Ecola State Park - not quite...

I ran over to Ecola state park this morning because it was low tide and I remember Ecola State Park from my teenage years. It is a very windy road with no shoulder to get there and was just how I remembered it. I took an unused trail that we used to sneak down to the beach on when I was young. I got to about 5 feet to the bottom and knew I could not go down any further. I'm not young anymore and I am woefully out of shape. I wondered if I was to risk getting down that extra 5 feet how I would get back out again and had a mind picture of a helicopter bringing me back up with a broken leg! I had to stop at that point and go back up. Even so, the trek back up was very physically hard on me.

I know turning around to go back up was the right thing to do, but I still cried when I reached the top, being so close to the finish line without completing the race sort of feeling. I think I will try that again at the end of the summer. It may be that I will be ready by then.

Filthy garments...

So yesterday I started thinking about the fact that I need to do some laundry. I got a little motel in Rockaway because I want to find out about a job before I head south again. As soon as I walked into the room I was amazed. It already had a washer and dryer in the room! I did not know that when I rented the room. Another blessing from the Lord.

At first I thought that there is not anything spiritually significant about laundry in the Bible, but then I realized that was a dumb thought. The bible if FULL of references of garments and clothes etc. Usually garments (and especially how clean or dirty a garment is) is referring to righteousness. With anything that makes a garment dirty is sin. I was surprised to see that the terms "filthy garments" was only used twice in the bible.

Zec 3:1 And he shewed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him.
Zec 3:2 And the LORD said unto Satan, The LORD rebuke thee, O Satan; even the LORD that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: [is] not this a brand plucked out of the fire?
Zec 3:3 Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the angel.
Zec 3:4 And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment.
Zec 3:5 And I said, Let them set a fair mitre upon his head. So they set a fair mitre upon his head, and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the LORD stood by.
Zec 3:6 And the angel of the LORD protested unto Joshua, saying,
Zec 3:7 Thus saith the LORD of hosts; If thou wilt walk in my ways, and if thou wilt keep my charge, then thou shalt also judge my house, and shalt also keep my courts, and I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by.
Zec 3:8 Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, thou, and thy fellows that sit before thee: for they [are] men wondered at: for, behold, I will bring forth my servant the BRANCH.
Zec 3:9 For behold the stone that I have laid before Joshua; upon one stone [shall be] seven eyes: behold, I will engrave the graving thereof, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day.

Weekend Miracle

I stayed with a friend and could not get online most of the weekend. I was a little concerned that maybe I had made a mistake in discerning God's will because I was already running out of money and not sure what I was going to do on Monday as far as where I was going to stay and what I was to do next. We drove up to Astoria to take a look around and what would I see? God's Will pulling into the harbor RIGHT NEXT TO ME! I knew I needed a camera for this one. Right next door was this one:



Just another confirmation that I am where I am supposed to be. The Lord is SO AWESOME!

Zombie City: Reedsport

I sortof missed going to Brookings. On the way down I was distracted by my decision whether or not to go to California to drop off the hitch-hiker. On the way back up I was distracted because it was late and I was looking for a place to sleep by then.

But I do remember both times I drove through Reedsport and Gardiner. Boarded up buildings galore and the epitome of a good horror movie scene, (or government cover-up town.) I mentioned to my hitch-hiker that I just felt like Reedsport was a very weird dead little town. My hitch-hiker told me the reason he was separated from his friends was he was arrested in Reedsport for sitting on the rail-road track. "Criminal Trespass." According to him, he had to stay in jail for 5 days because the judge only worked on Tuesdays. Wow.

Yesterday I had a craving all day for a big crab and maybe shrimp salad. But I never really had an opportunity to pull over anywhere because of all the storms. Anyway, as I was driving through Reedsport I see a sign in front of the Bedrock Cafe that says "Crab Louie" which is basically crab salad. Actually their B was upside-down so that it really said, "Crap Louie" I went in and it was just out of the twilight zone. The waitresses first ignored me for the most part so I moved up to the counter. They didnt seat me and just rattled off the specials, it was strange like they did not want me to eat there. I ended up leaving without ordering. I dont know if Zombies roam the street at night in Reedsport, but during the day, they work at the Bedrock Cafe.

Side Quest - Northern California

I was driving along wondering what I would do when I hit Brookings. I had no direction from the Lord and I was going to be there in a couple of hours. Then I noticed a hitch hiker. It was some kid with a huge trash bag with his thumb out. I noticed his face and he seemed harmless enough, but I drove past him and kept driving. I started praying, Lord? Did you want me to pick up hitch-hikers? I mean I would really like to know your will on that. Should I pick up the next one? I prayed about it and then my mind went on to other things.

I have been making it a habit of pulling over and letting the faster cars pass me. Everybody always seems to be in a hurry and NO ONE drives the speed limit. I am being especially careful to drive the speed limit because I know that Satan would love to have some cop write me a really expensive ticket. I was driving through some little town when I noticed quite a few cars behind me. I pulled over and watched through the side mirror to make sure all the cars had passed. When I looked up again, who was standing in front of my van but this same kid/hitch-hiker.

I said to him, "Weren't you behind me?" He said, "Yeah. I thought I saw you pass me at one point" I said, "How did you get in front of me?" "I got a ride from a guy who was driving 120 mph."

So I told him I was going to Brookings and he asked me if I would give him a ride. Once again I had a strong feeling that this was God's will so I rearraged the luggage so that he could sit in the passenger side. He asked me if I had anything to eat because he hadn't had anything to eat for a couple of days. I gave him some oatmeal cookies to hold him over until we saw a fast food restaurant. The only one we saw was a Subway sandwich (his name ironically was Jared - NO! I DON'T MAKE THIS UP!)and bought him a foot long. He is 19 and got separated from his friends who are all travelling to New Mexico in a big blue bus.

So we went merrily along and I had an opportunity to share God's Word with him and everything was ok. So a little later he asked me what I was doing after I got to Brookings. I said that I honestly did not know. He said that his friends were waiting for him in Northern California and if I could take him there. He didnt think that it was past Arcata maybe only around 50 miles (Which is longer than you might think on wind-y roads through redwood country.)

We had stopped at a Fred Meyer store in Brookings - and I was praying about whether I should go into California to take this kid to meet with his friends. Although I was not altogether peaceful about the idea of taking this kid to California the words of Jesus Christ came to my mind.

Matt 5:41 - 42 And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.

So I took him down. As soon as we entered California it RAINED HARD. It had not really rained here since I had started just a few sprinkles. It was dark and stormy and there was even horrible storm warnings on the radio "with 3/4" sized hailstones" etc. Here is a little idea of how far down into California we went:



But miraculously we were able to find this kids friends and I was able to start back up to Oregon.

Yesterday, while I was experiencing this I thought maybe things were so dark driving down with all the storms because I had somehow mistaken the Lord's will and was not supposed to be in California. But looking back, not only do I believe I was 100% in God's will, but that the dark storms and possibly worse that this kid would have experienced if he had had to hitch-hike convinced me that I was sent there to make sure that kid was protected and found his friends again in safety. I made it back to Oregon and was able to find a motel for only $35 for the night. But I was so so so tired! that I pretty much fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. Thank the Lord

The view from a high mountain...

The Lord woke me up at 1:11am to write this post. I know my boyfriend will like that, he is always seeing that number. I actually think I read somewhere that 3 ones represents the Lord. Well, the Lord is definately in charge of this journey.

I stayed at the hotel in Florence until I had to check out of the hotel at 11am because I was listening to the recent teachings from Pastor David J. Meyer, a man I know has the spirit of God and teaches the truth of God's word. His recent teaching was titled "A view from the mountaintop." which is fast becoming a theme of this trip.

I drove south all day. I reached North Bend faster than I thought I would. I left the safety of Hwy 101 there because I wanted to follow the coast and 101 was far more inland than I wanted. I felt a little concerned about leaving 101 for a minute when I saw a sign that said, "Relax, God is in charge!" It made me laugh and reminded me that yes, the Lord is very much in charge of this trip.

I knew that I needed to walk along the beach today. Part of the importance of obeying the Lord is getting some exercise each day. I did not find any real beach access until around 2pm, when I found a day use park unexpectly. I walked out to the ocean and what should float in on a wave right to my foot? A perfectly fresh orange! I knew that was a gift from the Lord, just to prove to me once again that He will provide for all my needs on this trip, supernaturally if need be. When I got back to the van, I peeled that orange and ate it, and it was the freshest most juicy, best orange I have eaten in my life. I really wished I had a camera at that point, so you could see how fresh and perfect this orange was. That is the care of the Lord.

Then I drove a very strange back road to Bandon where the road looked out over the tops of the trees and I kept feeling that I was on TOP OF THE WORLD. Only it was a scary feeling because I also felt like I could literally fall off either side of the road and fall into the forests. Definately the view off the high mountain.

Even the view off the cliffs of Bandon near the motel where I am staying tonight is high up over the ocean and rocks. Here is a picture of one of the rocks near Bandon. Face Rock.

The journey commences

We spent all weekend getting the van ready for the spiritual journey that the Lord would have me go on. Just so you can see how amazing the curtains are I do have some pictures of the inside of the van to see how I could live comfortably.



I was very thankful for the amazing work my sister and her husband did to make those curtains and to put my stuff on top the van and I thanked the Lord and blessed them as I left.

I drove first to Lincoln City and then down to Florence. I did pull over at one point and crawled in back to sleep and everything was great, but I realized my mistake in getting rid of the blankets. It was very cold yesterday, but thankfully the extra quilt I was using as a seat cover could just as easily be used as an extra blanket in a pinch. It was a nice nap.

Then I was able to stop at the little stone cabin at Cape Perpetua that the Lord had put on my heart very strongly to see. It was an absolutely breathtaking view.





I stayed in Florence (in a hotel, I know, but I really did need the wifi, I will not be able to do that very much at $65!)

A very strange storm happened during the night. It didn't move like normal storms and it was a very intense thunder and lightning storm but it never rained. It reminded me that there is a spiritual battle going on. We wrestle not with flesh and blood but with principalities and powers and spiritual WICKEDNESS in HIGH PLACES.

Do not justify to ME why you have rejected the LORD and JESUS and the WORD OF GOD, THE BIBLE. The flimsy excuses you use to absolve your guilt will not save you in the day of judgement, which IS ABSOLUTELY COMING SOON. SEEK THE FATHER WHILE THERE IS TIME!!!