Peace like a river!

There's a certain rhythm to a living on a farm.  There are chores to be done and its almost like the rhythm of it is such a comforting thing and something to long for.  You know that every single morning of the world there are things to do, animals waiting on you to care for them.  Without you being there and doing the 'chores', their life is worse instead of better.  It really is a great way to live!  Before your feet hit the floor every day, you have to lay aside all your own selfish desires and look forward to attending to someone other than the Almighty ME.

Spring, this year was packed!  With Ryan graduating and with all the end of the year banquets to cater, our calendar was completely full.  And as always, God knows exactly what He's doing... an empty calendar would have been the biggest disaster of all for us this year.

May 2012 was especially full.  I worked non-stop on the yard trying to get it ready for the big day.  Ryan had asked me earlier in the fall about having their Prom Dinner here at the farm instead of "going to some dumb restaurant".  I was tickled completely pink to have him ask that of me!!  I looked forward to that one dinner for months and months.  Being able to serve him and some of his friends was just about the highlight of my catering career.

You can tell by the sky what kind of night we had!  But the kids didn't complain one bit.  I had to rearrange some things to make it happen, but they were completely gracious about the changes and seemed to all have a great time.  

The very next week was graduation.  So we had a lot of work to do, still, to get ready for that.  But work is what we do best on the farm!  Monday came and went and we got almost everything marked off our list that needed to be done.  We were going to have some company and it was the best company ever!

My parents were going to come down for graduation and stay with us for a few days.  And Ryan's Dad, his Bonus Mom, his brother Josh and Josh's new fiance, Aubree, were also going to come down and join in the celebration with us.  Graduation was going to be on Friday night, so everyone was planning on being here on Thursday or early Friday.  All the details were moving along nicely.

I had a dinner to cater on Tuesday night up in Jones County.  So, as I usually do things, the day before an event is when I prepare as much of the food as I can ahead of time so that I can cook on the day of the event.  There were only 140 people for this one, so it wasn't much of a time drain to prep on that Monday.  Then Tuesday rolled around and we were ready to roll.

I was in the catering kitchen (herein referred to as "The Lucy Kitchen") and things were rolling along as planned.  Right up until 2:48pm!  I was right in the middle of getting the food from the ovens so I could load and pull out for the banquet by 3:30pm.  I had been in the middle of a phone call when Ryan came up to the Lucy kitchen and handed me his phone.  He said, "Paul needs to talk to you, its an emergency."

My heart began to sink and I took the phone.  I stood there in silence as he relayed to me the events he had encountered over the past several minutes.   Ryan stood there with me and watched as I heard the news and began to cry.  Without going into too many personal details for the sake of this blog, the news was that Paul was going to be without a job, effective in July.

As I heard my husband relay that news to me, I felt as if we had been hit in our gut with a huge sucker punch!  The very first thoughts that ran through my mind were that all that God had started on this farm was going to be over.  Without Paul's job we simply wouldn't be able to keep this place and keep up the work that God had started.

My precious son stood there and held me in his arms as I cried and tried to process all that I had just heard.  Only 3 days before his own graduation, this is certainly not the kind of thing he should've had to see or be a part of.  And because of the time and the fact that I had 140 people waiting on their banquet to be served, I had to move quickly and get ready to serve those people.  It was time to go down to our house, shower and leave for the event.

The walk down to the house seemed to take forever.  My knees almost shook beneath me and I wondered how in the world this could possibly be happening to us.  We had been obedient to God in every single thing we knew to be direction from Him.  He had gone to pretty amazing lengths to get us to this place and now we were not going to be able to keep up our end of the "deal".

When I walked into our house there was a complete shift.  Walking through that door seemed to open the floodgates of heaven!  The peace of God that I've talked about so many times washed over me like a flood!  My tears were gone.  My knees no longer wobbled beneath me, my feet seemed to find solid footing and the promises of God raced to the front of my memory.  "I know the plans I have for you.  Plans for welfare and not for harm.  Plans to give you a future and a hope."  Jeremiah 29:11.  Truth can be found only in God's Word. 

God quieted my spirit and assured me at that moment that we were not under any kind of attack from man or from the enemy.  He showed me how a door had been opened for us.  He reminded me that "His ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts."  What looked to be meant for our harm, was about to be used for our good.  And I chose to believe God.

I spoke to Paul off and on over the next several hours as he made his way home from work, and as I left home to cater that banquet.  His spirit sounded crushed and that broke my heart.  I tried as best as I could via telephone, to comfort him and encourage him, but being separated from him during this time was ripping my heart out.

I came home from the banquet and found Paul sitting in our den, having finished reading his Bible.  He had been setting in there and said he couldn't think of anything else to do but to seek God in His word.  And guess where God led my husband?  Isaiah 55!

"Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near.  Let the wicked forsake his way and let the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the Lord, and He will have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.  For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways, declares the Lord.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.  For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there without watering the earth and making it bear and sprout, and furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; it will not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.  For you will go out with joy and be led forth with peace; the mountains and the hills will break forth into shouts of joy before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.  Instead of a thorn bush the cypress will come up, and instead of the nettle the myrtle will come up, and it will be a memorial to the Lord, for an everlasting sign which will not be cut off."  Isaiah 55: 6-13

Are YOU shouting?!  I was!  Our God started a work and as a Promise Keeping God, He is more than able to finish what He starts.  Sure, we were hurting.  We didn't understand what was happening.  But what we did do was trust that the One who began a good work in us was going to finish it.

We made it through that long night and my wonderful husband did the only thing he knew to do the next morning;  he woke up, just like he had for the past 22 years of his service, and he got ready for work.  His spirit was wounded, but he was going to do the next right thing and that meant going to work.  I walked him outside that morning and tried to encourage him as he got into the truck to leave.  He was parked in such a way that he was facing out to the small corral where we had our expectant mare, Daisy.  We had been watching her for a month, awaiting the arrival of her foal.  As I spoke to Paul that Wednesday morning before he left for work, he looked over to find Daisy standing in the corner of her pen.  After a closer look by Paul, he said, "Rhonda, she's having that baby."

Barefooted and excited I ran back into the house to get my camera and to tell Sam the good news!  He, too, ran out to the  corral barefooted so he could watch the miracle take place.  After months of caring for Daisy we were so excited to finally get to watch this miracle of life unfold before our very eyes.

Daisy was, just one year prior, a member of an incredible group of horses.  She had been purchased, along with 7 other horses, from a breeder in central Mississippi.  The man responsible for purchasing them had the money to pay for them but lacked either the experience or the knowledge to properly care for them.  He had a job that took him away from home for extended periods of time, so he chose to lock all 8 of his horses inside a fifty-foot round pen and leave them to survive on their own.  One of the horses lost his battle for survival and died there within the safety of the herd.  The remaining members of the herd, including Daisy, hung on without food and water, with one of their members dead inside the pen, until someone finally found them and reported them to the authorities.  Daisy and the other six horses, now known as the "Jones County Lucky 7", were seized by the Jones County Sheriff's Department and taken to another facility where they could be rehabilitated.  While there, Daisy and the rest of the herd were given the nutrition and veterinary care they needed to get back into good health.  And evidently Daisy was healthy enough to also be bred by one of the stud horses that was at that facility.  (NOTE:  we still don't know the sire of this colt, so stay tuned to the outcome!)

At a time when all of our world seemed to be falling down in front of our eyes, God allowed us to be a part of another of His most amazing creations, life.  We sat there together and watched as our miracle came to us, delivered in pain and through struggle, but alive and well and beautiful.  The promise of God was right before our very eyes.

This amazing little colt was on the ground in just a few minutes and I was able to be with him from the very beginning.  There's a process known as imprinting that helps newborn colts overcome so many of the fears that they will face as they grow older.  When we touch their ears, nose, mouth and hooves as soon as they are born, they are set free from the fear that they will someday face when they have to be 'handled' by their humans.  This little man was handled all over and was up and getting busy with his new life in only a few minutes.  It seemed that Daisy had never foaled before as she was reluctant to let him nurse for the first time.  I took a halter and held her so that she would stand still long enough for him to nurse for a few minutes.  She did and he did and we've never looked back since!

Naming him was another matter altogether!  Paul came home that night from work and began to call him Banjo.  BANJO!  That reminded me of some terrible movie having to do with deliverance!  May it never be.  Paul wasn't against me naming the baby colt, but he did tell me that until I named him we were going to call him Banjo.

Friends.  My precious friend, Joell, had come up with a name early on in the game for Daisy's baby... Dollop!  Get it?  A Dollop o' Daisy?!  She cracks me up.  And while Dollop is the cutest thing ever for a wet little baby, when the little bit grows up and weighs 1200 pounds, Dollop might need a little something something to get him through the trauma of his own name.

I hate to jump ahead but for sake of this writing I'll let you know that God had a special name in mind for this baby.  I was out mowing the grass and God shared with me that we had a legacy of faith now that was going to carry on for generations because of the work He had done and was doing at this farm.  So we named him Legacy.

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Legacy.  He is the breath of fresh air that we so desperately needed, just at the time we needed him.  His long legs, quick feet and blue eyes are there to draw every new person that comes to Whispering Pines closer to him.  God even has a purpose for this little colt.

Now, back to finish the story for today....

Our world was rocked by the news of Paul's job, company was coming to celebrate Ryan's graduation with our family, and the test of our faith was really on.  Paul and I talked about it a little bit but decided that we probably shouldn't tell anyone about what had happened to us.  We 'figured' that we didn't want to be a burden to all our friends and family and that they would only worry.  We knew that God had a plan and that He alone could really do what was necessary to complete the work He had started.

Then all our 'figuring' went out the window.  We are involved in a Bible study class together on Wednesday nights at our church.  Our Vet/Sunday School teacher, Dr. Mayfield and his wife Sandy, are leading our class.  That night, as we sat in our class, Doc asked us to go around the table and voice any prayer needs that we might have.  He asked us to look to the person on our right (of course, Paul was sitting to my right).  He told us that after we had voiced our requests, we would go back around the table and pray especially for that person on our right.

The lump in my throat, my old familiar friend, returned.  We went around the table, one by one, and took notes about the needs of our friends around the room.  Prayers for upcoming mission trips, prayers for family members that are lost, prayers for foreign exchange students that had to return to their homes, and then it was Paul's turn.  As my husband told his friends, his brothers and sisters, about what was happening in our family, you could visibly see the weight being lifted off of him.  It was as though the burden he carried was still over him, but it was being lifted up on every side by the men and women in that room who loved us and who were, at that very moment, in this fight with us for God to be glorified!

We went around the table again and began to pray for the person on our right.  It was the most incredible honor and privilege of my life to be able to carry my husband before the throne of God with our friends,  and ASK, expecting God to hear my prayer for him.  I was called to SEEK, expecting to find exactly what God had already planned for our family.  It was now my turn to KNOCK, expecting God to open that door and welcome my husband into His plan.

We left that night, not as one, but as many.  We joined together a team of praying friends, with the single focus of allowing God to be God and wanting nothing more than for His purpose to be made complete at Whispering Pines Ranch.  Paul and I both agreed that if we were to remain there and do the work that had been started, that would be fine.  But if God had another man to do the job, we would support that, too.  The ultimate focus of our prayer was that people be drawn to God and that He would use us or move us out of the way to accomplish it.  And our friends agreed with us.

So, now you are almost caught up with our story.  Are you interested in being a part of what God has started at Whispering Pines Ranch?  We are asking for every praying person we know to join us to pray that all of heaven would be opened up and that God would use a little 60 acre farm in Purvis, Mississippi to make Himself known to people who need Him.  This in NO WAY is about Paul and Rhonda Walters.  There's absolutely nothing about either of us that is of worth or that could pull off all that He has planned.  We are ill-equipped, at best.  Curious, but not close to having everything we need to accomplish the work that God has called us to do.  So we are going to lay this place, one more time, at the feet of our Jesus and let Him do what He does best.

Here's the word for today that is meant to encourage you:

Psalm 91

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.  (Most High God, His name is El Elyon.  The God of details!  He is the strongest of all gods, able to to handle anything.)  I will say to the Lord, 'My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust!'  For it is He who delivers you from the snare of the trapper and from the deadly pestilence.  He will cover you with His pinions, and under His wings you may seek refuge; His faithfulness is a shield and bulwark.  

You will not be afraid of the terror by night, or of the arrow that flies by day; of the pestilence that stalks in darkness, or of the destruction that lays waste at noon.  A thousand may fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand, but it shall not approach you.  You will only look on with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked.  For you have made the Lord, my refuge, even the Most High (El Elyon), your dwelling place.  No evil will befall you, nor will any plague come near your tent.

For He will give His angels charge concerning you, to guard you in all your ways.  They will bear you up in their hands, that you do not strike your foot against a stone.  You will tread upon the lion and cobra, the young lion and the serpent you will trample down.

Because he has loved Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him securely on high, because he has known My name.  He will call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him.  With a long life I will satisfy him and let him see My salvation.

Friends, we are all in a battle.  The battle began on the day that sin entered this world through Adam.  We were created by the hand of God, His breath was breathed into us and we were made to live in perfect peace with Him.  What is sin?  Sin is our choice.  Its our nature, now, that causes us to believe we can be god of our own life.   Because of sin we are separated from God and our world is cursed.  All of nature is waiting on the day for God to heal our land and for sin to be banished forever.

Until that time we are here together to live out a life that is focused on doing the work that God has for us to do.  He promised us, in Psalm 91, that He's got it all under control.  El Elyon, the God of details, is more than able to work out any problem that might come up in our lives.  He is never caught off guard or shocked when trouble comes our way.  He never once has scooted up to the edge of His throne in heaven and wrung His hands, wondering what in the world we were going to do to make it.  He never once has cried out in fear that all was lost or that there was no way for us to find our way.  And on the day that Paul was asked to resign, God did not panic!  He didn't wish and hope for it all to just go away so our lives would be easy!  I believe with all my heart that our God smiled and looked down to find His kids asking and seeking and knocking.   Not because of our own strength, but because there's no one else to trust but God.

If you are alive still, I know that there's trouble in your life, too.  I know that sometimes things get too overwhelming to even bear.  But I know that the God of truth who has spoken directly to us through His word has the same truth available for you to hear and rely on.  

This is the rushing river!  When you anchor your own feet in your own truth at the bottom of a rushing river, you will not stand!  Your feet may hold for a time, but as long as you are trying to stand on your own strength you will be swept under.  That "peace like a river" can only happen when you trust.  Lift up your feet and relax.  The living water that surrounds you will carry you.  Peace will wash over you and you will know that God alone is in charge and in control.  Your life will change for the better when you stop relying on your own strength and when you are able to rest in Him.

God bless you today and always.