Part 11

The Move
In the fall of 1999 on the Day of Atonement Father brought our church family together for an unannounced camp meeting that was held at our church property in Sandpoint, Idaho. We all came together at the same place and at the same time, some from as far away as Arkansas, all strongly
drawn by the Holy Spirit of God. These meetings were not planned by man. Father Himself would use them as a means of preparing us to move to the new land to which He was taking us. I saw it as the beginning of the fulfillment of the following statement:

"Before the final visitation of God’s judgments upon the earth, there will be, among the people of the Lord, such a revival of primitive godliness as has not been witnessed since apostolic times. The Spirit and power of God will be poured out upon His children. . . Many, both of ministers and people, will gladly accept those great truths which God has caused to be proclaimed at this time, to prepare a people for the Lord’s second coming." (EGW)

After the meetings were over, most of our church family traveled south in their temporary houses (RVs) to spend the winter together in the Safford, Arizona area. But my husband’s job kept us up north, where we spent the winter alone without any church fellowship except via computer. Little did I know then that it would be our last winter together.


Winters in the northern part of the United States can be long and cold, with dreary, overcast skies and lots of snow. This one was no exception. It seemed to be a reflection of what I was feeling in my own soul. I felt very much alone spiritually as I watched my husband being drawn more and more to satisfy his worldly interests, while my own desire was getting stronger and stronger to be with my church family in the south.

One evening in January, 2000, when I was feeling that I could bear it no longer, I put on my coat and went outside to find a quiet place where I could pour my heart out in prayer to my heavenly Father. When I came back in a while later, He moved me to pick up a book that a friend had loaned to me just a few days before. It fell open to a page that said:

"Is it winter right now in the season of your life? Are you feeling depressed... alone... overlooked... spiritually on "hold"... cold... barren? Beginning to wonder if your soul will ever thaw? Entertaining doubts that behind those thick, gray clouds there exists a personal, caring God? Take it by faith, friend; He is there, and furthermore, He is neither dead nor deaf. What you are enduring is one of those dry-spell times when you’d rather curl up and cry than stand up and sing. That’s okay. Those times come. They also pass. When this winter season ends, you’ll be wiser, deeper, stronger. Therefore, in reverence, look up. Be still and discover anew that He is God. That He is doing whatever He pleases in your life." (Charles Swindoll)

From this I received the assurance that Father had heard my prayers and in His own perfect timing and way He would bring His answer to me.

My husband was also feeling the dividing of our spiritual pathways. That winter he was diagnosed with having high blood pressure from the stress that it was causing him in his life. My heart went out to him, but there was nothing I could do to help him. I could only quietly watch and wait to see what Father was going to do for us.

The first part of April I flew to Safford to spend the Passover season there with our church family. At least I thought that was why I was going. But while I was there, the transaction was completed for the purchase of our new church property in New Mexico, and two weeks later I was on my way to the new land, traveling with the sister I had been staying with in Safford.

The morning we left Safford I called to tell my husband of the change of plans. He said to me, "You may just want to stay there." I asked him, "Are you saying you don’t want me to come home? Are you saying that you want to be alone?" And he replied, "Well, I think so." That was my first intimation of an imminent separation in our marriage. It took me quite by surprise and felt very overwhelming as I began to consider what that would look like for me. On the one hand, my spirit was leaping with joy at the prospect of being free to move to the new land. But on the other hand, I was feeling like a big part of me was about to be ripped out by an Unseen Hand.

While I was in this state of being toggled back and forth in my emotions, the first Sabbath in the new land Father spoke to me saying, "I have brought you here to teach you how to be the wife I created you to be." I thought He was saying that He was going to teach me how to be a better wife to my husband so we could live together in perfect harmony and peace for all eternity. But in reality that wasn’t whose "wife" I was created to be.


It is written: "And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife." All of humanity has been created to be the Bride (wife) of Christ, the Lamb of God. In the days to come I was to see and fully experience the truth that "God alone is enough. Whoever has God wants for nothing at all."

One day in May one of my sisters and I took a long hike up one of the ridges that surround the valley in which our land lies. We ended up on a mesa where we walked for a couple hours before we realized that neither of us had any idea which way to go to get back home. I’ve always had a good sense of direction, but for the first time in my life I knew I was lost, and I felt a panic begin to rise up in me. My sister, who remained calm, suggested that we sit down and ask for Father’s help, which we did. And, of course, He heard our prayers and it wasn’t long before we stood up and started walking in a direction that took us right back to the edge of the ridge where we could see our land again.

Father used that experience to give me a picture of what the days ahead would look like as I would face what appeared to be impossible circumstances where I would be brought to depend upon Him alone to know what to do. That night He sang a song to me that says, "God has made a way where there seems to be no way. He’s worked in ways you did not see. God has made a way for thee."

The next morning I boarded a plane to fly back up north to take care of the necessary business in the separation of my marriage of almost 30 years.