A move…changed…

 A move, changed….

In 1976-77, our young family of three were living in the Cascade mountains in an old mining camp called, Jawbone Flats, later known as Opal Creek…my husband was working for Freeport-McMoran, looking at a copper deposit found under those magnificent old growth Cedar trees…

We lived in the cabin with the bath tube…(each cabin was known for their major convenience)…I cooked in an old oil stove or the small wood stove…the cabins had been built in the 1930’s. Sometimes we had power from the huge generator that served the camp until a pelton wheel was finally working using water to give us steady quiet electricity.

The place is a steep canyon and in the winter, we had about and hour of sunshine. We happened to live there in one of the driest winters, with very little snow and the Detroit dam below us was nearly dry…so we navigated through that time without getting snowed in…

Another job move was offered and we eagerly took it…it was to move to Indonesia to work high in the mountains at the mine called the Ertsberg.

I was pregnant with our second child, we went home to pack, get all of our paperwork in order…, passports, shots up to date, sort, etc….we could  take 100 pounds with us, 1000 pounds to come behind us and the rest of our belongings to be stored for the two year stint…we met the family whom we would be replacing and got hints of what and what not to take, how the living conditions were, etc, we rented out our home….even made connections with my parents who were in New Zealand at the time…everything set…

The moving truck arrived, the movers packed packed and packed and we were down the kitchen table standing alone in an empty house, as I cleaned, ready to fly out the next day…

The phone rang…the job had been canceled over lunch in New York City….

 

I stood in the middle of the empty floor, stunned, got a hug from the renter who arrived to get the keys, told the packers to unload, realized I got a great spring cleaning…and changed directions….

We had had peace about the job, having prayed over it a lot, and we had peace about not going…so moved forward, moved back into the Cascades to finish that job…it would have been a great adventure, but apparently not for us…

Later, as I delivered our second child quickly, with some difficulties following, it was good that we hadn’t moved as the medical care there at the mine or flying out to Cairns, Australia might not have been a great way to go…God had it all well in hand….we had to be willing to accept the changes….and His direction…

All through the Bible, there are life stories of changed directions…as readers and students of the Bible, we can see how each worked out for the people, maybe see how God used the changes for His Glory…sometimes we may get glimpses of that for our own life stories and most we probably won’t know until we reach our heavenly home…how God is working in our lives to mold us, to build us, to conform us more and more into his image…nothing is wasted in His economy….

Thank YOU…

 “giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,”

Eph.5.20

 How great are your works, O Lord!Your thoughts are very deep!

Ps.92.5

 For my thoughts are not your thoughts,neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. 

For as the heavens are higher than the earth,so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

“For as the rain and the snow come down from heavenand do not return there but water the earth,making it bring forth and sprout,giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;it shall not return to me empty,but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

Isa.55.8-11

https://thediggings.com/mines/usgs10208264

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grasberg_mine