If You Subscribe…

to this blog, or are following our adventures, you will need to subscribe to the new blog.

You can find the new blog here: Reflections from Beit-Shalom. In the sidebar on the right there is a button to subscribe to emails. Below that are links to subscribe by RSS.

We hope to see over there!

Moving into the future…

It’s been a long time since we’ve lived in that little RV. It’s March of 2020 and we moved into the house in May of 2012. The house is still unfinished, but I’m okay with that. We have made some progress. The outside of the house is now done, not the property (although it is looking better) but the building itself. Along with that we got an 8×8′ deck and a new patio door and some smaller decks and steps at each of the other doors. That’s a real blessing, especially since I’m sitting out on my deck doing this post.

I don’t really write on this blog anymore. I write on Reflections from Beit Shalom and on some other personal blogs. And I don’t write often. I go in spurts. So the most recent stuff is definitely not on this blog.

I hope anyone who reads this will check out the other blog. As you read this blog about out life in the Little RV, I hope it will give you hope that you can get through even tough situations. Although I tried to make this blog very upbeat, the reality is it was very, very challenging. Anyone who is going through a challenging time is welcome to reach out to me via comments or our contact form. I understand tough times. I understand isolation. I understand wondering how on Earth you’re going to get through whatever situation you’re in. So, if I can encourage anybody, please feel free to reach out.

Important message…

The message in this blog post is so important that I am giving you the link for it: Israel in your face

Please read…and heed.

A New Blog!

We are spending the night tonight in Beit-Shalom. We still have a lot of work to do, but we are in! Since we are no longer living in the RV on the hillside, I am moving to a new blog that I have been preparing for some time. I am still working on it, but it seems appropriate to move over there now seeing as how we are sleeping in the house!

I still have some photos to put up, but I have decided to put them up on the new blog even though they are from before this date. It is all still about Beit-Shalom. Here is the new blog. We hope you enjoy it.

Reflections from Beit-Shalom

This angel light was a gift I received a couple of years ago. She is on my kitchen counter.

Almost In!

I wrote this on the 12th, but did not post it. We did not make it in that night. This was going to be the first Beit-Shalom post, but I decided to put it here since we did not move in that night. 

Here I am…sitting in Beit-Shalom. We have decided to spend the night up here tonight…to “officially” move in…even though the sheet rock is not quite finished and there is more work to be done.

One reason for deciding to move is the heat and mugginess. It makes it difficult to do anything in Beit-Shalom and we feel so closed up in the RV. So we decided to install the AC unit that we used to have in the RV last summer into a living room window up here. It did not make sense to put it back in the window of the RV for just a day or two. Obviously, it won’t cool the whole house, but it might take some of the mugginess out of the air.

Earlier, we actually had some pretty nice breezes, but I am glad that Dave decided to install the AC anyway. They were gone by the time he got it into the window. Plus, we cannot open all the windows yet.

We took it apart so that I could clean it up. It appears to be running just fine. We figure even one little window unit is better than nothing. Thankfully, I just heard on the radio that it is supposed to cool down tonight.

We saw a sale on basic wooden screen doors. They were out of stock yesterday, but are coming in next Tuesday. It will be nice to have a couple of screen doors in place. Eventually, we want a storm/screen door for the front door. For the laundry room, we want both a screen door, plus we hope to someday replace the regular door with one that has a window…as our Abba provides. We want to take as much advantage of breezes as possible to save on electricity.

The guys went to pick up some twin mattresses and extra twin sheets. We don’t know, yet, if our queen mattress survived, so we are borrowing some new twins that we can stack for the time being…anything to get in at this point!

I have to wait to post this because we have no internet or phone up here, yet. I get one tiny little bar…just enough for it to see that there is a connection somewhere, but not quite strong enough to get on-line. Perhaps, if I move the modem in the RV to the window of the RV? It’s too hot to go down and try it. We can go down later when it is cooler to try it.

I guess that is how it can feel with G-d sometimes. We can know He is there, but connection with Him seems just out of reach. We can almost sense His presence, but then feel as if He is not listening…or, worse, not even caring.

The Word tells us that He does care. In fact, He loves us like an Abba/Daddy/Father…a good one, that is. He is love and He always acts on our best interests…unlike some of our earthly fathers. The problem is that we don’t always see it that way. All we see is a tiny moment of life…this moment. He sees a whole eternity. We see only a piece of the puzzle of life and He sees the completed picture.

While we are only seeing that tiny moment…that one piece…it can seem like He is far away. Just like that WiFi signal is not quite strong enough to get online, it can seem like G-d is just far enough away to not hear us. But don’t you believe it…even for an instant! He IS here…right now! G-d said He would never leave us or forsake us…and He meant it. Just because we don’t understand what is going on does not mean that He is not working something out in whatever you are going through. He promises to turn all things for good. Whether for you or for someone else, if we will allow ourselves to be led through the wilderness of life by Him…by our spiritual Shepherd…He WILL get us through it and there WILL be something better in the end.

I pray that all who are reading this will be blessed in some way. I pray that You will find Your comfort and provision in Yahweh…the G-d of the bible. He is our hope. He is our joy.