I Can Only Imagine
Last night we saw the movie, I Can Only Imagine. We cried through half of it and highly recommend it.
As we prepare for our new homestead we are doing a lot of imagining. We spoke of having spiritual experiences in finding our new homestead.
We came away knowing that He knows us.
He cares about us.
We can accept our future whether we have this property or another. We delight in the knowledge that His hand is in it.
As we sat in the hotel the morning after finding the property, I looked down at the contract. To our surprise found that the owner of the property is the pastor/bishop of our new congregation. We went to church that day with trepidation because this could go really good or really bad.
I will spare you all the small details but we told him we were the buyers for his property. He was delighted and spent the next half hour talking to us about it.
We found we had both been praying for each other. He had been praying for a buyer, and new members for the congregation. We had been praying for our new homestead to be in a place we were needed so we could serve others.
We drove back to the hotel that day in awe.
We could never have imagined how this situation could have been orchestrated for us and them. So now we wait.
But we experienced something else later this week. Back home away from where the small miracles had taken place for us, we had fear and doubt crept in. Fear that it would not work out. Doubt thinking it had been a series of coincidences.
Then I read, studied and prayed and found a talk that had been given by one of our religious leaders. It stated, “Was it merely a coincidence….? Or was this episode divinely orchestrated by a loving Redeemer who knew and responded to the (prayers and desires of the persons involved). I believe that in the work of the Lord there is no such thing as a coincidence.”
He reminded us that often we say, “We Know”. But “Do we Believe What We Know?”
We corrected our thoughts and path and put our faith in the Lord. He can make this happen if it is to happen. If it does not, we will find another.
I can only Imagine what life would be like if we did not rely on faith.
I can only Imagine that He smiles down on his children and answers their prayers.
I can only Imagine us on our homestead.
However, we not only imagine our friends we are acquiring on our YouTube channel, we stand in awe of them, of you.
We desire to teach, serve and assist in helping others our age.
We want you to know that you can have a homestead.
You can grow your own food.
You can raise a few animals if you desire.
You can control what goes into your body so it is healthy.
You can control your body by exercising it.
We could only have imagined we would have so many who follow us and care.
It is a huge responsibility and one we do not take lightly. We think about everything we put on paper and on video.
Our desire is to help you.
We are passionate about this.
We certainly learn from you everyday and correct our path.
We can only imagine what it will be like building, growing, learning, and sharing with you our friends. By sharing our lives will hopefully inspire someone to change to improve their health.
We need each other. Even as we write, a subscriber types “looking forward to our PERMANENT ROOTS”.
We could not have imagined this would all be part of our lives right now. We do joy in the hope before us.
You write that you would like to help those of your own age….well I’m not sure what your age is but I think we could be close. About ten years ago, we built a homestead on 20 acres in MT. We built our own home, planted fruit trees, extensive gardens and raised chickens, both meat and egg, and had horses. We were divinely happy, except for one thing… .only one of our four children would visit us. We had very young grandchildren at the time and if we wanted to see them, we had to travel to them. We didn’t mind, but in a sparsely populated remote area, it was difficult to find farm sitters. We finally sold our place and moved back to WA to be closer to our children. Homes and land were much more expensive here and we could only afford a home on half an acre, but we were much closer to the majority of our family. We have developed that half acre as far as we can with gardens, chickens, and edible landscaping. We are now both in our mid to late 60s and an opportunity recently arose for us to purchase 2.5 acres with an old (unliveable) double wide with well and septic in. We jumped on it and purchased it and are currently demolishing the home with the plans if building a new cabin on it. Our children, with the exception of the one who visited us in MT, (who lives in WY) are very unsupportive. They think we are crazy to take on such a project at our age and wanted us to move to a ,”senior housing” situation so we could “enjoy” our golden years without having to “work ourselves to an early grave”. None of them will come see our little piece of heaven. Have we jumped from the frying pan into the fire? When we take a break from the demo and we sit in the quiet and listen to the birds, it’s bliss but I can’t live the rest of my life out without visits from our children. I don’t understand their behavior as we supported their “wild hairs” like taking a semester to live in Kenya during college, and solo trips to Mt. McKinley on a bike. Only difference is they did them in their 20s and we raised kids first and then followed our hearts. Others have said they believe our adult children are afraid they will be saddled with our maintenance when we get too old to do it. We would sell at that point and move to town or an apartment (horrors). What are your thoughts on this?
We were so touched by your email to us. We have a lot to say on the matter and want to answer you with some thought. We were traveling yesterday so did not see this sooner. Believe me we are on your side. We are almost 65 and 67. There are enough people our age who have not taken care of themselves. They only see senior housing as their choice. Those of us who are healthy do not see a line in the sand which tells us, Oh you are old now, so you can not do this…. or you must do that….. Our children are supporting us and love the property we got. But it has been a long time coming. Would you consider allowing us to share your story without using names and prepare a video about it and our answer?