Above is my daughter, Abigail, enjoying the first experience of snow in her short lifetime! Taken at the property that our friends have offered to sell us...for $1.00 ! Yep...
( Thank you for the prayers. My wife is still down, but much better and the baby is doing well)
After years of trying to explain the beauty and majesty of God's handiwork among the more northern climes of our land, the children finally get to see first hand what a wonder and joy the wilderness really is! We are thankful that they have had this opportunity. It might as well have been Alaska in the 1800's to them! So magnificent was their joy and awe at seeing the mountainous land of West Virginia and the Blue Ridge area going up, that we thought it almost cruel to bring them back to the land of sun and oranges...at least during the beginning of summer! Summer time in Florida does not start on any particular calendar. No, no! Summer here is best judged by when you begin to see folks making their way to the Mart, or any other public venue, in bikini's and underwear...Sad, but true. Anyhow, I digress. Rather than discussing the sad state of life in a populated area of Babylon, I want to tell you about the glee and adventure of rural life!
We were quite nervous about our trip. To catch some of you up, I will briefly tell you how this nice diversion came to be.
For some years, my wife and I have lamented our decision to leave rural North Carolina and return to our native Florida. At the time, it seemed like we were being forced out of our adopted home in the Smokies. My little business had failed, we were behind on all our bills (including basics like rent and lights), and I had recently dropped out of my fundamentalist, independent, Baptist college and church of 5 years to start attending a small group of puritan minded Presbyterians who practiced 'purity of worship', ( also known as the Regulative Principle of Worship), . Our world was in a bit of a tail-spin! Our landlord was also the old Sunday school teacher at our former church who had, for a time been very gracious concerning the rent situation. But now that we were 'presby's', things started getting rough.
It probably didn't help that I had been involved in the Law Enforcement community and was dabbling in the worst circles of society. It was having quite an impact on my life, and I began to lead a double life, like the worst of hypocrites and infidels. I cannot imagine how great the grace of God is, in that he did not strike me dead over some of the abominable situations and sins that I got into during this same time. Still, His grace is an amazing thing and having a wife praying night and day for my soul , ( despite my dereliction), was a blessing that I will never forget again.
It was in this time, that I went to a Gun-show to buy some 'research' materials. I was heavily involved in the State's Rights movement, and we had several notable 'groups' throughout Carolina that were leery of Mr. Clinton and his friend, Ms. Reno. Being a member of the Law Enforcement community meant that I could easily, and without scrutiny, obtain a variety of 'stuff' that might be fun to play with at some of our more out of the way gatherings. Nothing illegal mind you. Just, good old patriots keeping their skills sharpened. Contrary to the current reports in today's news cycle, most of these 'right wing extremists', did NOT want to do harm to any innocent citizen. It was at one of these gun shows that I saw a fellow with a League of the South booth set-up with all sorts of literature. Naturally, I wandered over and gave the customary glance toward the govt. guy that is always sitting at the end of each 'questionable booth', pretending to read a paper, while trying to listen for any 'code talk' between the seller and buyer. NOTE TO READER: While I no longer attend Gun Shows, and have never been a registered member of any 'group' other than a local church, I can tell you from experience on both sides of the table, that you should always expect that there are MANY federal employees at EVERY gun show, or like event in America that you will ever attend. It was true in 1996 and is sure to be even more true in today's world.
Anyway, getting back to the point of this post... It was while here that I saw some religious material for a Publisher by the name of Sprinkle Publications, along with a funny green book called the Westminster Confession of Faith. As I began to ask the booth attendant about these books, he directed me to a nice fellow who he wanted me to meet. This fellow was a kind gentleman who had come along and placed these materials for his church as a draw to try and rescue a misguided fellow just like myself, and to help them see that true Government reform would never happen without true Christianity becoming the cornerstone of the people of said government. ( There will be a lot more on this in coming posts, Lord willing).
To speed things up, we began attending his church, learned about the doctrines of grace, embraced the regulative principle of worship as the biblical and historical mode of worship, and almost joined the church. I say almost because when I came down to Florida to visit my mother for one of the Roman holidays that every one celebrates, I found her in the midst of a cancer battle with an older brother in a rehab center, and living on welfare with a hospice nurse taking care of her. After a short discussion with her, it became evident that she would not move to Carolina, and with some of my more 'adventurous' former associates still lurking around to see if I would return, I immediately moved my family back to Florida to care for my mother and start a new life without the old connections of my militant days.
For the next year and a half we felt like we were wandering in Egypt! We had left Florida so that I could pursue a ministerial degree in the Arminian branch of the independent baptist church, and now we were returning with all the baggage of a misspent decade as head-covering, psalm signing Presbyterians, in the heart of Central Florida, aka Sodom! We briefly attended a few churches before finding one almost identical to the PRC church that we left in Carolina. After months of driving 6 hours round trip every Lord's Day, we moved to our current locale and have been happier than we could ever imagine at how God works His wheels within wheels to bring us to obedience and grace.
Since coming to the church that we currently attend, the Lord has completely restored the joyous christian marriage and home that we once had! No perfection yet, but lots of grace and learning. During this time we have budded into novice agrarian minded homesteaders who have lived in an almost paradise of sound teaching and biblical worship...except for one thing. We are still in a pretty metropolitan area surrounded by a way of life that eschews a stay at home mom and a one income family. No matter how hard we have tried to get ahead there was always some roadblock to our goal of a more family integrated economy. Enter the Agrarian Dream!
I know that there is much angst out there about even using the word, agrarian, right now, but bear with me. I don't have any better terminology to describe to you the direction that God has been leading us. You may call it homesteading, farm life, back-to-the-land living, or whatever. The fact is, for us at least, that God has opened our eyes to the reality that I need to pursue a more sustainable way of living, that is not so materialism driven, if I hope to help my children avoid the plague that is coming upon this nation. Indeed world! I know that a new economic theory of life is NOT going to replace home evangelism! I know that many folks feel that they should just focus on personal holiness and devotion to the Lord, and trust Him to sort out the next 20 or so years. I also know that there are plenty of jokes about how debauched "farmer's kids" are, and that there are a whole handful of folks who are just waiting to see us homesteader types fail and crawl back to embracing the 'modern' reality. I am caught between two worlds and I am not yet ready to embrace either! I do not mean the world of Christ, and the world of he Anti-Christ. I mean the world of those who say that the agrarian way is the only biblical way, and those who seem to be adamantly against allowing a discussion of it into their churches. I am not yet ready to declare that it is this way, or no way, for every christian. I can only tell you that it is this way for us and our longing for our children to grow up as holy and pure, both internally AND externally, as possible.
Again, I will try to continue the current topic. Hang in there! There really is a lot of neat news to share! I will try and get to the point soon. But first, I have to tell you about the lady that offered to give us 81+/- acres last year... and why we turned it down.
Stay tuned....
III John 4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.
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