Free From Guilt and Shame
Vernon and I thought about the parking lot of the church in Cookeville TN, which was 30 minutes from the property. So, we called up our friend Chuck Hackett who was head elder of the Cookeville SDA Church at that time, and asked him if we could park the RV on the parking lot of the church for a few weeks. He said “Yes… but I have a RV hook up on my 40 acres. Why don’t you come and stay on our property until you are ready to move onto your property.” (This happened to be 5 miles from our property). When God answers prayers, He really answers prayers. So for the next 8 weeks Vernon and I would stay with our daughter and son-in-law in Charlotte Monday thru Wednesday, and Wednesday afternoon we would pack up and head back to TN. We stayed in our RV on the Hackett homestead from Wednesday night until Sunday afternoon and headed back to Charlotte. Vernon worked Monday – Wednesday at the office and from the RV Thursday and Fridays. This enabled us to get some work done on the property. Before we knew it retirement day came. And on December 31 Vernon and I said our good byes and moved permanently to TN, where we lived in our 5th Wheel RV on the Hacketts' 40 acres homestead for what was to be a few weeks. It ended up being 10 ½ months.
Through the 10 ½ months Vernon and I would get up early in the morning, have worship, eat breakfast, pack a lunch, and head over to the property to prepare it for our RV and to prepare the site where we thought we would build our home. While we were preparing the property God was preparing us for ministry.
In the very first blog post, I told you God told us He had to do some shaking up in us. Can I just tell you when God shakes you up, it’s not pretty. He showed us some things about ourselves that was quite ugly. Our sins if not confessed would cost us eternal life with our Savior. All of our dirt came out. The things we did to hurt each other, and the deeds we had done that hurt others. There were moments during this time that we felt very broken, but we knew we had to go through it in order to do Gods work free from guilt and shame. Not only did God free us from our shame He brought Vernon and I closer than we have ever been. Thank you God for seeing in us, what we did not see in ourselves.
The prep work on the property for the RV was going well except for one thing: an easement. What is that you say? You see Vernon and I picked 10 acres of the back part of the 28 plus acres and there was no easy way to get back there by car or truck. A walking path yes, but not a usable road for a vehicle. To put a road through the property would cost too much so we decided to ask our neighbors that were connected on three sides of our property on the back end for an easement through their property. Every one of them said “NO”. Vernon and I prayed and prayed, but nothing seemed to help. We did not know what to do. The one thing we were sure of is that God brought us to this area, so we had to trust what God was going to do for us next.
