Finally, West Virginia

About 6 months ago our mid-wife finally brought her husband along for a visit to meet our family. She has been our midwife for awhile now, but up until now we had never met her husband.

During our previous pregnancy he had come along but refused to leave the vehicle as a standard rule to ensure patient privacy and HIPPA regulations. We had understood at the time and made sure to keep him company in the yard with tea and cookies while the ladies talked inside. We had no idea at the time that we had made any type of impression on him. The practice that our mid-wife owns is one of the largest in our State and they see many families. We figured that we were just another patient as far as he was concerned.

It was not until this meeting 6 months ago, that we realized how the Lord can use normal acts of every day kindness to soften the hearts of men and make allies for His children where least expected.

Our mid-wife had been around during some of the times when our former landlord, Ms. T had come around, and she had heard the gracious offer that we had received. She also heard much of our discussion about how concerned we were that a dying lady with only months to live was trying to make her peace with God in this manner. Our mid-wife said that she understood our concerns, but that an offer like this was too hard to pass on. We then became very close to our mid-wife as we explained that the importance of a good name was more important to us than any amount of land. We spent many weeks discussing this with her and explaining to her the situation with the children and the certain accusations of 'spiritual manipulation' that they would make if we accepted this offer. As related in the post on that subject, that is exactly what happened to the person that eventually accepted the offer. Thankfully, we have been in a position of speaking with one of the children involved in the estate battle, and because of our refusal to accept, we have been able to give a clear testimony of only love and a clear conscience to that child. After much prayer and reflection, our mid-wife said that she understood our decision. Little did we know that she had been sharing some of these issues with her own husband, and that he had finally decided that after 15 years of never entering a clients home, he would break this rule to meet the family that had turned down what turned out to be a multi-million dollar estate in a commercial zone!

So, we finally met the husband of our dearly beloved mid-wife and had a wonderful time hosting him for a few visits. Shortly after these visits, he called and told us that he and his wife wanted to invite us to their home for a dinner and discussion of a personal nature. We were excited and a little nervous, thinking that perhaps they wanted to ask us some 'religious' questions about our unorthodox life-style. ( Note: Our life-style is unorthodox only compared to main-stream evangelicalism, we are a poor example of puritanical followers of Christ, though we strive to be).

I will speed up to the present now, or I'll never tell you about W.V.!

At this meeting, we were shocked to learn that Mr. &Mrs. B (Husband and Mid-wife), owned land in rural West Virginia that they planned on retiring to soon, and they wanted us to move there as neighbors! They had not been Church goers in many years, but professed faith, and were so glad to see real Christianity in action that they wanted to be near it more! They then told us that they wanted us to consider allowing them to give us 2 acres of their land to homestead and that they would even pay for us to go up and visit the area for acceptable churches if we were willing to consider it!

Wheels within wheels! That's all I could think of folks! Who could imagine that in the space of a year, a man with no money and a broken back, (no prospects), could be offered, NOT 1, but 2 estates! For free!

We were shocked to say the least! They went on to explain that they understood how important our Church family was to us, and how 'peculiar' our doctrine was, and that they had been in touch with a few locals in West Virginia that were keeping up an old abandoned church building from the 1800's who wanted a Pastor that could come and take it over! This old church is a local landmark in the hills there and still provides a hand powered well-pump for a few local families to haul there water from! The locals, had upon the testimony of this couple, agreed to allow me to come and begin a Church there whenever I wanted to!!!

Now, to be clear, I am not an ordained minister of the Gospel. I was formerly a 'Youth' minister in an Arminian church, and attended a Bible college along those lines in our old home. I am currently seeking the training needed in my denomination to become ordained, but we have one little hurdle....Financial Accountability. We are not spendthrifts mind you. But, we do live at the charity of my Pastor since my accident, and he has personally paid for our light bill while allowing us the use of an extra home he owns. Not the picture of most Presbyterian theologians out there... The Church, rightly so, wants men who are above reproach. And while I have been assured that I fit all spiritual and moral qualifications, the financial issue is a stopping point right now. I will not comment on this further now, except to say that I am trying to be careful in my study of past 'poor' preachers, to make sure that no resentment builds for my denomination. My Pastor is in general agreement with this thinking and he has shown himself to be a man of exceptional wisdom and a deep desire for the purity of the ministry. I yield to the godly example that he has set forth. I have witnessed it first hand.

Still, we were thrilled at the possibilities that now lay before us! If we can gather a 3 family minimum of like-minded believers that are indigenous to that area, we can request our Presbytery to send a minister that is already qualified by their standards, and establish a new congregation there!

My Pastor is not very excited about this prospect. He has made several good points about this still being above my place and station, as I cannot live upon an open field with a family. Very true. However, as the Lord continues to work there, we met a neighbor that has just purchased an adjoining 30 acres with his young family. He is planning an off-grid homestead and is a faithful father, demonstrated by the behavior of his wife and children. He informed us of a local Amish group that will build us a 2 story, 24 by 24 gable roof house for just under $10,000! Yep, that's right folks! If you are looking for cheap land under $1000.00 an acre, and a 2 story 1200 square foot house for under 10K, then check out West Virginia! ( I have the contact info for any that may be seriously interested). So, now we are just wondering how in the world the Lord is going to do this next part! I know that it is nothing to Him, but from our side it might as well be 10 million... It is just another reminder of a great adage that I read in the biography of John G. Patton, Missionary to the New Hebrides..."Duty is ours, Results are God's"! We will wait on the Lord, and stuff the penny jar!

Further, it seems that in West Virginia, I will not be barred from trying to use my Plumbing license to scare up work. Here, in Florida, I am forced to comply with VERY stringent Work- Comp laws to 'protect' myself and my gimp back. The State of West Virginia will approve my Comp-exempt license and let me go out and take the risk of my back upon myself, ( I trust in the Lord, and work s-l-o-w-l-y), so that I can actually move toward our home-stead dream!

Well, just pray that the Lord will continue to make His will known, and that He will motivate the local Taco Bell to call so I can start supporting my family and saving some treasury bills before they are worthless! Really, I applied at Taco Bell. Duty is ours.....If this is the Lord's will, I know that He will provide. There is actually a 16 by 16 off- grid cabin there now that I have full use of, but convincing my Pastor that this uninsulated shed is acceptable housing for my family isn't really working right now;) Pray, pray, pray, my friends! We will do the same for you.

Here are a few shots of our week in off-grid West Virginia..

This is taken from one of the acceptable building sites on 'my' land. Down in the ravine on the left there is a 4 foot wide creek. We saw many deer drinking there, and over 35, (no joke), on the road to this property.

This is a poor picture of our friends cabin that we all stayed in. If you look hard, you will see the white pop up building, (privy and shower area), and the blue 'kitchen area on the right. Just behind was the sleeping quarters. It is an uninsulated 'shed' that we heated with one open flame propane stove burner! It snowed 2 days and rained a chilly 35 degrees for a few days! This was a great day of around 65 day temps! Perfect.

This is a shot from about 20 feet in front of my building site, looking at my truck. Believe it or not, that was as close as the truck could get because of the incline. 3 different 4X4's got stuck on that hill. It is a quarter mile drive from the road to this point. Can you say, Off-Grid!

This is a small spring, one of over 15, on the property that we saw. It measures about the same as each of the others...2 gallons per minute! That's 800 gallons a day...per spring!

This is the ridge that separates us from our 'neighbors'. The large dead walnut tree just right of center was cut down by us while there. It was nearly 4 feet thick at the point we felled it at, and that was almost 4 feet high! Loads of firewood were chopped and stacked by my boys.

This is a shot of my wife and two of the children heading down to the creek area to hunt for some wild rose hips. They are high in vitamin C and make a superb tea. There are loads of wild roses all over the hillside!

This shot does not really do justice to the scene. If you will notice the evergreen trees on the ridge ahead, you may be able to pick out the tombstones underneath! That is an old private cemetery from the late 1700's. The entrance to my property is just over that hill! The cemetery access shares an easement with us, so every time we come in or out, we drive right by it! Pretty neat to me. You can also see the clay churned up into mud at the first drop through the valley between us. My two wheel drive Suburban made it fine, but the 4 wheelers got stuck and we had to dig 'em out! We have laid $1500 worth of large gravel there now that our friend purchased. I also cleared a large garden spot down under that slope in a spot that gets the full day sun. We cut down many 100 foot walnut trees to make way for it. There are hundreds of walnut trees here! It took the better part of a day to get the fire wood cut and brought up to camp. Several chords are stacked for next winter.



The Lord is gracious and kind, He has pity for His people....

Until next time