God’s Faithfulness

The last two months have been crazy. Alaska has been a great first location for us to get our roots down in this fifth wheel. Don’t forget, we’ve never even been in a fifth wheel before we decided to dive right in and buy one. We are learning how to operate this on the go. And although we felt pretty good after two weeks of traveling about how to operate and drive one, we still had no idea how it’d feel to live in one. Our first impression in it felt overwhelming since we were constantly on the go, we quickly caught the travel fatigue bug and I have said before how I felt like my head was spinning never knowing where I was sleeping. It can feel quite dizzy and I was even starting to have nightmares and would wake in a panic trying to figure out which location we were currently in, even what direction I was facing.

However after living in only two spots for the last two months we have begun to start recognizing the fifth wheel as home. My daughter asked the other day, “Do you think we are better RV people now?” “Well, what do you think pretty girl, do you feel better about living in one?” “Yea, it feels like home now.”

RV living is definitely different. In our first spot where we lived for a little more than a month I thought it was bad that we to use the outdoor fridge because we didn’t have enough electric to run the big fridge indoors. I also found it highly inconvenient to pack up the entire RV every week to go dump our tanks. We eventually found a rhythm and I was proud of us for rolling with the punches.

It’s funny how when you agree to live by faith and you finally assume you are semi-comfortable in life, God has no problem humbling you even further. See, we made an agreement to live by faith when we stepped into this lifestyle…right? And one thing I’ve been learning a ton about living by faith is that it requires me to not be comfortable according to worldly definition. Faith requires a humble heart. And perhaps it is pride that allows us to believe that we deserve comfort. But comfort creates stagnancy. And faith requires fear of the Lord.

Now I know a lot of people struggle with that word fear but let me share with you something I’ve truly begun to recognize. There are only two types of fear: fear of the world and fear of the Lord. Whatever you fear is you magnifying that thing in your life. It’s you agreeing that that thing has more power. You can fear the world, what you will wear or eat or drink, where you will live or how you will pay the bills. These worries can be magnified in your life and will consume your mind. Or…you can recognize that God created everything and is for you, He is bigger than it all! This is fear, reverence, of the Lord. This is faith.

One great example of this was when we realized that traveling is not cheap. Diesel and food and the few bills we incur, do take money! And the further we drive, the more diesel we need! We got to a point where our funds had run dry. Josh had managed to find work helping a man put up a building but we hadn’t been paid yet. And our pantry was looking very bare! What do we do? Well, you pray of course! You thank God, knowing He is a faithful God who has never failed you before and won’t fail you now. So we prayed and thanked God for His incredible blessings! Although it looked bleak, we didn’t fear not having food…we knew God was bigger!

Right then, there was a knock on our door. A Ukrainian man that Josh had been working alongside with, who had to use a phone to translate since he doesn’t speak English, was standing there with two big bags of groceries. In his phone translator he typed, I felt like I should give this for your family. He told us how to make a Ukrainian stew with lentils and beets. He was just sharing out of the kindness and goodness of his heart, but what he probably didn’t realize was he was acting as the hands and feet of Jesus to answer our prayer. God is good, all the time!

All this to say, sometimes answers to prayers don’t come in the way you expect. Sometimes they are not even what you may define as comfortable, but God is faithful and does provide!

Amazingly, we did get itchy. We realized we were not benefiting the community we were in and we felt like it was coming time to move. But where? It would be easy to find somewhere comfortable and just hope for the best. Funds needed to be refilled though! We couldn’t even foresee how we would be able to save enough money to get to the lower 48 before the icy roads began. What will we do? Well, if you haven’t gotten the trend, instead of fearing the world…you pray! You be still and take time to recognize that our God is so great, so strong and so mighty there’s nothing He cannot do!

A few days after starting this prayer we get a phone call from a random connection to see if we can move further north and help a beautiful older woman with her off grid land. We knew off grid living would be testing but we felt in our heart that this was where God wanted us to be to be His hands and feet, so we went.

Now, RV living became even more difficult, it wasn’t just having a fridge outside instead of inside or having to move to dump every week. Now we had no electric, no water, no dump sites, no internet, no neighbors. Just us on 160 acres of swamp. At first it was intimidating but Gods creation has a way of changing your mind. It was stunning! Absolutely beautiful! On sunny days we could see the biggest mountain in America (Denali) right down the road from us. We got to witness autumn come down upon the Alaskan land like a golden curtain. Our kids got to dance in the leaves as they began to fall from the tall branches above.

It was very cold perched amongst the golden aspens and red cranberry bushes. It rained practically every day. And the mountains kept breathing their Arctic breath on us. But it created memories for us that we won’t soon forget! We met an incredible woman who seemed to be made of steel, she led us through her beloved wilderness teaching us all about true backwood Alaskan living. My kids got to learn how to live off the land, how to use rain water and which berries they can eat as they tramp through the woods, how to build their own fires and shelters. We learned how to work hard despite the rain and cold, how to endure the wilderness and appreciate its raw powerful beauty. Our time there taught us true gratitude and grit.

When you allow God to move in your life, He will take you places you would never even imagine! Places you probably wouldn’t choose to go because it doesn’t fit your definition of what you are comfortable with, but places you’ll soon learn are better than you could ever plan on your own.

And God provides!

We now have a way to get back down south, something that seemed so bleak before that I figured it was impossible. But do I fear the world or do I fear the God who created the world? He is the God of impossible because He is bigger than what we deem possible.

So our wheels are now turning once again, leaving beautiful Alaska and Canada behind. The snow has been sneaking in further and further in from the mountain tops and we fear the cold will be right on our tails as we fly down these slopes. However I have faith that God will take care of us, even if it’s not as we hope or expect, I know He goes before us!

And I thank Him, for being so incredible and faithful as to lead me by the hand to places I’d never have the courage to venture to on my own. He is a good, good, Father.