Participants:
Series Code: LM
Program Code: LM000073
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00:02 Our spiritual journey is gonna continue.
00:04 In fact, at this point 00:06 the programs are gonna take a really interesting twists. 00:09 We're gonna be talking about things 00:10 like alcohol, angels and even Willie Nelson. 00:13 In fact, I'd like to show you 00:14 how to cut lumber with a chainsaw. 00:16 But you know, more than that what I'm really hoping 00:18 is we go through this series of programs 00:20 called Spiritual Journeys 00:21 is that you will catch a vision of how God has a special journey 00:25 just for you and your family. 00:43 This is the second program in a series 00:45 entitled Spiritual Journeys. 00:46 Each program is an hour long 00:48 so if you're watching this on TV 00:49 unfortunately you only gonna get half of this program. 00:52 There are several programs in this whole series 00:54 entitled Spiritual Journeys. 00:55 So if you'd like to get this whole program 00:57 or the whole series please contact us 00:59 at our address, phone number or website 01:01 at the end of this presentation. 01:03 As I was sharing in the last presentation, 01:06 I was explaining about how I was struggling with sin and-- 01:11 and going back and forth and I became kind of like 01:13 a schizophrenic Seventh-day Adventist. 01:15 That's the term I use the schizophrenic Christian 01:18 and I kind of came to a climax in my life 01:20 you know, of my father dying 01:23 and it brought me to the point of decision. 01:25 There were several things 01:26 that were happening up after that point 01:27 and you know, one thing that we need to remember 01:29 when we talk about being lead to make a decision 01:32 and God is actively involved in all of our lives. 01:35 In fact, the Bible says in Joel 3:14 it says, 01:38 "Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision 01:41 for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision." 01:44 When we find ourselves being convicted 01:47 and we are in that valley of decision 01:48 you know that's a good thing 01:50 because its evidence that God is working on our hearts. 01:53 That He is there and He is very near to us 01:55 when we are in that valley of decision. 01:56 Even if that valley be dark and deep 01:59 God is there and He's trying to drown our hearts 02:01 to make a decision. 02:04 Okay, I know, you are wondering, 02:05 what is this program have to do 02:07 with angels, alcohol and Willie Nelson? 02:11 Well, before I tell you that 02:12 I just kind of want to backup a little bit more 02:14 'cause we need to kind of go back 02:16 to some things that were missing in the last program. 02:19 You see, I'd mention 02:20 that I'd kind of given up several times on the Church 02:23 and given up on God and when I gave up on God 02:27 and such I was really caught up in my business I had, 02:31 I had this auto body business where I repaired cars, 02:34 I had anti-cars and street rods I was working on 02:37 like I said I was still secretly smoking pot, 02:39 occasionally I'd go to Church 02:41 and then I would just say 02:42 you know, I don't really want to do that 02:43 because I'm just a hypocrite and I would be playing music 02:46 because by this time what happened was 02:49 we moved from town of Missoula, Montana 02:50 where we were living 02:52 up to the little town of Ronan, Montana 02:54 and we were trying to get away 02:56 from those influences that were pulling us down 02:57 but at the same time you know, 02:59 those influences would follow us 03:00 anywhere we go if we're not willing 03:02 to have Christ make it clean break in our lives 03:06 from those things that pull us down 03:07 and sometimes fleeing from those things are good 03:10 to get us from those temptations 03:11 but at the same time we need to make that commitment, 03:14 that decision in that valley 03:15 we are in to really follow Christ. 03:18 I remember one time I was down, 03:20 I wasn't attending Church 03:21 and I'm kind of given up again 03:22 and my wife was going to Church on a regular basis 03:25 and she was offered a job 03:27 at the local little Seventh-day Adventist Church school 03:29 in Ronan, Montana 03:30 and she worked that whole school year there as a teachers aid. 03:33 That next year came and they hired a new teacher 03:36 'cause the other teacher moved on. 03:38 And she came home and she was excited 03:40 because she met the new teacher 03:41 and they were preparing the classrooms 03:42 and everything for that school year 03:44 that was about ready to start and she said, 03:46 oh, you got to come, meet the new school teacher 03:48 and I kind of look-- looked at her and thought to myself, 03:50 yeah, sure, meet the new school teacher. 03:52 I know about those Seventh-day Adventist school teachers. 03:55 She said, well, this guy is young you know, 03:57 he is not that much older than us 03:58 and I said, yeah, sure and I had this stereotype view 04:00 you know, since I was kind 04:02 of a rocker type guitar player as in the cars 04:05 and you know, like trying to be cool, this guy was like 04:07 you know, we used to say 04:08 the expression back in those days, square man, 04:10 you know, he is probably flat top hair cut 04:13 you know, one of those kind of guys. 04:15 So, next morning my wife needed a ride over to the Church school 04:19 so hopped in my 1938 Packard Sedan 04:22 and we cruised over to the school 04:24 and as I pulled up in front of the school 04:26 and I saw this guy standing out in front of the school 04:28 that had a beard and he had a long hair, 04:31 I mean, after all this is was the 1970s 04:33 and I looked at him and I thought, 04:35 whoa, he is kind of cool looking, 04:37 she's, that's a new school teacher. 04:38 And she-- I thought to myself yeah, I'd like to meet him 04:41 and, so I started to visiting with this gentleman 04:43 and we became friends instantly. 04:46 His wife, his name was Jerry Warrick 04:48 and his wife was named Linda. 04:50 And Jerry and Linda were people 04:53 who God says at a special time in our life. 04:56 They were people that had a vision 04:57 and they were heading in a certain direction in the life 04:59 they were solid Christians and they had this idea 05:02 of what God was leading them to do in their life 05:05 and they started mentoring my wife 05:07 and I and Jerry was at extremely academic 05:09 I was a person who was very good at using my hands at welding 05:12 and fabricating in doing things 05:14 and the two of us started working together 05:16 and you see, Jerry had a vision 05:17 and he started instilling this vision to my wife and I 05:20 and this vision was a vision of country living 05:22 of building a home 05:23 that was self-sufficient that generated you-- 05:26 your own electricity and you cut your own lumber 05:28 and you do your own stonework 05:30 and you build your own house 05:31 and he eventually established 05:33 what was called Tamarac spring school up 05:35 by Glacier National Park. 05:37 He and I became like brothers. 05:39 He instilled so many different things. 05:41 He and his wife instilled 05:42 so many different things in my wife and I. 05:44 They taught us how to eat better, 05:46 they taught us how to-- these values of, 05:48 how to get out of debt and how to save money 05:51 and how to budget ourselves and-- 05:54 but what he didn't know 05:56 and what my wife didn't even know 05:57 at that point is I was still secretly using drugs, 06:00 even though I started coming to Church now 06:02 because I made this new friend. 06:04 I had this dual thing going on in my life 06:06 which I explained on the last program. 06:08 You see, he established, Jerry established in my wife 06:12 and I this dream of having our own country home 06:15 and in a way I always, we always talked about that. 06:17 We thought that would be so neat 06:18 but it wasn't like we ever thought 06:20 that would be a possibility, two young kids 06:22 they're only like 22, 23 years old 06:24 that have their own piece of property 06:25 and build our own house it just didn't seen impossible. 06:28 And Jerry used to tell us and we -- 06:30 it became a motto. 06:31 He said, you know, God said it I believe it 06:34 and that settles it for me. 06:36 He said to my wife and I down and he started talking with us 06:39 and he said, do you believe 06:40 that God want you to move the country? 06:41 And we said, yeah. 06:42 You think God could get you out of debt? 06:44 Well, we believe that you know, 06:46 when we see this long list of stuff 06:47 and we all said yeah, yeah, yeah 06:49 but really in reality you know, could it really happen? 06:54 And besides that old habits are hard to break 06:56 because like I said at this point I-- 06:59 my dad hadn't died yet and I hadn't come to this point 07:01 of really breaking away from my old habits 07:03 of smoking marijuana and such. 07:05 It's like when we are trying 07:07 to make decisions to do what's right 07:09 and God's pulling us one way 07:11 what happens is Satan starts pulling us the other way. 07:14 And one ends in the path is that you know, 07:17 it's really easy to fall back into temptation 07:20 and even though I was going to church in my heart 07:23 I was still running for God. 07:25 My brother who was a Seventh-day Adventist 07:27 and a very solid Christian and his wife Amy 07:30 started talking with us about the same vision 07:32 that Jerry was sharing with us about country living 07:34 and going out into the wilderness 07:35 and starting an outpost ministry and I started explain to him 07:38 about this friend that I had named Jerry 07:40 who was doing this exact same thing 07:41 and he was talking to me about it 07:43 and in my heart I wanted to do that, 07:45 I waned to you know, go out and buy a piece of property, 07:48 I wanted to get out of debt 07:50 but you know, I was being pulled in a different direction. 07:52 And while I was desiring to do what was right 07:56 these temptations kept coming and kept coming and, 07:59 and one thing that happened was I met these two gentlemen 08:03 and they found that I could play the guitar pretty well 08:06 and so they started inviting me to their house 08:08 and we would sit around and we would smoke marijuana 08:10 and they put on the stereo 08:11 and then they had electric guitar there for me 08:13 and I would start playing along with it 08:15 and the one gentleman said that one day after 08:18 I was playing guitar there he said, 08:20 you know, my uncle's coming to town to visit me 08:22 and I told him about you 08:23 and told him you know, you are a pretty good guitar player 08:25 like you to meet him 08:26 and may be you guys get together and jam 08:28 and I thought well, that would be kind of cool, 08:30 you know, I'd like to do that. 08:31 And that time came and a Saturday night came 08:35 and we were at a YMCA 08:36 and there was this elderly gentleman 08:38 chain smoker kind of fellow, wrinkled face, 08:40 quiet elderly fellow played base guitar 08:42 started talking to me and we had an amp and a guitar 08:45 and we had a drummer there. 08:46 He said, okay, lets play this song you know, 08:48 and so we started playing 08:49 and I started playing some lead stuff 08:51 and he was singing and then we are doing another song 08:53 we started jamming and we got all done. 08:55 He set me down and he looked at me 08:56 and he said, did my nephew tell you who I am? 09:00 And I said, no, he just told me your name. 09:03 Well, he said, 09:04 I'm the base player for Willie Nelson 09:06 and we are looking for someone like your self 09:08 to come in audition for the band to tour this next season. 09:11 And I would really like you to come 09:12 because I think that you could get the position. 09:15 And I looked at him 09:16 and all of this flashed to my mind 09:18 all of a sudden I realized no, way I could do this. 09:21 You know, I, I-- 09:22 we just had, my wife just had a baby 09:24 you know we are go touring with Willie Nelson 09:30 and I just said, no, I can't do it, I'm not interested. 09:33 And these two gentlemen 09:34 that had lined this whole thing up 09:36 just said, they really didn't say 09:37 they just looked at me with this expression like, 09:40 are you crazy or what, 09:41 you turning down this opportunity? 09:43 And I turned down this opportunity. 09:46 And then this is part of my life 09:47 if you go back and watch the first program 09:49 that everything started falling apart my-- 09:51 I was doing going through these struggles 09:53 trying to be a Christian and not being a Christian. 09:55 My dad died and then all of a sudden we found out 09:58 that we had to move out of the place where we were living 10:00 and I had my auto body shop setup there. 10:04 My wife and I started having a lot of different problems 10:06 and arguing with each other and I came to the point 10:10 after my dad died even though I had made a resolve in my mind 10:13 that I was gonna trying to do what was right. 10:15 Satan was pulling and all these things 10:16 were just like hammering me. 10:18 You know, you think that sometimes 10:20 when you become a Christian everything is gonna get better 10:22 but it doesn't always happen that way 10:23 and Satan comes and just trying to make it you give up, 10:26 and I remember one night, 10:28 I just said, I've had enough I'm gonna give up, 10:30 I just can't do this and I stormed out of the house. 10:34 And I went over to a Minimart 10:36 where two brother on this Minimart 10:38 and they had kind of like a little gas station, 10:40 a place where they repaired -- repaired cars in the back. 10:43 And I went into the Minimart and I was really nervous. 10:47 The reason I was really nervous 10:49 is because I was gonna just go in there 10:50 and buy a bottle of wine 10:52 and I was just going to try to just forget about everything 10:56 just ground all these problems out of my mind you know, 11:00 walked in there and I was nervous. 11:01 And the reason I was nervous 11:03 wasn't because I was going to buy a bottle of wine 11:05 I was nervous that if I was in there 11:07 buying a bottle of wine 11:09 and one of the elders and one of the Church members came in 11:11 while I was buying it you know, just won't look very good. 11:14 And so I remember I walked into there Minimart 11:17 and there was all this glass windows on the front there 11:20 and I walked in and I started looking around 11:22 and watching the glass windows 11:24 and making sure that nobody was pulling up 11:25 and I walked over to the alcohol and beer section 11:28 and I found a bottle of MD 2020 this is really strong wine. 11:32 I took the bottle nervously went up to the counter 11:34 put the bottle down on the counter 11:35 and the gentleman there working at the counter 11:38 was somebody I'd never seen before 11:39 you see, two brother own this Minimart 11:41 and I knew them really well. 11:43 And this gentleman was new here 11:45 and I set the bottle down and I was nervous kind of like 11:47 you know, let's hurry up here 11:49 because I don't want anybody to come into the store 11:52 while I'm buying this bottle of wine. 11:54 And I'm carrying on little chit chat with him 11:56 so I put the bottle of wine down and I looked at him 11:58 and I said you must be new here. 11:59 And he said, yeah, I'm new and I handed him the money 12:02 and he took the money and he is holding the money 12:04 he just gonna stood there for a second 12:05 and said, yeah, I'm new here 12:07 but I just don't know how much longer 12:09 I can keep working at this place. 12:11 And I said, why and he started making change 12:13 he said, well, you see, 12:14 and then he turned around and he handed me the change 12:17 and he had his hand on this wine bottle 12:19 and he said, you see, I just recently became a Christian 12:22 and you know, I've been studying the Book of Revelation lately 12:26 and he took the bottle of wine and he stuck it into a sack 12:29 and he is kind of twisting the sack 12:30 around the top of the bottle 12:31 and he said, I'm studying the Book of Revelation 12:34 and I believe we are living in the last days 12:35 and he said, here I'm 12:36 and he looked down at the sack 12:37 and said here I'm at this place 12:39 selling cigarettes and alcohol, cigarettes and alcohol 12:42 he said how could I continue doing this? 12:44 And I just kind of looked at him 12:45 and you know, what are the chances 12:46 of something like this happening 12:48 and I was like all the stuff going on in my life 12:50 and I looked at the bottle of wine 12:51 and I'm like, yeah, okay will see you later. 12:54 So, they I went into parking I went out to the car 12:56 and I had this bottle of wine between my legs 12:58 and I was just sitting there thinking about 13:00 what this gentleman just said to me. 13:02 And I thought to myself 13:03 you know, he's more of a Christian than I am. 13:05 I could be studying the Bible with him, 13:07 I could be sharing with him all kinds of things 13:09 that I knew up here. 13:10 But I didn't have the experience here 13:13 and I just picked up that bottle of wine 13:15 I walked back in and I set it on the counter 13:16 and I looked at the gentleman 13:18 and I said, can I have my money back for this bottle? 13:20 And he smiled and he said, sure 13:22 and he made out the change he kind of giving my money back 13:25 and I walked out and I went back home 13:27 and I apologized to my wife. 13:29 The next morning, I got up and I thought 13:31 you know, I need to go down to that Minimart, 13:32 the gas station Minimart and I need to go 13:35 find out who this fellow is 13:36 and tell him about how the Lord used him 13:38 to touch my life at that time 13:40 to help bring me back around to get my focus. 13:43 And I went down there and the two brothers 13:44 that own the place were there 13:45 and I pulled up in one of my customized 13:47 little low-rider pickup trucks 13:49 that I had at the time and I got out 13:51 and I started visiting with him 13:52 and I said who was the guy working on a shift last night? 13:54 And they looked at me and said, 13:56 one brother pointed at the second brother 13:58 said he was working last night. 14:00 And I said, no, the other guy that was working last night, 14:02 the other gentleman is kind of tall fellow and-- 14:05 He said, Jeff, are you okay? 14:08 And I said, I came here last night 14:10 there was some guy at the table 14:11 they said, Jeff we were, 14:12 he was the only one in shift last night. 14:14 And I said, okay and I got in my truck and left. 14:18 I'll be honest with you for almost 10 years 14:20 I never shared this experience with anybody 14:22 because first of all I didn't think would believe me. 14:25 I probably spent four years just processing the whole thing 14:28 because I was just trying to figure out 14:29 really could that have happened? 14:31 And then they think that 14:32 would angels sell cigarettes and alcohol or was, 14:37 one of the friends there who was pitching in 14:38 and they just forgot? 14:40 I never had been able to figure out 14:42 but all that I do know is that it happened. 14:47 You know, about the same time after this incident happened 14:50 we started becoming very serious 14:52 talking with my brother about country living and we-- 14:54 actually we started getting 14:55 really serious about country living 14:57 and we got this little book out its called "Country Living." 15:00 This little book is full of powerful and precious gems 15:03 that are really pertinent for us today. 15:06 In fact, if you look in this book 15:07 on page 17 it says, "Serious times are before us, 15:12 and there is great need for families 15:14 to get out of the cities into the country, 15:17 that the truth may be carried into the byways 15:19 as well as the highways of the earth. 15:22 Cities full of transgression, and sinful in the extreme, 15:25 will be destroyed by earthquakes, 15:26 by fire, by flood 15:28 that houses will be shaken like a reed in the wind. 15:31 Building, great and small, were falling to the ground. 15:35 Pleasure resorts, theaters, hotels and homes 15:37 of the wealthy were shaken and shattered. 15:40 Many lives were blotted out of existence, 15:42 and the air was filled with the shrieks 15:44 of the injured and the terrified." 15:48 And I couldn't help but to think 15:49 when I read those quotations of some of the things 15:51 that have happened over the years 15:52 since those things were written. 15:54 I mean, you look at what happened 15:56 with the terrible tragedy recently in New Orleans 16:01 and even back in 1906 the terrible earthquake 16:04 and fire that hit San Francisco 16:06 are going to the dead zone of Chernobyl 16:09 that these kind of things happened in cities 16:11 and it just convicted us even more 16:13 that we needed to make a decision 16:15 to move out into the country. 16:17 Well, things started happening really quickly. 16:20 All these different things falling apart in our life 16:22 and, but yeah, we were starting to hold on to the Lord 16:24 that, in that valley of decision 16:26 we started grabbing a hold of God 16:27 and saying, God, we trust You, 16:28 we know that You have a plan for our live. 16:30 We moved into my wife's grandmother's house 16:32 and I started selling off 16:34 all my idols to get out of debts. 16:36 Now, what do I mean by idols? 16:38 Well, the idols that I have unfortunately were 16:41 the 1938 Packard Sedan and 1937 Plymouth Coupe 16:45 and 1939 Ford Sedan and 1936 Plymouth Coupe 16:49 that I had when I got married to my wife 16:52 and 1934 Chevy and a whole list of cars that I had. 16:56 In fact, I had probably about 12 pre 1940 cars 16:59 and each car I sold off we were able to riddle 17:02 more and more out of debt. 17:03 Until finally we got to the point 17:04 that we actually were completely out of debt 17:07 and we had some cash and I'm not saying 17:09 that just because you have an antique car, 17:11 you have an idol but you have to understand 17:12 where I was at, these cars were my idols. 17:15 I could own an old car now, 17:16 in fact my son and I restored old cars 17:18 as a project together recently 17:19 and the car is not, by any means any kind of idol to me 17:23 but back in those days 17:25 these things were definitely my idol. 17:27 And my brother and I decided 17:29 that as we pulled our families together 17:30 we started praying and we started stepping out in faith 17:33 about being serious about trying to find that 17:35 ideal piece of property 17:37 that we were gonna really do it and we kissed our wives, 17:40 goodbye and we jumped in my 1967 Ford pickup truck 17:43 with an old beat of camper on the back. 17:45 And we decided that 17:46 we are gonna put together our $4,000 that we had 17:50 and we were gonna go buy a piece of property. 17:53 And so we started out in Montana 17:54 and we went down all through Western Montana 17:57 and down into Central Idaho 17:58 and we stopped at real estate places, we stopped at farms 18:01 we were trying to find a piece of property to buy. 18:03 We knew God must have a piece of property out there. 18:06 You see, this is what we were looking for. 18:09 We were looking for a nice stand of trees, 18:13 a nice remote piece of acreage with a southern exposure, 18:17 possibly with a year round stream 18:19 or even better yet a spring coming down out of the mountain 18:24 on the back part of the property 18:26 a year round spring that would be really great. 18:29 We're just to think of having 10 acres next to a lake. 18:32 You know, wouldn't that be great 18:33 you know, have southern exposure, nice trees 18:34 and all of this stuff on a piece of property 18:37 that was fairy remote for $800 an acre. 18:42 Yeah, that's what happened, that as everywhere we went 18:44 the realtors laughed at us, the farmers laughed at us, 18:47 people slammed their doors in our faces, 18:49 every place was a dead end. 18:50 We went down into Central Idaho, 18:52 we zigzagged around through different places, 18:54 we stopped at real estate places 18:55 and at every place it was a same story. 18:57 They laughed at us, 18:59 they said, yeah sure, 19:00 if we had pieces of property like that 19:01 we could sell them a dime a dozen. 19:04 You know, God tests our willingness. 19:07 You know, are we really willing to step out in faith 19:10 and do what God asked us to do? 19:11 Are we willing to be faith partners with God? 19:14 It's kind of like you know, the children of Israel, 19:16 putting their feet in the water 19:17 when they are told to go into the Promise Land 19:19 and the water never parted till 19:20 they actually stuck their feet in the water 19:22 and that's what God is calling us to do. 19:25 Finally after traveling all the way through Central Idaho 19:28 we came up through a place called Saint Maries, Idaho 19:31 and then we drove all the way to a town 19:32 called Coeur d'Alene, Idaho 19:34 which by the way was right next to the Interstate. 19:36 That was quick zip back to Montana to go tell our wives 19:40 that the Lord hadn't provided 19:42 that there was a dead end everywhere we went 19:45 that our dream and our step in faith was a failure. 19:49 And my brother and I were in the back of the Camper 19:52 sitting in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho eating lunch 19:54 and we decided to go for a little short walk 19:56 and as went for a short walk, we walked by this old house 20:00 that had been turned into a real state agency. 20:02 I'm sure some of you have seen that how in some suburbian area, 20:06 suburbia areas I should say 20:08 they turn an old house into a real estate office 20:10 and my brother looked at it kind of like our last hope 20:12 and he said, let's go in here. 20:14 And you see, when we did this I did most of the talking 20:16 when we went to the real estate places and stuff I was, 20:19 I was kind of asking a lot of questions 20:22 and instigating the jeers and laughs 20:24 that we got from these people but I just, 20:27 I had enough, I gave up and my hope was lost 20:29 and I looked at my brother and said, 20:31 we don't want to go in this place 20:32 they're just gonna try to sell us 20:33 $150-$200,000 home in the city. 20:35 You know, this is last place in the world 20:37 we need to look for buying a piece of property 20:40 in the wilderness like we were wanting to get. 20:42 And I said, but if you want to go in there 20:43 let's do it and I said, but this time you're gonna have to talk. 20:45 So, he was in front of me when we walked in 20:47 and every indication that this was the wrong place was there. 20:51 I mean, we walked in 20:52 and we looked on either side of us 20:54 and there was all this Polaroid pictures 20:56 of these fancy houses you know, 20:58 and I was like, oh, great, here we go. 21:01 They are gonna try to sell us a house you know, 21:02 sell really expensive house. 21:04 And a lady was sitting at the desk 21:05 and she looked like she had quite a bit of money, 21:07 so she must have been doing more, 21:08 she had lot of jewelry and she was made up really nice 21:11 and as we walked in you have to realize 21:12 we had been two weeks on the road 21:14 kind of scruffy looking guys you know, 21:16 with beards and suspenders and blue jeans on 21:18 and we're looking for this piece of property 21:20 and we walked in her. 21:21 She had an envelope in her hand 21:22 and she was kind of like looking at us like, 21:26 what do these guys want, you know, 21:28 and she was just getting right to look this envelope 21:30 and my brother started the spiel. 21:33 You know, we are looking for a nice piece of property, 21:35 10 acres preferably, nice southern exposure, 21:38 fairly remote you know, 21:41 a year around stream going through by a lake 21:43 or having spring on it nice standard timber 21:46 and she looked at us and her eyes 21:48 even got bigger and she said, 21:49 well, its funny happened to walk in right now 21:51 because I've been doing research of out of my spare time 21:54 for remote wilderness property like this for a gentleman 21:57 that lives in New York that wants to have a hunting cabin 21:59 and I have all the originals on the photocopy machine 22:02 back in the back room and I can just go ahead 22:05 and give you this I was just going to mail it to him 22:07 and I mean I can go head and just Xerox off 22:08 some more copies and send to him. 22:11 And so we grabbed the envelope and we went out to the truck 22:13 and we were like, wow, look at all this property 22:16 you know, 10 acres here and it was down in this area 22:19 called Saint Maries, Idaho. What? 22:21 We had just come from there. 22:22 So, we got back in our truck 22:23 and we drove down to this real estate office 22:25 and we went to a realtor there in Saint Maries 22:28 one of the real estate offices, this is about you know, 1981 22:32 and we opened the door 22:33 and there is a smoky cigarette full. 22:36 It was full of cigarette smoke this lady sitting in there 22:38 and we walked in there and said, 22:39 we want to look at this property. 22:41 And this lady has started using some language 22:43 that I can't use on this program. 22:45 And she started telling us, 22:46 you think I'm gonna take you around look at all this property 22:48 that you might buy to make 22:49 a lousy $500 or $1,000 commission. 22:52 You're crazy. 22:53 Why don't you come back Monday 22:54 maybe the relater will take you out? 22:56 So, we kind of, we are like little puppies with our tails 22:58 between out legs and we took off 23:00 and drove all the way back to Montana 23:02 and told our wives that you know, 23:04 this was our last hope. 23:06 Well, that next Monday we jumped in a little boxing car 23:08 we drove out to Saint Maries 23:10 and the other realtor was there and he was a gentleman. 23:13 And this guy was so nice 23:14 he put us in his 4x4 pickup truck 23:16 we all squished in the front cab together 23:18 and we drove around and for a whole day 23:20 he took us and showed us all this property 23:22 and we soon started finding out 23:24 why are we at such a cheap price? 23:25 A lot of it was on a North slope 23:27 that was this steep and he said well, 23:28 you know, you can only get to this property 23:30 about three months out of the year 23:31 because of the snow up here and lot of the property 23:34 was unusable it didn't have access 23:36 and we started to realize 23:37 why it was so cheap and that afternoon 23:40 we were getting kind of tired and it was time for lunch. 23:42 We got into a circle like my brother 23:44 and I and our families always did 23:45 and we had prayer together 23:47 and that realtor was kind of standing there nervous 23:48 and he said, you folks are Christians and we said, yeah. 23:51 He said, well, tell you what there is more property 23:52 I want to show you tomorrow 23:53 so tonight you can stay in a mobile home 23:55 that we have right down here 23:56 it's a really nice splendid mobile home, 23:58 its down the fair ground that I just put in, 24:00 stay there and then tomorrow 24:01 I'll take you to look at some more property. 24:03 The next day came and he started taking us around, 24:05 look at all those different property 24:06 and the same thing, every single place 24:08 we went was the same thing, 24:09 either it was an hour in one direction 24:12 on a dirt road on the side of the steep hill 24:14 no access to it because of a large stream, 24:16 we have to build a bridge everything was a dead end. 24:20 And finally we came back to little town of Saint Maries 24:22 and we were standing outside the realtor's office 24:25 and we realize that the Lord hadn't provided. 24:30 And then my brother looked down at this piece of paper. 24:33 And he looked at the realtor and he said, 24:35 what about this one, you never showed us this one 24:38 and the realtor grabbed it and said, 24:39 oh, I forgot all about that piece of property 24:41 its way of this other direction. 24:43 And he said, let's go ahead 24:46 and jump in the truck and head out there. 24:49 And that's what we did. 24:51 The very last piece of property 24:53 that the realtor took us to is up this road. 24:55 Our wives would come to the point 24:56 where they had been just exhausted 24:58 from looking a property 25:00 so they decided they want to stay in Saint Maries 25:02 and look around at little town in here 25:04 and my brother and I got in the truck, 25:06 4x4 truck with the realtor and he took us up this road 25:09 and I'll never forget as we drove up this road 25:11 it was mud ruts this deep 25:13 and the truck was kind of going up the road sideways 25:16 and throwing mud allover the place 25:18 and my brother was looking at me like 25:19 what are we getting into here you know, 25:21 this is going to be another one of these extremely remote pieces 25:24 of property that we'll never be able to getting in out off. 25:26 And as we came around the corner 25:27 we came to this Southern exposure 25:29 with a really nice little meadow 25:30 and my brother and I looked at it over and thought 25:32 is it possible that this is the place 25:34 that the Lord's leading us. 25:35 So, we decided that 25:36 we would like to talk to our wives, 25:37 we told to the realtor give us 25:39 a little time to think about this. 25:40 We went back to town, 25:41 we ended up getting our wives in little Datsun car 25:44 we drove up here because these roads 25:45 were so muddy we couldn't drive in here, 25:47 we decided to walk in. 25:50 That meant walking two miles on solid muddy road 25:52 our shoes were getting caked with mud 25:54 and we walked back into the property 25:56 and we ended up on the meadow upon the hill here. 26:02 This is the place we ended up and this is my wife Christy 26:04 and Christy and I and my brother Alan 26:07 and my sister-in-law Amy came to this meadow 26:10 and as we started looking around 26:11 we realize this is what we were looking for. 26:14 This, we had a nice southern exposure, 26:16 nice standard trees, we had a year around, 26:19 almost year around creek going 26:20 right through one corner of the property 26:22 and you know what, it was $800 an acre, 26:25 exactly what we were looking for 26:27 and how we are ridicule and have been told 26:29 that would never happening. 26:30 One other things that I remember thanking about is you know, 26:34 how God had the children on Israel come up to the Red Sea 26:37 but before they could actually go into the Red Sea 26:39 they had to put their foot into the water 26:42 and what we realized in buying this piece of property was that 26:46 that God wanted us to step forward in faith 26:48 and as we were looking and looking and looking 26:51 and we were being laughed at, 26:52 we have being scorned and everything seemed hopeless 26:55 the very last piece of property we looked at 26:58 was the very piece of property we ended up buying. 27:01 It was like God took us to the very end of our ropes 27:03 where everything looked like it was totally hopeless 27:05 and helpless and then He did for us 27:09 that which we couldn't do for ourselves 27:10 and this is the piece of property that we purchased. 27:13 You know what's interesting? 27:14 Is that morning while you and Alan 27:16 were on your way up here to check the property out 27:20 Amy and I decided that we would stand town 27:22 and check out the little town of Saint Maries. 27:25 And as we were driving along it didn't take very long 27:28 and we ended up driving up this little winding road 27:31 and we're looking at each other and we're saying, 27:33 why didn't the realtor bring us up this road? 27:35 This is really a pretty area 27:37 and when you came back and got us 27:40 that was the road we went up 27:42 and it was amazing to me that the Lord kind of led us 27:45 on our own right up the road where the property was. 27:49 Anyhow I'd like to take you up and show you the house 27:51 'cause there is some amazing stories of what happened 27:53 and how the Lord worked with us 27:55 in trying to establish a ministry 27:57 on this remote wilderness piece of property here in North Idaho. 28:08 When we first moved up here 28:11 this was, you have to consider 28:12 very extremely remote wilderness property 28:14 and we were just a couple of young kids 28:16 from kind of the city I guess we could say, 28:18 and we came up here was just really remote 28:21 primitive tools to work with. 28:22 In fact, Christy, do you remember 28:23 what things we brought with us? 28:25 Well, as far as tools we had a rare barrel, 28:29 we had a shovel, a hammer, we had a keg of used nails 28:34 that came from my grandpa's shed. 28:37 I'm sorry we're out of time. 28:39 If you would like to see this completely presentation, 28:41 please write or call Laymen Ministries, 28:44 414 Zapada road, St. Maries, Idaho, 83861 28:49 or call 1-800-245-1844. 28:54 You can contact us on the web at www.lmn.org. |
Revised 2014-12-17