number down to 300 men before they actually go into battle.  And they won the battle, as they always did when they placed their trust in God.   The recurring theme is that God wants His people to understand that it is He who is fighting for them, and delivering them, and that it is not they themselves who succeed through their own efforts.  I've been reminded of this for a reason..................

Please pray for Dan, and Sunny Acres, and for me please.  Good-bye Ferndale.  I will be back sometime- for a reason, a season, or a lifetime- we will see...........

I will be off down the road either today or tomorrow.

God bless,
Craig

Monday, March 21, 2011

Almost time!! Monday, March 21, 2011

Hello there!

Well, the hour approaches.  Crunch time.  Pack time continues........  It's real now- or at least very soon.  I lay in bed this morning and prayed, "Is this the right thing to do?"  I don't know about you, but my faith and my own self-assuredness are not perfect.  I got up, and was writing a letter to a friend.  Something from The Walk came back to me then.  It's written in one of my earlier blogs, but I had forgotten about it- until He reminded me about it just a few moments ago.  Remember when I had met the family on the north coast- on the day that a little voice earlier in the day had said, "I'd like to meet up with a family and be taken in by them and eat with them and talk with them."  Remember that?  That's when I met my friend Erik.  Well, the next morning I was talking to his girlfriend's father, Steve, and we had a great talk.  He said something that struck me deeply, and that is what came back to me this morning.  He was telling me about a faithful and obedient dog that he used to have, and that that dog would do whatever he wanted him to do.  Steve said that when he pointed in the direction that he wanted that dog to go, that that dog "would go wherever I sent him, because he knew that where I was sending him was his reward".  Thank you Steve!  Thank you God for those words and that promise- they are for all of us who listen........

God bless,
Craig

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Saturday, March 19, 2011 Happy 50th Birthday to me yesterday!!

Well, I'm officially at the top of the hill now!  I turned 50 yesterday!  I figure that I still have a lot of good miles left.

I continue to pack to move to Sunny Acres.  I called Dan a week or so ago and gave him a date- he will drive up here on March 23 to move me down there.  Isn't that nice of him?  I think so.

I have been doing a lot of wrestling lately- and I have done a lot of that for quite some time, actually.  What I wrestle with is to try to understand things to try to control outcomes.  I have to say that I haven't won many matches!!  We need to wrestle and struggle though.  Dads- remember wrestling on the living room floor with your kids?  You had superior strength, but you didn't use it to overpower your child.  Sometimes you pinned him, and sometimes you let him struggle until he pinned you.  Look at nature.  Animals are always wrestling with their young- it's how they learn.  Sometimes we can get down on ourselves and condemn ourselves for not being able to learn a lesson, or from not being able to learn it as fast as we would like.  Sometimes it seems that we can wrestle for the better portion of a whole lifetime, and still not gain much ground.  But we need to be kind to ourselves, because if we feel secure in judging ourselves, then it is not too great a step to then condemn our neighbors.  After all, if we can kick our own selves in the rear, and it is okay, then we feel justified in doing it to one another.  Know what I mean?

Remember the story of Jacob wrestling all night with "a man".  Well, it was God Himself, actually.  And Jacob wrestled with Him all night and God did not pin him.  God did not use His superior strength to win.  Like a loving Father, He could see that Jacob would not let up, and He let His son, Jacob, prevail.  God left Jacob with a blessing......and a name change- "Israel."  Israel means "struggle with God".  God also struck Jacob's hip, and Jacob walked with a limp after that.  I suppose that was to serve as a reminder of that night when they wrestled.................

Continue in your struggles with life, continue to wrestle with God............and may His will be done, and may you prevail...................

God bless,
Craig

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Hi! Saturday, March 12, 2011

Hello all,

The earthquake and resulting tsunami yesterday really puts everything in perspective, doesn't it?  I had numerous dear friends call me to warn me here in coastal northern California.  I got a text message in the middle of the night from a friend in Hawaii, telling about the quake and tsunami warning.  Yesterday morning I found out about the tsunami warning for the west coast of the US.  I live here in Ferndale in a tsunami zone.  I can hear the roar of the surf from my house and can see the lights on the crab boats bobbing around out in the ocean from my kitchen window.  I decided to go ahead and leave.  I packed up some clothes and headed over the river to Fortuna.  I thought about all the things I could take, but decided not to take much.  Once I started packing things in my truck, what would I take, and what would I leave?  I need clothes, food, water, and shelter.  I knew that I needed my clothes, which I took, and that friends on higher ground could help me with the rest, so off I went.  I spent the day helping friends with some things they needed help with- and watched the news.  It is very sad and gut-wrenching to watch the footage of the earthquake in Japan and especially the tsunami sweeping over the land.  I find it hard to understand it all myself.  I pray for those people.  I feel helpless to help them, but I know that prayer is powerful, so I do that for them.

I continue to pack and get ready to go to Sunny Acres.

Lord, please watch over Japan.

I have something else to say.  As the time to leave for Sunny Acres draws closer, I find myself getting more nervous.  I suppose this is normal.  It's a big move.  But then I wonder, if it is God-directed, then why do I have fears and doubts?  Know what I mean?  The other day I was having a cup of coffee in a coffee shop and I ran into a man who I know from my old dance class.  We got to talking and I told him about my walk and about Sunny Acres.  He said, "Wait till He asks you to do something that you can't."  That stayed with me.  I realize that that is what Sunny Acres is- something that I can't do- at least on my own.  I know it.  I feel it.  I have known from the beginning there at Sunny Acres that it is something that is beyond me.  The very thing that scares me, also attracts me.  Going on that walk, finding Sunny Acres, moving away from here to there........are all things that I did not figure out or plan on my own.  I cannot take any credit for any of it.  I have my fears and doubts about what I am about to do- but I do know the answer.  It will be God working in me that makes the whole thing work- not me, and not my own courage, faith, or abilities.  I know that you may be sitting there saying, "Well, of course", and you'd be right, but I'd like to tell you that that is easy for you to sit there and say that, just as it is easy for any of us to be a back-seat driver or an armchair quarterback.  I'm just confessing my fears and doubts, but at the same time, my faith in Him- which is a gift, and not something I've earned.  May His will be done............


God bless,
Craig