February 27th 2025
There are certain fears that come, I think naturally, when you put your life in God’s hands. We as humans have so much difficulty seeing beyond the world we inhabit. We feel like we have a good grasp on reality and the rules involved in navigating it. We like to feel in control, it feels safe to us. Handing control over to someone else feels unnatural and so we instinctively rebel against it. We have doubts in our hearts that anyone is capable of managing our situation better than us, and we tend to panic when that sense of control is lost.
When I handed my life over to God I think that put me in a sort of perpetual tug of war between His will and my instincts. He has never given me a single reason to doubt Him, yet I find myself feeling anxious about the future time and time again. “Where will I go?”, “What will I do when I get there?”, “Is God still with me, showing me the way… or am I making all of these choices myself?”. If these questions sound faithless, it’s because they are. I am not perfect, and God knows that. Thankfully, He forgives me for my faithlessness and finds new ways to show me we are still on the same page. Not just some of the time, but every time.
I have been on the road mostly full time for close to a year now and I have never been left high and dry. I’ve always had a place to set up for the night, I’ve always had access to a dump station and fresh water when I needed it, and I’ve always had something or someone come long to show me where to go next. Then I get there, unsure of what I’m supposed to do and I start doubting all over again. It’s this battle with my human nature that makes it all the more humbling when He shows up to deliver the answers again and again.
I’m pointing all of this out because people need to know that following God is not easy… for anyone. It can be downright terrifying. God can turn your whole life completely upside down, and He will… but you will come out better for it. He forces us to change and to grow. He forces us into uncomfortable situations and then equips us with the tools to navigate them. He’s given each one of us special gifts that we are to use to bring glory to Him, no matter how big or small that glory may be. He chose you out of the world, He knew you before the beginning of all of this… He put you here for a reason.
Do you ever look at your life and think “Why was I given life in this place at this point in time, out of all the places and times in history?”, “Why am I even alive? Why didn’t I die in that car wreck that should have killed me all those years ago?”. It’s because He’s not done with you yet. He put you here for a reason. Right here, in this place, at this time, out the billions of places and billions of times. There is something you are supposed to do, and he’s preserving you for whatever it is. Through prayer and faith, He will begin to reveal to us what that work is. You have to ask for it, and then you have to trust Him to guide you to it. You have to give up control. Your heart and mind will protest, and even despair, but if you let Him have His way you will always increase.
So I found myself in Bouse, AZ saying goodbye to one of my dearest old friends preparing for the long (hah!) 15 mile trek south to a Campers for Christ meetup near Quartzsite. The way this trip to Arizona has flowed so seamlessly from one location to the next just boggles my mind, especially considering all I did in the beginning was pick a direction and start driving. It has just been one amazing blessing after another and I recommend you catch up on the last few blog entries for the full story if you haven’t already.
I said my goodbyes and hugged my friends and set off down the road. I knew exactly where I was going as Jesse and I had ridden motorcycles down to the site a few days prior to scout it out. As I pulled up to the turnoff there was a little sign on the side of the road with an arrow that simply said “Campers for Christ”. The place itself was nothing special. This area near Quartzsite is a popular spot for people who “snowbird”. It’s basically just a big open area out in the middle of the desert that offers 70-80 degree weather during the winter months, but not much else. It is perfect, though, for large groups of RVers to gather in.
I got there in the mid afternoon and saw there were already quite a few RVs on site. I walked into the central area they had set up for gatherings and sort of uncomfortably walked around. There was no one here. There were lots of RVs around, but the area where they gathered was a ghost town and I found myself feeling a little out of place, like I was invading private property. Thankfully this only went on for a few minutes before Leah emerged from her Sprinter Van to greet me.
Leah was one of the organizers, about my age, and very welcoming. She was from Utah, an RV part-timer who travels all over participating in revivals and sharing the Word. She had an incredible command over the Word, able to quote scripture after scripture… I’ve never really spoken to someone like her before. Her ability to pull relevant scripture into any topic of conversation was unparalleled. She even joked about it a little saying her friends sometimes found it annoying. But one thing was for sure, she was absolutely devoted to the Lord through and through.
Since no one else was around, we spoke for about an hour just sharing stories and getting to know each other. She told me all about the group: They get together every morning, lunch and evening for meals and worship. The rest of the day everyone pretty much does their own thing. After hearing my story, she asked me if I would be willing to deliver it in front of everyone at evening worship. I felt panicked and excited at the same time. I’ve never shared my story in front of a large group before, especially not strangers. I did the podcast with the pastors in Salmon, but that was just basically having a chat with two other people. Something inside me said “practice” and I though, “Yeah, I’m here… God showed me the way here, why not try this an see how it feels?”. So I agreed.
That evening all the campers gathered in the central area. It was a pretty good sized group, about 30 people in total. We all formed a big circle of camping chairs around a podium and shared fellowship while we waited for the service to start. The service started off as many church services do with worship music. Leah handed out some lyric sheets and then stood in the center with her acoustic guitar and led the singing. It was really fun, like a scene from a movie… just a bunch of Christ lovers out in the middle of the desert singing songs to God together. Before you ask: No, we didn’t sing Kumbaya.
After the music the other event organizer, Richard, took the podium to deliver us a few announcements and then called me up. Yep, just like that. No teaching, no icebreakers, it was my turn to speak. I took a deep breath, whispered a quick prayer, and took center stage to deliver my story. It wasn’t nearly as scary as I expected. The eyes in the crowd were kind and attentive. .. and they were interested in what I was saying. I saw eyes go wide and hands go to mouths in amazement. I saw eyes water over and nods of empathy. The words came smoothly and naturally, it just felt “right”… it was an amazing experience.
So this is one of the reasons you brought me here… this is what you meant by “practice”. What better way to learn to speak about God in front of others than a bunch of random strangers in the desert? I’m thankful that God gave me that courage that evening. I learned some very important things about myself through that experience. I have what it takes to speak truth in front of others, and what I have to say has value.
I spoke for about 30 minutes and never once felt rushed or that I had worn out my welcome. I think I could have actually gone on longer, but these things have a way of reaching their natural conclusion. After me an older gal Carol came up and she gave her testimony as well. We finished up with a short teaching from Richard and several more songs. It was a really nice evening with a beautiful group of people.
The next day we gathered again bright an early. I came to find the mornings tend to be the more formal “church services”, while the evenings are a little more open ended. The morning started with worship music, again led by Leah, and then a longer teaching by Richard. After the teaching we broke into three smaller groups and prayed together. Each person was given a few small sheets of paper to put prayer requests on and then they were mixed up and handed out at random. My prayer request was for my dog Danny. I am struggling to find a food that he isn’t allergic to, and his eyes are still causing him pain and discomfort. I have come to realize that throwing money at doctors isn’t going to help. It’s time to put this in God’s hands. We sat in a circle and went through the prayers one at a time, each person leading the prayer on the piece of paper they had been given.
This was another new one to me, I have never lead a group prayer before. Again that word echoed in my mind: “practice”. Luckily this time I wasn’t up first, so I was able to listen to some folks who were more experienced at this before it was my turn. When it did come to be my turn, I found the words coming much more easily then I expected. I had heard several others pray before I went, but I found the way the words came out of my mouth was completely different. It was my way of praying, and it came smoothly and naturally, just as my testimony had night before. No one looked at me funny, like I was doing it “wrong”, because I don’t think you can do it wrong. There is no special formula, you just speak to God from the heart and the words will follow.
After our round of prayers we were getting to break for the rest of the morning and Leah asked if anyone else had any announcements they would like to make before were dispersed. Several hands went up and people begin spouting off requests. This was is where things got interesting.
“I have a generator that needs an oil change, if anyone here can help.” one man said. “I have a situation with a car that is stuck in Quartzsite and won’t start.” another man said. Then Leah chimed in “Oh, I also have a generator problem where it won’t keep running, if anyone knows about those…”. No one piped up to say they could help, and I knew that all of these requests were aimed directly at me. Not that any of them knew it. They had no idea I was an experienced mechanic, they just all happened to have problems that I was equipped to fix for them.
I decided to approach them one at a time, starting with the oil change guy because he asked first. I pulled him aside, made sure he had all the necessary parts for the oil change, and went to grab my tools. We talked as I performed the oil change for him and I offered to show him the steps was taking in case he wanted to try to tackle the service himself next time. He said he used to do it himself but his knees had gone bad over the years and he was no longer capable of doing it. He was a really nice fellow, and very appreciative. I’m thankful that I was able to be of service to him.
As I was finishing the oil change, the fellow with the car that wouldn’t start asked me if I knew anything about cars. “I know a thing or two” I smiled, “What’s going on?”. The car had broken down about a week prior and was now sitting at a mechanic shop. The mechanic was pretty stuck on the problem having already tried several things with no luck. As he went into more detail, he described a problem that I am fairly familiar with. (If you don’t know, and neither did he, several years back I became a BMW master technician. I know pretty much everything there is to know about those cars). The symptoms he was describing followed perfectly along with that of a bad cam sensor. I did some quick research on my phone to confirm, and then looked up the part number for him. I found the sensor available on Amazon and sent him the link.
With the other two taken care of, I approached Leah and asked her if I could take a look at her generator. She was sweet, saying “Oh, its not a big deal, don’t worry about it.”, but I pressed the issue and insisted she let me help. I tinkered with the generator for about an hour. Sometimes it would start and run but then shut off after a few minutes. I tried some different adjustments with the same result… finally it hit me: She has had this thing out in the desert quite a bit lately. I popped the air filter out and had her fire it up again. Boom. The generator began humming along happy as could be. Her air filter was all clogged up with dust accumulated in the desert. I hopped on Amazon again, found the part and sent her the link.
What a perfect fit this ended up being. I needed education and experience in sharing and praying with others, these folks needed help with some tasks that aligned with my skill sets. I learned a lot about myself in my short time with them, and I fixed everything I could get my hands on. And the blessings didn’t stop there.
That evening after service, Leah came by my RV and asked if she could pray over Danny. She had overheard my prayer request from that morning and wanted to help. I brought him out and introduced them then we knelt down next to him and prayed together for his health while we held him. It was really beautiful. Leah has a powerful way with words when calling on the healing power of Jesus. There is power in people praying together, and I know God was there with us that night.
The whole gathering was just a nice time with good people. We ate together, worshiped together, prayed together… we even had a really fun little auction on the last day there of things that people had brought to donate. The money from the auction went into a fund for future group activities and meetups. I ended up with a bunch of Star Trek DVDs and a printer I will probably never use. I couldn’t help it, bidding is fun… especially when your doing the Storage Wars “Yuuuup!” and everyone is giggling like children.
But like all good things, soon it was time to pack up and head back north to Boise. My parent’s are going on a two week trip in early March and they need a house sitter. A house all to myself for a few weeks? Yes please!
The morning before everyone went their separate directions we had a short service and then we all got together to go from RV to RV and pray over them. We laid hands on them and prayed for God’s protection to get everyone home safely, and now the back of my RV has a nice little subtle sticker on it that says “blessed”.
And I was indeed blessed on this whole trip. It was so amazing to watch God weave everything together perfectly every step of the way. I didn’t plan any of this. Every move I made was the result of following The Pull… allowing God to speak and then obeying Him. This last stop with Campers for Christ was the icing on the cake. I got to practice sharing my words on God in front of a group and learned that I actually get a lot of joy from doing it. Most of the time I find myself sharing one on one. Out there gathering up lost sheep one at a time. These sheep may not have been lost, but I hope that what I shared with them in some small way brought them closer to God.
I said one last goodbye to the good people of Exodus Chapter and began the long trek back north to Idaho. I chose the long way back this time to try to taking in as much beauty as possible before the inevitable miserable roads of central Nevada. But even those didn’t bother me so much on the way back… I was too busy reflecting on all that had transpired since the last time I traveled them. What a wonderful life God has led me to. I though of my old self, sitting on that couch with his sixth beer in his hand. If I could send him a message, would he believe what was coming? He had no hopes, no dreams, no way forward… ready to die, or dead already. No. The very thought of any of this would have sent him into a panic attack. And yet here I am, living proof that God exists and that He loves us. Walking talking evidence of His limitless power to transform us beyond our wildest dreams. I don’t know how I lived in that darkness for so long, but I know this: I’ll never go back. I’ve gotten a taste of the life that God has for me, and I’m going to drink every drop I can until the day He calls me home.
“That the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
-2 Timothy 3:17