341 – Our Ministry Goals

February 13, 1989

I came across our newsletter, which we sent out to our friends and family. From the letter, which is a review of our last few months in order to catch everyone up:

As we crossed the country, our little motorhome performed flawlessly, only needing one tire, and that was provided without cost to us. We had to stop twice for Dan to work and earn enough money to go on and God provided wonderful friends to work for and with.

Grace was ours to live in a 120 sq. ft. house on wheels without ever feeling like “I gotta get out of here.” And our new home is a wonderful refuge, just what Georgann had been praying for–in a wooded place where the boys can play out of city dangers. We live in a complex that used to be a convent and now is a Christian high school that rents out apartments on a floor that is not used for classrooms. It’s been very confirming to us just how our faithful Father has worked all this out. We feel confirmed that we belong here and built up in our faith to proceed.

When we first got here in SF we dove right into the Japanese community to find out all we could, attended some interesting Japanese Christmas parties at the Japanese Cultural Center, and hung around Japantown finding more Japanese than we expected who are ‘fresh off the boat’ so to speak, rather than American born. There is very little being done to evangelize among the Japanese, especially considering their numbers. I have walked through Japantown praying the streets and have rediscovered the ferocious entrenchment of opposition in the spiritual realm which surrounds Japanese culture, an entrenchment which can also be very aggressive and dark.

We are praying for strategy as we begin our outreach to the Japanese.

333 – God Supplies Headache Relief, Dental Work, and a Job

January 5, 1989 Bridgemont in San Francisco

For Christmas we drove down the coast to Connie’s and Jerry’s house in Paso Robles! It was a great family reunion.

Two days ago, I had a headache all day. The next morning I still had the headache. As I was walking and praying, I confessed the sin of fear and the next time I thought about it, both the fear and the headache were gone and did not return. That same day Dan was discouraged and depressed. He confessed. Gone.

Both Karen and Jan have told us to call collect. Jan said to call on Wednesdays each week so she can share our needs with the men’s and women’s prayer groups.

These friends’ availability provides great encouragement.

The San Francisco Foursquare Church is a blessing. One couple had us over to brunch on New Year’s Day. We have Japan in common with three people: a young lady named Helen is Japanese American, and Frank and Orinda have been short-term missionaries to Japan and want to go back. Thank You, Lord, for people with a heart for Japan.

AND: God comes to church there consistently!

After two weeks of following up on leads in the newspaper and making calls and sending resumes, Dan looked in the yellow pages under architectural design, made a call, and was asked to come in this morning. Last night after church Dan felt today would be a breakthrough day. We asked the prayer groups to pray. The job is $10 an hour (Dan had hoped for $15). He will be drafting house plans. Another person was hired for the teaching position at the school. Dan was relieved. Instead, we moved to a smaller apartment and Dan became the night watchman. His assignment was check all of the interior and exterior doors, the pool, the back hallways, to be sure everything was locked and that no one was trespassing.

Timmy’s bad tooth took us to emergency room at Mt. Zion on a holiday! They informed us there was no charge because we had consulted with the dentist over the phone. We paid $10.95 for penicillin. When we went back the next day for a consultation and drilling, there was no charge. PTL Timmy will need a crown, which an intern will do for $400.

Praises: we got very practical Christmas gifts: a sauce pan, sweaters, remote control cars for the boys, and some other toys! Plus we still have lots of vitamins and some cleaning products our friends in Colorado gave us.

Our challenges:

* very limited kitchen ware and no oven

*my hairdryer blows only cold air and the apartment is very cold

*I lost one of Granny Mary’s earrings and one of Jan’s earrings from Hong Kong

*no phone

*we are trying to sell the motor home (originally purchased by our friends for us for $8,700). Dan is asking $3900. We plan to get a car with the money.

*my needs for a hair and clothes

*money for Tim’s crown

We expect to have a good report soon about God’s supply.

332 – Our Breakthrough Arrives

December 20, 1988 Daly City

We were in the trailer park for seven l-o-n-n-n-g days. But God is faithful, and this morning we got our breakthrough!

Today Dan tried again and called Karen’s friend Bob Carlson. He has been out of town!! [cell phones were not in common use in 1988]

He gave us the number of his friend, Bill Shappert, who is the property manager at Bridgemont High School. We went to meet Bill and he showed us an RV space on the property which he said he would rent to us for $175 a month.

Oh bless God!!!!!!

This place is a God-chosen, hidden, REFUGE. It is an overgrown, wooded, ten-acre campus in the Mission District which is not even on the city map! It is an answer to my pleas for safety for our sons.

Note: Bridgemont was a 3-story turn-of-the-last-century brick building which had been a Catholic convent that was used for housing unwed mothers. Up to 100 young women at a time were housed there, over decades … until the passage of Roe v Wade in 1973. The next year, since abortion was legalized, it became the popular choice in an unwanted pregnancy. The next year the convent’s client population declined to 3, the home was closed, and the nuns departed. At some point it was purchased to be used as a Christian high school.

Not only did our breakthrough come with this affordable parking space on this beautiful, secluded-feeling campus in the middle of the busy Mission District, but we discovered a Foursquare Church! As we were leaving our first meeting, the pastor’s wife, Joyce Woodman, introduced herself and offered us respite money and asked if we had pans for Christmas! She ‘took us in’–she really befriended us. I have never experienced such bold love and trust within a few minutes of meeting someone.

December 21 Bridgemont High School, San Francisco

The property manager is letting us have a 2-bedroom apartment for the Christmas season for free—and it is furnished!! and it is WONDERFUL! Thank God for tender-hearted people!

The usual rent for this small apartment is $750, which includes utilities, but which is way too much.

Bill said we could have it for free rent in exchange for Dan working at the school. The position is for a Bible and Drama teacher. I could see Dan doing that.

I tried to reach Karen and Jan with the good news of our praise report but neither was available.

331 – My Yearnings for Orphans

December 14 Daly City, trailer park

We had a slower start than we had intended because we got up at 7 instead of 5am.

In my Bible reading, I got Luke 2:12 This will be a sign to you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.

I keep thinking of GG’s dream that there were seven of us in our family and she didn’t have enough beds for us all.

I keep thinking of orphans and widows, dreams and yearnings.

I keep thinking about also thought of the 40 Sri Lankan orphans that the pastor adopted, and Lillian Trasher’s Egyptian orphans.

Since last Christmas it seems very clear that the Lord is working in me the heart preparation for me to have a baby in my life once again. Thy will be done, Lord.

James 1:27 Religion that our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

Matthew 25:36 I needed clothes and you clothed Me, I was sick and you looked after Me, I was in prison and you came to visit Me.

Deuteronomy 14:29 Bring tithes…produce…for Levites and aliens—that the fatherless and widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.

Psalm 146:9 The Lord watches over the alien and sustains the fatherless and the widow but He frustrates the ways of the wicked.

Isaiah 1:17 Learn to do right, seek justice, encourage the oppressed, defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.

We called our friend Jan in the evening. She commiserated and will call people to pray for us!

330 -Trailer Park Blues

330 – Trailer Park Blues

December 12, 1988 Daly City, California

There were no campgrounds in which to park the motor home in San Francisco so we asked around and found a small crowded trailer park in Daly City, immediately south of SF. It was so discouraging. It just felt awful. Even the dirt was dirty. The showers and bathrooms were cleaned every day, but it was a creepy place.

We called my parents and Mom said that Karen had left a message for me to call her collect. Karen knows a Christian man who lives in the city and encouraged us to contact him about a place to live. We also visited Dan’s Aunt Vanna, who lived in SF. We walked to the Lucky grocery store a few blocks away and stocked up on the basics. The boys have been such good sports.

Dec 13 Daly City, trailer park

Today the Holy Spirit cautioned Dan not to be in a hurry. We are trying hard not to let panic set in. Our funds are limited. Karen’s friend has not called us back.

The Word offers consolation and hope: the hidden mystery has been revealed: Christ in you, the hope of glory! Colossians 1:26-27

v 28 We proclaim Him, we preach Christ – with the goal to present every one perfect in Christ.

v 29 To this end we labor, struggling with all HIS ENERGY which so powerfully works in me. (Lord, I do not see the ‘powerfully’ part working in me!)

We drove into the city to scout out Japanese churches, then we went to a Japanese park where the people were very friendly. We visited Vanna then headed for Japantown, a large area in the midst of SF in which the Japanese citizens carved out for themselves after the 1906 earthquake. Today it is a huge mall of shops and restaurants. Of course the cherry trees are not in bloom, but we hope to come back in the spring.

328 – Welcomed by Dan’s Good Friends

328 – Welcomed by Dan’s

Good Friends

October 31, 1988 Wheaton, Illinois

As Dan and I prayed against hopelessness, he got a picture: he saw an old weathered train station. Even the tracks and buildings were gone. He felt God was saying: don’t go back there (your old way of thinking) for information about self and life—God has a new station—He’s conforming you into the image of Jesus.

Daniel, age 5, said: you have 4 sons and if you have one more baby you’ll have 5 sons—but it’ll be a girl, and you can name her Georgann.

November 1-2 Des Moines, Iowa to Grand Island, Nebraska

November 3 – 15^th Castle Rock, Colorado

Dan’s friends became the kids and my friends!!! Dr. Jim and Sugar and their children welcomed us in and very happily gave Dan handyman work so he could earn money for the remainder of our trip. The work kept him busy every day for almost 2 weeks. There were animals (chickens, goats, dogs, cats), lots of open spaces, and hills for the boys to climb, and a boy Steve’s age who they all enjoyed.

I proclaimed in my journal: NOTHING IS GOING TO GET ME DOWN. I WILL NOT BE OVERCOME. THE JOY OF THE LORD IS MY STRENGTH.

Proverbs 31:15 She can laugh at the days to come.

NIV note: she is free of anxiety and worry!

Every day I read Lloyd Oglivie’s book, You are Loved and Forgiven. I received encouragement every day. I had time to rest, and I took lots of notes.

November 16 Cheyenne, Wyoming

It snowed often when we were in Castle Rock, and it snowed the day we left in our wobbily motor home. Dan’s friends Del and Florence were excited to see Dan and meet the family. We were loved and welcomed again.

327 – Going Out, Not Knowing the Details

327 – Going Out,

Not Knowing the Details

October 25, 1988 – I had JOY ALL DAY!! All glory to God!

TRIALS:

*We are going out NOT KNOWING our itinerary—by faith in God—praise Him.

*We are going out with Timmy miserable with a cold –praising Him in all things.

*We are going out with $250. Gas expense alone to Denver will be $200, so we are depending on the Lord’s provision. Praise to our God who is faithful.

*We are going out tomorrow.

Judges 12-21 was only distressing…. I got no encouragement…

October 26 Ohio

As they sent us out with loving goodbyes and prayers, the Pletcher family gave us snacks and popcorn for the journey.

Hidden inside the popcorn container was a small refrigerator magnet that said:

YOU CAN DO IT – Philippians 4:13

[We kept it on the refrigerator for years.]

Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Our first night stop was a surprise visit to some Elim friends who lived in Ohio. We had connected with them so well at the school, but our visit was strained. I guess 6 of us appearing late afternoon was a bit overwhelming to the newlyweds!

Ruth – the book of Ruth in the Biblee – AMAZING NIV notes are so appropriate for us!!

NIV notes in my Bible:

Ruth’s and Naomi’s self-giving love FULFILLS GOD’S LAW:

Leviticus 19:18 but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.

Romans 13:10 Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

NIV Bible footnotes: The Hebrew word for redemption occurs 23 times in various forms in the book of Ruth.

Naomi moves from emptiness to fulfillment through the God-blessed acts of Ruth and Boaz.

October 27- 31 Ohio, Indiana, Illinois

Dan’s mom, Beth (Bebo to the kids), and her husband Al, were HAPPY to see us in Wheaton, Illinois.

I had been able to pray in the Spirit one hour. I had also been asking God for encouragement, but I was caught off guard by this opportunity for prayer and love as we met Luann and Dennis at the Vineyard church on Sunday morning. We received the word: for the trip–rest, don’t try to teach. I decided give in. As the boys continue to take turns sitting in the front with Dan, he can exhort them, teach them about the passing geography and all manner of things. I will continue reading aloud to them as we bump along.

OH! Gramp Al, Bebo’s husband, gave Dan a VISA bank card to pay for our gas for the remainder of the trip! We used it for gas, giving thanks every single time and sent it back to him as soon as we got to Reno.

326 – Good Words from the Lord

326 – Good Words

from the Lord

October 23 – Sunday

It was a day of great encouragement!

The excellent message at Elim on God’s guidance confirmed for us that God often gives us our CHOICE of what we want to do. That’s what we felt when we decided a couple of weeks ago to continue in our plans to move to San Francisco versus staying in New Jersey. Praise God!

The estimated two hour trip to see our friends Wally and Debbie in Oneida, NY, took four hours. We went out of our way to get on the turnpike but dealt with BAD roads that shook up the motor home so we had to travel r-e-a-l-l-y slowly.

Debbie’s ‘word’ for us CONFIRMED AND ENCOURAGED US TOTALLY: The Lord is directing you day by day and face to face.

This refers to Exodus 33:11 The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend.

We believe we can trust God for the weather we need, for the finances we need, in order to continue our journey west.

October 24

MORE TRIALS:

*We stayed overnight in Oneida last night and left after breakfast. All the kids had great fun as if there had been no interruption in their friendship. BUT the roof of the motor home leaked on our mattress.

*There was no money in our Livonia mailbox to send our 50+ boxes home.

*We were embarrassed to come back to the Pletchers because it meant more wear and tear on their yard, etc. But we had no where else to go. AND I felt that we had just gotten confirmed that we are IN GOD’S PLAN, and so I decided not to be worried or embarrassed. This is a personal victory.

*Timmy is getting a cold.

*Later: tonight the Pletchers took us in and fed us a delicious dinner.

I counted my trials ALL JOY!!

My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. James 1:2

325 – Many Trials to Challenge Us

325 –Challenged by

Many Trials

October 18, 1988

TRIALS!!

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. 1 Peter 4:12

*Dan’s tailbone is painful

*we all have raunchy homeschool attitudes

*a mix-up with Dan’s driver’s license

*cancellation of motorhome insurance effective Oct 25

*Steve has hives

*boys are desperate for shoes

*we are back at Pletcher’s but we feel awkwardness

*Daniel was due for shots, but we missed getting to the doctor in time, by one hour

October 19

You gave me another blessed day today! Rejoicing attitude.

2 Corinthians 2:14 But thanks be to God who always leads us in His triumph…please make sure I am always following You in Your triumphant course.

October 22

TRIALS:

*SNOW!! We are freaked! The weather has turned wintry and we haven’t begun the 3000-mile trek west!

*mailbox disappointment: we received $40 instead of the $400 we hoped for so that we could mail our boxes

*frustration at not being sure of our plans

ENCOURAGEMENTS:

*Walter was thrilled to have Dan DONATE the trade school plans he had drawn up

*got to share my heart with Cheryl M

*dinner at the Carey’s

*visited McAloons and got a word from the Lord and prayer

324 – On the Road Again

October 8, 1988

Boy, can I identify with this:

Judges 1 The tribes did not completely conquer their enemies and because of it they were unable to follow God’s commands.

NIV note: God was giving Israel, as His army, the opportunity to develop her skills in warfare and testing her faithfulness to obey his commands.

I see that MY enemies of impatience and anxiety are continually interfering with the peace and love that are God’s commands for me.

Colossians 3:15 Let peace rule in your heart.

1 Corinthians 16:14 Let all that you do be done in love.

He wants me to annihilate impatience and anxiety. With them in my personality I am not able to follow His commands. I am not able to be the person I want to be..

Looking to you TODAY for the victory, Jesus!

October 9 Canton, NC

Aunt Flossie, my maternal great aunt, and her husband, Uncle Al, were so glad they had decided to welcome us to their home. She had worried that it was in disrepair, but all her concerns melted away as love prevailed! [My high school graduation present, back in 1963, had included a plane ride to NC to visit with her.] We were surprised when Al directed us down to the basement shower and there was a huge gigantic spider in it. We didn’t say anything about it, Dan just took care of it.

October 10 Gaffney, SC

Aunt Freda lavished southern hospitality on us, and brought in more relatives to meet us.

Judges 2:2-3 ‘And you shall make no covenants with the inhabitants of this land; you shall tear down their altars.’ But you have not obeyed My voice. Why have you done this? Therefore I also said, ‘I will not drive them out before you; but they shall be thorns in your side, and their gods shall be a snare to you.’”

It is disobedience to fail in taking a complete victory when that is God’s command. He does not want me making covenants with other gods and taking into my nature what He has dealt with by the cross. Impatience is not a fruit of the Spirit. Anxiety is sin and is not trusting God with my whole heart, which I am expected to do. And they are thorns in my side!

October 11 Rock Hill, South Carolina

Dan’s maternal grandfather, Vernon Grant, had invented the cartoon figures Snap! Crackle! Pop! back in the 1930’s. He was wheel chair bound, and after we were there a while seemed to have some recognition that we were family. His wife Libby and son Chip were very hospitable. We stayed overnight on their property in our motor home. We were so glad we had made the effort for the boys to meet their great grandfather.

October 15 -we are back in Livonia, NY

I did not record the journey back to our Livonia home base!