Hale’s on Adventure

Our Campsite at Williston Crossings RV Resort

           Three years ago, God put it on our heart that we were to move into a camper as “full-timers”.  We didn’t know much about this particular lifestyle, but we were excited to discern Gods leadership in this direction.  And so, our journey began. We purchased a 26 foot Dutchman Travel Trailer with a super slide.  Having grown up camping in tents and a 6’X  9’ pop-up 1960 Nimrod camper, we thought we were moving into a “mansion”. 

          Our first year was an adventure.  We laughed about the night we flooded the camper because we had closed the gray water tank accidentally.  We laughed when the night temperature dropped to 25 degrees and we ran out of propane. We laughed at ourselves as the seasoned full-timers discovered some of our “new to the life-style” mistakes.  It was all an adventure, and God kept our sense of humor sharpened.

            During our second year we felt seasoned in the ways of the camping experience, and began to enjoy the status of “belonging”.  God opened many ministry opportunities as we made friends among the other campers

Williston Crossings Front Gate

who came and went here at Williston Crossings.  We were among the very few who stayed year-round, and so we became “fixtures.”  This meant we were available when a family came to stay while their new-born infant was being treated at a local hospital.  We were able to assist a family when their home burned and they stayed at the campground during repairs.  God allowed us to meet, pray with, and encourage many couples who came for 6 months at a time while one of them underwent cancer treatments at local hospitals.  There were those friends who came to our park having been married many years, but left after the death of a beloved spouse.  God allowed us to be instruments of His peace during those difficult times. 

            Year three began with anticipation of new things ahead.  My husband retired from full-time pastoral ministry, we both were teaching at a Christian school down the road, and we began to travel more often, visiting in churches all over the state of Florida.  We sensed that change was in the air…and our camping adventure was beginning to conclude.  Restlessness began nettling our hearts that perhaps it was time to move into more conventional housing during the up-coming school year.  We began to refer to our camper as “the box” and knew that our full-time status was soon to conclude.  Still, we worked on our flower gardens, landscaping, and little place in the woods. There were yet things we needed to understand about our full-timer experience.  And so, we continued until we had completed our third year. 
            Today is our last day here in our camper.  With confidence, we know that God will use this experience in our future ministries.  But for now, we will be leaving the beautiful Williston Crossings RV Resort to live temporarily in a small apartment in Dunnellon, Florida.  We are referring to this apartment as “our big camper.”  We can only guess what God wants to do in our lives in this new place we will call home.
            When the Bible instructs us to “Trust in the Lord with all [our] heart and lean not to [our] own understanding, in all [our] ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct [our] paths” (Proverbs 3:5-6), we can depend on Him to do just that. So stay tuned on the new adventures of Hales in Ministry in Dunnellon, Florida.

Tabernacle at Williston Crossings

Williston Crossings RV Resort Pavillion at Dusk

I live in an RV Resort.  The management calls this place the “pavilion”.  It is here that events are held; weddings, dances, cookouts, family reunions – whatever the residents want to host. 
              For me in the quiet of the early dusk hour, I gaze upon this place as a tabernacle in the woods.  I am far removed from Williston as I witness the spectacular beauty of “the tabernacle” and remember another tabernacle from my youth.  It was there at the Camp Joy Bible Conference in Brownsville, Kentucky that every August from 1963 until 2000, I spent an activity-packed weekend with teens from across the nation.  My first weekend I myself was only a child; my last, I was the mother of three grown children. 
              What beautiful memories of the quiet times spent on those hillsides, and then the trek down into the valley to sit in the tabernacle for the evening-time of preaching and singing.  As the night-time gathered her orchestration of crickets, tree-frogs, and the lonely hoot of an owl, the light slowly faded from the horizon.  The worshippers were surrounded in a cocoon of night-time fog.  The dampness of dew was refreshing after the heat of the day.
           Many of the decisions which have directed my paths, and brought purpose to my life, were made in that old tabernacle.  Tonight, just seeing this beauty before me here at Williston, I have joy in remembering.

Better than Life

         “O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary. Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee.Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name. My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips:  When I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches. Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice.  My soul followeth hard after thee: thy right hand upholdeth me.”
Psalm 63:1-8

Birthday Celebration

Happy Birthday precious daughter. We celebrated your special birthday here in this picture – your 4th birthday – and each year on this 3rd day of August, we celebrate another year of joy in the gift of your life. We love you and are so proud of you. Each and every day is a gift from God, and we rejoice that He sent you to us. Happy Birthday, dear.

Be Prepared

This afternoon as my husband and I whizzed past this construction sign, we mused over the possible sentence completion.  Be prepared to…die?  …meet Thy God?… turn….be amazed…be amused…or maybe play Chinese Fire Drill?  The obvious last word would be  “stop.”  But we had much more fun making up our own endings.  I chose “be prepared to live, and live abundantly.  Jesus said, ” the thief cometh to steal, to kill, and to destroy, I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly”  (John 10:10).

Intricate Design

Ecclesiastes 3:11 “He hath made everything beautiful in its time;…”

The Anchor Holds

        Sometimes when I read about the disciples in the boat in the midst of the storm… I have to wonder what they REALLY felt like. Were they sick at their stomachs?  Did they really think that their lives were going to end?  Was the threat of being devoured by creatures under the waves a biggie?  They said they were afraid unto death.  Is that the same phrase we use today to convey that we’re “scared to death’?  How was it when Jesus stepped into the boat and the storm stopped?  When Jesus calmed the seas? When He said “Peace be still” and the storm stopped.  Have you ever been in a storm that caused that panic in your heart?
             I grew up in Miami, Florida, and was regularly out on a small boat far out at sea, fishing.  On several occasions the sky would grow dark, the rain would pelt down on us, and the waves would rise.  Oft’ times the waves would be so high that our little vessel would seem to be but a toy in a bathtub but the captain was unruffled.  He consoled our frightened hearts that this was not truly a storm, just rough seas.  We always made land, and there was not really any threat.  On other occasions I would go down to the beach to watch the surf as the warnings of hurricanes began to crackle on the weather stations.  There was really no danger at that point…the storm was still many hours from land fall…but the waves, the sky, the rain, the darkness…oh, I would not have wanted to be upon those seas in a little boat. 
            On September 22, 1995, when my mother was struck and killed by an oncoming car, I myself became the little boat out upon the raging sea.  I was battered and tossed around like I was a tub-toy being played with by a toddler.  There were no actual waves, and no visible storms.  But the storm was real! The waves were the most violent this boat had ever experienced.  I was tossed about and yanked against the chain that held the anchor until my boat was almost torn apart.  But God made the boat, He was the Anchor, and the Anchor held. 
           I don’t know what type of storm you may be experiencing today, but my prayer for you is that you, too, may find in Christ a solid Rock, a secure Anchor, and a safe Harbor.

Climbing Down to Stand UP

Point Reyes Light Station, California
Considered the foggiest and windiest station in the US with wind gusts up to 133 mph.

            My husband and I have always enjoyed visiting, and climbing, lighthouses.  Pieces of nautical, historical interest, they come in all shapes and sizes.  We are intrigued by all.  They stand short and stumpy, tall and regal, romantic, or industrial.  They stand on sandy beaches, high craggy bluffs, or cling precariously to the very edge of impossible bits of land.  Their purpose is clear.  They are to stand, shine, guide, and warn - no matter what.
            Each of the lighthouses we have visited thus far requires a short hike TO, and then a climb, UP.  Not so at Point Reyes, California when in November 2010, we arrived at the top of the mountain, only to discover that to reach the lighthouse, we would have to hike DOWN the 308 steps on the edge of a cliff, with winds of 40 mph.  Winds above that magnitude would be capable of lifting us off the face of the craggy cliff, and blowing us away forever.  The park ranger assured us that the winds had dropped to a mere 39 mph. and we would be safe to hike, provided we “hung on.”  (Pretty close call at best). 
            On that day when we attempted to make that descent, I couldn’t help but think of the purpose of the lighthouse at the bottom of this wild craggy hillside.  It is the same as the romantic, graceful lighthouse silhouetted by the wind-swept palm trees on a sandy beach.  STAND.  If it does not stand, there will be no light, no guide, no warning.  God wants me to be His lighthouse.  He desires that I stand, wherever He has planted me, in whatever circumstances He has allowed in my life – to stand. To stand firm and unwavering against all the storms that may howl around my very foundation is His desire.  Whether lifted high, or brought low, Lord, help me be “always steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as [I] know that [my] labor is not in vain in the Lord” ( I Corinthians 15:58).

Songs of My Heart

Songs of My Heart
1973

             Across the still waters, atop a wooded hill, A bird takes flight   
The  sounds of night are ushered in.

My heart sings. 

Waves end at the shore of their new beginnings,
The setting sun throws its warm rays across my back

Shadows gather in an ever-changing design of gold-touched gray
on the slopes leading to the lake,

My heart sings.

“Be quiet, private thoughts”, “be still, selfish goals and ambition.” -
God is moving in and through His wondrous works.

I stand in awe of His creations

My heart sings. 

God is here – I feel his presence.
Wonder is all about me – my voice is silent, I cannot speak.

beauty,  wonder,  majesty,  greatness, smallness
SILENCE

God hears
He understands with no words uttered

And my heart sings.

July 25 Stand Firm

            In October 1991 I was working as a temp in an office downtown, Louisville.  My life was hectic and I began to let my personal spiritual growth stagnate.  This was a good experience for me to be in a place of employment outside my norm of church work.  When I was involved in my daily church ministry activities, surrounded by Christians, exclusively surrounded by those who knew and loved the Lord I loved, I discovered that though my personal growth was stagnate, I could maintain spiritual nourishment from the environment of other believers.  However, when placed in the secular environment where the majority of the people I was dealing with did not have a relationship with Christ, my mind became a battlefield in maintaining my spiritual equilibrium. 
                I was reminded of this recently when standing in the surf at Crescent Beach,Florida.  I stood perfectly still, my feet firmly planted in about three inches of water.  Each little wave that rolled gently around my feet displaced just a little sand – not evenly redistributed, but randomly.  Had I not repositioned my feet, I would have lost my balance and gone down into the water.
                I believe this is what Paul was teaching us in Ephesians 6 when he admonishes us to put on all the armor of God. “Put on the whole armor of God that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.”
                  In 1834 when Edward Mote pinned the words of “My Hope is Built,” he had no idea how, when William Bradbury set it to music in 1863, it would become a hymn of such consequence as to comfort, and call Christians through history, to stand firm.

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness
I dare not trust the sweetest frame
But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.

On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand
All other ground is sinking sand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

          Next time I sing this hymn at church, I believe I will see the words more vividly, and sing the song from experience and adoration.  On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. Lord, help me to daily set aside a time just for you.  Help me to reposition my feet each day as I learn more about who You are, and for what You are doing in  my life.