A Day of Shopping

When you live out in the country every trip to town is planned. It is a 15 mile drive to the nearest town, Rocksprings. Rocksprings has a few stores I can shop at, but for real shopping one must drive an hour to Kerrville. Yesterday as the sun was just coming up I picked up a neighbor (and her dog Lucky) and we made the trip to Kerrville. By going together we saved money on gas and had each other to keep company.

First stop, we dropped Lucky off at the groomers to have all her fur cut off. It is starting to feel like summer here and the poor dog has been hot.

Texas prefers one’s car be inspected in the county where it is registered, but often in these rural counties there is no one licensed to do car inspections, which is the case for me. The TV in the small waiting room at the shop was tuned to a Turkey Hunting show. As soon as the male customer’s car was done and he left, we grabbed the remote and changed it to something more to our liking—the Food Network. After my car was finished we found two carnations on the dash board.

Next we headed out to the dirt store. Okay, that is not the name of the place, but that is what I wanted to buy. This land produces rocks, not good gardening soil. To grow a good vegetable garden one basically has to buy gardening soil. After looking around at a few sources, I decided on the place I wanted to purchase it and yesterday wrote a check. This morning a dump truck arrived with that precious soil. I have already started hauling some of it to the raised garden bed. A lot more needs to be hauled over before I can start planting my first vegetable garden. I am praying for a bountiful crop to share with others.

After a few more stops, including getting groceries, we picked up Lucky, who was thrilled to see us, and headed home. The entire trip took over seven hours to complete. But that is life when one lives so far from the city.

Back On The Ranch

My house sitting ended on Monday when I drove to the airport to pick up my friend. The airport is about a 5 minute drive from her house, which makes picking up folks pretty easy. Just sit by the phone and wait for the call. No waiting at the airport. Pretty easy.

There were a few things we needed to do together so I stayed another day. Basically, I am her computer tech and had to teach her and help her with some computer tasks. No big deal. It was nice to spend a day just visiting and getting things done.

I drove back home on Wednesday, stopping in Kerrville to run a few errands. I usually spend the first part of the trip listening to KLOVE, switching between the San Antonio and Fredericksburg stations, but at some point the static is to much for me and I switch to a Kerrville country music station. It is on that station that I heard an ad for Kerr County Produce. This store sells fresh produce at wholesale prices to the public every Wednesday. After inquiring where A St. is, I eventually made my way there and was happy I did. The store had a great selection of produce at fantastic prices. For example, red bell peppers cost $0.69. I bought 3. Everything there was much cheaper than the same items in the local grocery store. I filled up a paper sack for less than $11.

Besides grocery shopping, I also looked at a desk that a friend wanted to sell. It will fit in the office nicely and take care of the many needs that I need in a desk. The desk and the gas for them to bring it out here only cost me $130. She and her husband are scheduled to come out this Saturday, which means I have been very busy cleaning out the space the desk will occupy. Currently there are file cabinets and a computer in the way.

I also picked up the baseboard and transitions to finish the new floor that is occupying the community room and spare bedroom. The actual floor was installed before I left to go house sit. He is scheduled to come out on Monday and it should only take him a couple hours to finish. Then I will finally be able to finish the unpacking. A mini library is planned for the community room.

I also purchased a can of paint. I really hate painting and am hoping a second coat of paint is all that is needed to finish that living room. After that, only a few more tasks to be completed and this house will finally be what I have envisioned all along.

Though this house is my home, it is also a community center. What the builders meant to be a family room, I am turning into a community room. The walls will be lined with bookshelves for the mini-library. Chairs and/or a table will sit in the middle of the room. It is a great spot for small group meetings and other activities. This is a 3 bedroom house. I occupy the master bedroom. One of the spare bedrooms I turned into AOCCCI’s office. The other spare bedroom is available for anyone needing someplace to live. Currently there is no furniture in there, but I plan on getting at least a bed.

As I write this it is almost 7 am. Before I took off to house sit I would have been outside working. I like to spend the cool mornings outside removing rocks from the future garden, gathering up cedar branches to burn when the burn ban is lifted, and many other outside tasks. Only 10 days ago by now the sun would have risen enough for me to see what I am doing. But as I sit here it is still pretty dark outside. I can see the beginnings of the day, but there is not enough light to venture safely outside.

When I lived in the city I rarely paid attention to the sun rising or setting. Now that my daily activities are governed by sun I am noticing just how quickly the days are becoming shorter. It is truly amazing the daily changes in the sun’s rotation. I am pretty far south. I am sure the changes are much more dramatic farther north, especially in Canada.

With each passing minute I am seeing more light outside. By the time I post this, get my shoes on and do everything I need to do before venturing outside, there should be enough light to safely walk in the tall grass. So by for now. May God bless each of our days.

Looking For God In The Texas Hill Country

Last time I shared I was getting ready to leave town. Well, bright and early Friday morning I finished packing my car and headed west on IH-10 into the Texas Hill Country. Fortunately I was driving out of town, whereas those commuting to work were going the other direction. So I had little traffic while on the other side of the freeway the traffic was moving at a snail’s pace.

As I shared last time I really did not know where I was supposed to go. I had the general area in mind but as I have joked, God never sent me an email telling me what county to look in. I honestly was prepared to spend five days, sleeping in my car in State Parks and visiting many realtors in many towns. I fully expected to return to San Antonio without finding anything specific but hopefully with a better idea of where God wanted AOCCCI to be located. I did not even bring the checkbook with me that has all the money in it. I just did not expect to need it.

What I expected to happen is not what happened at all. I went looking for God in the Texas Hill Country and I found Him. What occurred last weekend was just plain amazing. Basically, finding a needle in a hay stack would have been less amazing then what I witnessed in a 48 hour period.

When I drove into Kerrville, Texas I had two immediate needs. The first was to buy some window cleaner to clean my outside mirrors. When I saw a store I pulled in, picked up the window cleaner and a brief conversation with the only two employees in the store led me to the Chamber of Commerce, which turned out to be just down the street. Up until their suggestion it had not occurred to me to visit the Chamber of Commerce. Looking back though it was clear God was aiming His light in the Chamber’s direction and I followed it.

Once in the Chamber I picked up some free items that looked interesting and casually mentioned my need of a realtor. The young woman behind the counter said, “I would use this woman” and grabbed Ricki Eichler Real Estate’s brochure and handed it to me.

Once again God was shining His light and fortunately I followed. It would have been very easy for me to veer off God’s path as finding Ricki’s Eichler’s office was not easy. The woman at the Chamber neglected to tell me the highway her office is on gets a new name every few miles. I only learned this after stopping and asking for help. It took awhile but I finally did locate her office. In the process I spotted several other Real Estate offices but it never once occurred to me to stop at any of them. If I had stopped at a different Real Estate office, I would have missed God and/or wasted a lot of time.

Before walking into Ricki’s Eichler’s office, God clearly was directing my path but I had not yet recognized it. But it did not take me long to see God once I was speaking to Ricki. Most of the time when I tell people about AOCCCI, they think I am talking about people with chemical dependency, that is drug addiction. So I am very use to having to explain to people just what Multiple Chemical Sensitivities is. That did not happen when I shared with Ricki the goal of AOCCCI and what I needed in land. Instead Ricki informed me she had once suffered from severe allergies too and just how sick she had once been. I then told her I too had MCS and that God had healed me. She then responded that God had healed her too. At that moment I knew I had a realtor who understood. When I told her I write a newsletter on the mind/body/spirit connection, she said great. God’s lamp was clearly shinning.

Then it was time to get to business. I already knew finding an appropriate piece of land for AOCCCI was not going to be easy. Off and on during the year I had searched the Internet and had picked up a few Real Estate publications aimed at folks looking for rural property. Not once did I ever see anything that would work for me. Usually the land was either way to expensive and promoting huge luxury homes and/or fantastic views (which means not much usable flat land) or properties without any buildings and advertised for hunting. But one thing nice about using a realtor is they have access to multi listing services and knowledge of web sites I have not found. Ricki quickly accessed such web sites. As expected most of the listings in my price range involved only an acre or two or land without buildings, but several possibilities did show up.

Ricki had previous commitments that prevented her from showing me any properties that weekend, so she enlisted the help of another realtor in the office. Though I was shown a property that afternoon, both of them felt another property looked the most promising and Saturday morning shortly after 7:00 the realtor and I headed off for an hour drive to see the property. The seller’s realtor met us near the property and showed us the way. We drove down a caliches road making several turns before finally arriving at our final location. The property features a double wide mobile home, a cabin (which had been turned into a storage building), and a dusty old camper trailer. With 20 acres of flat land, there is plenty of room for a variety of needs.

As I viewed the property, I did not see any real red flags. The few issues I did see would be easy to resolve. The pluses way outweighed any negatives. And then there was the issue of location. On the drive out to see the property I could not help but notice that just down the highway was property that Lee Grover (co-founder) and I had visited back in the 90’s. Last summer I had sensed God telling me to look in the area that Lee and I had looked at property in the 90’s and now a decade later my realtor was taking me to that same area. Once again God’s lamp seemed to be shinning.

I have no idea what the record is for finding a client their future home, but I am sure I am near the top. Ricki and her team showed me two properties in all and I placed an offer on the second one I looked at. I am now in escrow.

Stay tuned for more of this adventure.

Following God's Lamp

It is 7:00 in the morning as I sit down at my computer to write. I have two loads in the dryer, my camera battery is charging, I am thinking about what I need to do today as I prepare for leaving town, possibly tomorrow. There is a lot I must get done before I can even think of taking off.

Before I purchased my car I had to take the bus everywhere or depend on others to take me where I needed to go. Both modes of transportation are slow. Both modes of transportation require waiting on others. So I thought once I got a car I would be able to get a lot more done in a much shorter amount of time, leaving me with more time at home to get work done. That has proven to be a fallacy. The truth is I seem to be even busier then I was before. Now some of the activities that are taking up more of my time are by choice. I am now able to attend the Tuesday night prayer meeting at church which I was unable to attend before due to lack of transportation. And the past two Tuesday’s I have picked up a gentleman who is unable to drive due to a stroke he had years ago. But most of my car trips are doing stuff that before I would have just put off until someone could take me. So I really am getting a lot more done, just not on the computer.

I went to bed pretty early last night and so I have been awake for several hours. As I laid in bed this morning thinking and praying, I remembered the first few years of my life with AOCCCI. The first year Lee Grover was in charge. In fact when I first met Lee and learned about this project he had in mind, I really was not interested. I occasionally gave him some female advice when he asked, but that was the extent of my involvement and I liked it like that. Then in April 1996 the Lord began to speak to my heart. Keep in mind I was still very ill with Multiple Chemical Sensitivities (MCS) at the time, and this ministry did not even have a name yet. But there was no mistaking what the Lord was saying to me. Not in words, but to my spirit. Only weeks earlier Lee had come to the conclusion that his idea would have to be a Christian ministry, and now the Lord was telling me He wanted me to be a part of it.

The first 10 months of my involvement were a difficult time. During those months both Lee and I learned about the mind/body/spirit connection and I was healed of MCS. Before my healing I could only work a few hours a day, mostly typing. We occasionally took road trips, where Lee had to keep in mind my fragile health. We also talked on the phone a lot, as Lee lived in the Texas Hill Country, an hour drive north of me. Once God healed me of MCS a lot changed. I suddenly could do things I had never been able to do before, mainly because I now had energy and was not reacting to everything in my environment. I think the change in me was difficult for Lee to get use to. Anyway, I was healed around October of 1996 and after that our conflicts became even greater.

I will never forget the February day I received a letter in the mail from Lee. My mother was visiting me that week and I was living in a very small apartment at the time. The only private space in my apartment was the bathroom, where I suddenly spent a lot of time in prayer. The letter Lee sent me basically said God told him to resign from AOCCCI and at my convenience he would bring all the files and other information he had gathered. Though we had been in a lot of conflict, I was not prepared for this letter. I immediately went into panic mode. Since Lee and I were the only people working on this ministry, by default his resignation left me the one in charge. Lee had filed the paper work with the state, but had barely begun the work required to apply for non-profit status with the IRS. There was a ton of work to do and I had no idea how to do any of it. I had never taken a business or legal class in my life (unless you count sitting in on my mother’s law school classes whenever she didn’t have a babysitter for me). I had no idea what to do or even where to begin. On top of that, my mother, who was not a Christian and therefore never prayed, was visiting me. I could not share anything I was going through with her, she would not have understood. So, I started taking very long showers (private place where I could pray). My mom got tired a lot and needed naps, so I would go into the bathroom and pray during her naps. During the week my mother visited me I spent a lot of time in the bathroom praying. There literally was nowhere else I could go and close the door for privacy.

During that week of panic praying, asking God for help, Psalm 119:105 came to my mind.

“Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.”

The Lord would light my path one step at a time. First He gave me peace. He was still in control. I do not remember the very first direction He gave me, but it was enough to let me know exactly what my first step was to be. The rest of the week that my mom was with me was a time of calm. There was not much I could do until she left, so I just relaxed. As soon as my mother was out of town, I contacted Lee and in a few days he delivered several cardboard boxes of files to me. In the days, weeks, months, and years to come I would continue to seek the Lord for guidance and He provided me with all the support I needed to learn how to do what I needed to do. With the help of a pro bono attorney, I got the 501(c)3 papers submitted to the IRS just in time. Along with all the other legal papers that needed to be completed. God is good!

I have changed and grown a lot since 1997 when the Lord put me in charge of AOCCCI. In many ways I am a totally different person having grown spiritually in ways I could never have imagined. But I am still having to learn to follow God’s lamp as He directs my path one step at a time.

Unless something comes up to change my plans, I intend to leave bright and early tomorrow morning where I will head towards Kerrville, Junction, and who knows where. My purpose is to go property hunting. I do not have enough cash to buy property outright but it is time to start looking. Through prayer, I know this is the direction I am to go. Before Lee resigned, the two of us took many trips in this direction and even considered two pieces of rural property which we were unable to purchase at the time. One piece of property was in Real County. The other was in Kimble County. This summer when I started asking the Lord where I should began my search for land, these two sites came to mind. I am convinced that somewhere in that direction, basically west of San Antonio off Interstate 10, is the property the Lord has waiting for me to discover. I have no idea if this property will be revealed to me on this trip or on another trip I take a year or more from now. All I can do is follow God’s lamp as it lights each step I take.

Please keep me in your prayers. Thanks.