ZionMagazine-Final

Spring again. Now what? Hello? God are you there?
It was a quiet spring. Was God ready for me to act? I
began to squat back under my juniper tree in doubt.
Now summer. I kept asking and seeking but nothing
seemed to be going right. My garden was scorched,
my garden hoses wouldn’t work, chickens were
dying, and I felt like my dream must have been just
that...a dream. That was until I found a property
online. Something ‘we’ could afford...I forgot about
the part where God said He was going to GIVE me
land. It was the cutest two story house with a wraparound
porch on 10 acres of land. The kitchen was
huge. I could see my kitchen full of broken people
that needed a home cooked meal.
Well, God closed that door; more like slammed it.
That next week I began my women’s Bible study.
We were sitting in the kitchen when my friend said
there was a man walking up my drive. It was my
neighbor, Harold. He came to offer me free hay
bales. I invited him in for some dinner, but he didn’t
want to be a bother so he left. If he only knew how
much I wanted to feed him a home cooked meal.
He ended up coming back and that’s where our
friendship began. For the first time, I had hope. God
softly whispered...you’re not alone. Dream.
Night after night, we would take my neighbor
meals. One night, my husband came home from
delivering his meal with a story to tell. He told
me that shortly after we moved here our neighbor,
Harold, had been stuck under his tractor for days.
My heart ached. What kind of neighbors were we?
What kind of neighbor was I? I cried that entire
night. I purposed from that moment forward to
check on Harold every day. He was not going to be
alone. We would be his family. In small doses, of
course. We are Rowdy with Four.
On another night we had taken a drive on Harold’s
land. It had been a long day. The enemy was
coming at me at full force. No way could he allow
me to start dreaming again. My husband and I got
in a huge fight that morning. On that summer day,
on my knees in the shower, I cried out...GOD,
I CAN’T DO THIS ANYMORE. By the time we
delivered Harold’s dinner, took the drive, I had
peace again.
For the first time, I had hope.
God softly whispered...
you’re not alone. Dream.
When we got back to where Harold was loading
hay, with tears in my eyes, I said...I do believe God
is going to use you to teach me a thing or two. He
said he didn’t know about that. But, I knew. I just
didn’t know what.
That week we got a call for my husband to work
out of town. We could use a get-away. God lined
it up where I and the kids could also go. The
enemy really fought this. We left on a Sunday
and I almost returned that Monday. Almost. But, I
didn’t. Remember my new friend, Lisa? We had met
through a mutual friend. God told me to call her to
see if she was home. So I did. We met that Monday
morning. We both agreed it wasn’t enough time, so
we decided to meet again on Friday for breakfast.
It was in a small cafe on my old mountaintop that
God shook my juniper tree. Our mutual friend
earlier that week said God had given us a similar
dream. Lisa began to share her dream with me.
God had showed her she would open a ranch
for boys and girls. Well that wasn’t my dream. I
would be ministering to women in my farmhouse
kitchen. Writing and sharing my heart with women.
Ministering to kids was in my past...but as she was
describing the ranch she was describing a farm with
a garden and chickens. That wasn’t a ranch it was a
farm!
She was describing everything God had shown
me. We were both speechless. Before leaving the
cafe and saying our goodbyes, we prayed. I was
certain that God had a bigger plan than I could ever
imagine. I began to seek him and God began to
speak. I couldn’t keep up.
I had written down that the retreat center would
have four bunkhouses. God showed me how those
bunkhouses represented we would be ministering
to men, women, boys, and girls. Then He showed
me the greenhouse wasn’t a greenhouse. It was a
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