For several years, the Lord urged Sevilla
and myself to move into the country, but we balked, not certain
we could trust the Lord to supply our needs. Being handicapped
and dependent on either public transportation or the generosity
of others to carry us to the store etc., we hesitated until providentially
a rental house opened up in the country, near Chattanooga, TN.
The landlord was the mother of good friend, so we felt somewhat
confident that we could venture to follow the Lord. Our trust
wasn’t as firm and secure as it became over the next several
years, but even babies to learn to walk, plants grow, and Christians
lean to trust their Lord.
We moved in winter which wasn’t too
bad for Northern Georgia. For the first six weeks, the weather
was mild and we experienced no difficulty getting to the store.
Richard, our Landlady’s son either took us or a grocery list
to the store. He was generous to a fault.
Then Richard’s mother had all the trees
around our house logged off, leaving massive ruts, and it began
to rain, and it rained and rained and rained, and all the ruts
became mud and we were stranded in a sea of orange/yellow goo.
The driveway had disappeared under the treads
of skiders dragging the logs down hill to be trucked to a sawmill.
The only we could reach the main driveway, without getting stuck
in the mud was to stretch 2X8 plants across the mud. If you can
image one blind woman and a half blind man with groceries trying
to walk these unsteady planks without falling into the mud, then
you understand the absurdity of the situation we faced. I finally
resorted to transporting the groceries in a wheel barrel after
taking Sevilla to the house. She would hang onto my belt behind
my back while we balanced ourselves on the shifting boards.
Of course our Landlady wouldn’t fix
the driveway, she valued the rent money too much to spend it needlessly
for our benefit, especially since we didn’t own a car.
Several weeks after the rains began, the
minister stopped by for lunch. We talked about our situation and,
while he offered no encouragement, he did not discourage us from
remaining in the country either.
The Lord was presenting us with a time of
decision, to remain or return to the city. We certainly had every
incentive to move back into town except we believed he desired
us to remain in the country, planks, mud, and wheelbarrows notwithstanding.
We talked and prayed about it and choose
to say. The situation didn’t improve but we have never voluntarily
returned to the city. (I say “voluntarily,” for there
was a short stint in the city forced upon us by adverse circumstances,
but we managed to escape the insanity of town for the sanity of
the country.)
Through the ensuing years, the Lord has
demonstrated his willingness and ability to provide for our needs
as some of these testimonies evidence. Things haven’t always
been easy, but we don’t look back. He finally took pity on
us and moved us to a place of solid ground by allowing our landlady
to evict us.
Praise the Lord!