Traveling in Faith

A few years ago we went to a Feast of Booths celebration in Oklahoma. At the time, it seemed quite a drive from Ohio. As usual, we would be staying in a campground for the feast along with other brethren. Yet this journey had something far more important thrown into it. What I was getting from prayer is that we should not take a tent with us. This ended up being a test designed specifically for me. I was learning to follow the Almighty's leading on how to do things, but this one really shook me up inside. We had a really nice 4 room tent to use for the feast gatherings. The temptation to take a small two person pup tent, just in case, crossed my mind. I stuggled, but we left for Oklahoma with no tent. When we arrived, we registered and were shown our camping site ... it was, in fact, not an official site. The campground was overbooked and we were placed on an extreme edge next to a lake with high winds and all sloping ground. I was almost in a panic because I did not know what to do.

In prayer, I was led to go enjoy the days events. The evening speaker ran long and we did not get out of assembly until after 10:00 pm. When we reached the campground, I was assuming we would be sleeping in the car ... little did I know that the Almighty had other plans. As we pulled in, the campground host couple noticed us and asked some questions and learned that we had no tent. Within a couple minutes they had found another family which had brought an extra tent. We were taken into the middle of the campground (away from the harsh wind and sloping ground) andplace amidst five other families who all pitched in together and had a tent set up for us within 15 minutes. We all had a fun time meeting each other and through the feast, friendships were made that last to this day.

Had we brought our four room tent, or even a little pup tent, we would likely have been left on the outskirts of the camp and not made these friends. Had I not passed this testing, I would likely not have the wonderful things that have come out of this. The friends are of great importance, but even more important is knowing first-hand and with confidence that the Almighty is there providing for our needs ... not at the last minute as some call it, but instead at the right time.

In the past month, many things have been coming together. We are realizing that the Almighty is sending us out for a long journey. It is for our training. It is to help people. It is for healing in many areas of our lives and our relationships with friends and family. It is for many things I do not even realize yet. The One Most High has made it possible for us to have a pop-up camping trailer and then a vehicle that can tow the trailer. He has supplied equipment for ministering on the road. He is telling us to go in the spring.

With the tent experience behind me, it is much easier now when things are coming together for a new journey. He can ask us to go somewhere at sometime and we do not need to know more than that ... we can rest simply in that this is His plan and He will make it work. Without the tent experience to have built up my faith years ago, this journey would be much more difficult to handle mentally and emotionally. He is so good! He has prepared us all along the way without our realizing it. His plans are so much greater than anything we can make up ourselves. The way He intertwines relationships and places ... the way He trains us if we let Him ... the ways of blessing and life are His to give.

One of the greatest challenges of being able to leave a house to live in a camping trailer is dealing with the vast accumulation of possessions that one has acquired over the years. Among these challenges for myself is much photography equipment from my days as a photographer, many books and magazines from my years of study, and a bunch of furniture.

Over the last few months, we have been increasingly aware that not only do we not need these things, but they are actually a burden to us that hinders us from being free ... they take so much space, time and energy to care for them, and money to maintain or store them. We have been going through a learning process in our attempts to get ride of these things. I have done some selling on ebay which was somewhat successful but overly time consuming and we have done some donations to those in need. We have given a number of smaller items to our friends who could use them. Yet coming into this month we still had a major portion of our belongings yet to be taken care of and our moving out to travel date coming up soon.

I had hoped to use this month to focus on getting rid of these things, especially furniture, somehow. Yet the Almighty had other plans. He instructed me to use this month to start preparing the Silver Trumpets website for a major update and to give it some new direction as we prepare to leave on our journey. Through the month, it bothered me not to prepare to leave, but overall I worked on the website.

During this time, the One Most High was working inthe background to make things work out for our good. We had been brought to a fellowship and were getting to know some of them. It turns out that a young couple would be getting married in a couple months and they have very little in possessions. What a beautiful way to get rid of our stuff ... by giving this couple the furniture to fill their soon to be house.

What a beautiful example of the Almighty's kingdom at work! Those who do not need can give to those who do need and difficult situation(s) are taken care of. I could have worked very hard that month trying to distribute our furniture in little pieces. Instead, I was able to do the work the Almighty asked of me, and He provided for what also needed done in one easy solution! Seek ye first the Kingdom of Elohim and all these things shall be added unto you. Indeed.

To make an illustration. Think of a person who grew up in a country where there is no baseball. He comes to a country where it exists and decides that he will be a professional player. He can read every book ever written on the topic, he can memorize the statistics for all the players current and past, he can know the rules as good as any umpire ... but these are all in his head. If he were to know all this and then step up to the plate on a baseball field, pick up a bat, and try to hit a ball pitched to him would he hit a home-run or a triple or a double or a single or would he be likely to strike out. He may know how to judge a pitch but he has not developed the hand-eye co-ordination and quickness of reflex to react to that knowledge. He may know how the bat needs to be swung, but he has not developed the muscles for swinging the bat. Knowledge is not enough to make things happen. Professional players know that it takes practice and a lot of it.

In the same way, I can sit in a living room and read the Scriptures. I can study concordances, lexicons, commentaries, sermons, and try to know everything I can about Scripture. Yet I am not better off than the man above who steps up to the baseball plate and cannot hit the ball. If I step up to the spiritual plate and try to do any type of good, I will be unable because I have not worked on the reflex of faith and I will not have developed the spiritual muscles of works.

On this journey, we have been put to the test many times. Sometimes it is small and other times it has been big. Yet through it all and in each one we have been learning how much the Almighty truly loves and cares for us. Building up our trust and our faith in His ability to care for us under any circumstances only comes through practice and experience. It is not enough to consider it sitting in a chair. This type of learning began when we lived in a house, but it has increased tremendously because of the challenges faced when living on the road. I now have a better idea Who my Mighty One is than I did 8 months ago.

The tests and the training can come in an infinite variety of forms. These can come through elements of nature, or animals, or people. What happens when we unexpectedly find ourselves in 110 degree heat or below freezing weather? How does one act when suddenly finding oneself next to a bear in the wild or waking up to a herd of bison going through the campground? What is the proper response when in a bad neighborhood? Or when one's bicycle is stolen while in a good neighborhood?

As we were preparing for this trip, one difficulty we encountered was not knowing anyone who has done this type of activity. We had no good example to look to or people to get advice from. We had to gain some knowledge and insight through books instead. However, the Almighty knows our needs, when we need encouragement, and delivers it at just the right time. There are times to minister to others ... and a time to be ministered to.

Although our journey is westward this year, we were led to go eastward for our first stop to spend time with with brethren who had been encouraging in the past. It turns out that the Almighty had planned for us to meet three other families that have been doing traveling ministries for many years now. We suddenly had access to their insight and first hand experience into what happens on such a journey. Their testimony of leavng behind their own lives to go do the will of the Almighty is of great encouragment to us. They helped prepare us in both the physical and the spiritual for what is ahead. Their stories remind us that the One Most High is faithful and will lead us and care for us wherever we go and in whatever circumstances we are in.

Those who are in ministry are involved in the fight between evil with good. This is a battle fought much more in the spiritual than it is in the physical. A few years ago, the Almighty was calling me to leave my job and follow His will. This was a very difficult thing to agree to because of the many concerns in my head about how to care for my family and pay our bills. Through both my own prayer and through other people the Almighty assured me that He would provide for us and that I was to trust Him. After making the decison to quit my job and follow Him, it came out over the coming months that we would be starting a ministry. The last few years have an amazing testimony of how He has cared for us and enabled us to do His work (and receive a lot of expereince and training along the way). Now that we are on the road, that same faith is needed even more.