It is going to happen… soon! We will be moving in!
The Unique and Deeply Personal Wheeler Christmas Advent Calendar is Starting!
What that means is that we are in a new phase here at Eighth Day Farm (our name will be discussed in a future blog) But the countdown is on!!!!
December 1st today, who would have ever thought that God would keep us safe and warm in this little holiday trailer this long, it is incredible. Who would have ever thought I could have remained sane in this tiny little trailer with as much stuff as we have in here?
We will be moving over to the mobile home hopefully this week. We will not have running water or possibly sewer but we will sort all that out. The skirting might not be complete but what an opportunity for each day in December that we get to open an new advent calendar door and peek into it to see the new gift. No chocolate for us, no little toys, we will be revealing some big projects like skirting, sewer pipes, propane pipes…. Sigh… it’s going to get exciting! Then of course there are all the boxes to open with our possessions that we forgot we even own! It’s a Christmas like no other.
This past weekend we had a mini work bee after which I had a new furnace chimney, a working furnace, a new hot water tank, a deck and stairs, some skirting – a lot got accomplished in a short time. This was a gift done by my own 3 boys, now adult men who know how to do this stuff! We are so thankful for the people (my boys and Steve Henry) who have been helping us get these projects done!
We spent Monday packing our things up in the storage locker and moving them out to the mobile, 2 trips out from Gr. Prairie in a horse trailer and then 7 trips up and down the driveway because we could not get the trailer up it. So, we unloaded the horse trailer into our pickup box and up we came.
We only had to leave a few bottles of canning that had frozen and spilled over, it could have been so much worse. I checked on whether you can still eat food that has been frozen in tin cans – guess what? You can if the seals are still intact! Hallaleujah!
The house looks rather like a bomb hit it at this point with boxes, and stuff everywhere, maybe like a kaleidoscope of advent boxes or perhaps like a maze to walk through! It was wonderful to see some of our things we had missed for the past 6 months, every box is like opening an advent calendar box and then, I climbed into my recliner chair and threatened to never leave.
We had to put this foil insulation over the windows in the holiday trailer to help keep out the cold. Unfortunately, it lets no day light in, it has become a dark little hole, it feels almost claustrophobic. I had no idea how much the windows of the trailer affected my mental health. You cannot live in darkness for long and feel alive – you must have light to live. I love what Ernest Hemingway said, “We are all broken that is how light gets in.” Light must get in and once it does, the darkness is dispelled.
This journey has been not easy, not what we thought and we are not done, more challenges are probably coming but sitting in my recliner chair in the bright and warm living room, I feel content.
I had someone, well actually I have had a few people say to me, “well you choose it.” I might have only mentioned it in one of my blogs but this journey was not ever one “we choose”. That has made it even more frustrating and hard. We did “choose” to be obedient when God said, “buy the land” but we had no idea what that would mean.
Here is the journey outlined as we got the instructions – sparse as they might be (but honestly if you read the Bible, God does not give all the details). The exception might be how He wanted His tabernacle, His church built, very vivid and precise directions.
September 2017 – God to me, “write the book and buy the field”
2018 – book written “The Complete Love Circle”
2018,2019,2020 – look for field, hours and hours of driving around trying to find the elusive field. No directions, no idea what we were looking for, and no idea why
August 2020 – we bought the field. As soon as we drove up to the field overlooking the hills we knew this was it.
September 2020 – God, “build an outhouse.” God had explained that as He led the Israelites out of Egypt there were millions of them, that they needed some organization and that people needed to know where the latrine section was going to be (poop in a group) God is very practical.
End of May – God, “put your house for sale this week, the sign needs to go out this week” Okay -sign went out and we had 3 bookings immediately. 5 hours later our house was sold. Now we had 2 weeks to move out and live in what? Bought the holiday trailer Tuesday and moved out to the property on Thursday.
June 2021 – God, “build a chapel” (again no other directions, purpose or size, simply to us a bizarre request)
June 9th – moved out to the property in the holiday trailer
June – we try to build the fence for the cattle that will eventually be coming. This project goes sideways really badly. I cry out and ask God what is going on. “Build the chapel”. We have been given 3 tasks and we failed on one of them. We buy a shed kit and, in a weekend, put it up for our chapel. We go back to the fence – things go smoother.
Fenced and bought some cows, 8 of them.
We limp along trying to figure out this whole farmer thing and how to survive living in the bush.
Then things started to go badly over the mobile we bought, we could not get it moved here, block after block after block.
I was sitting by the fire one day, after the bear incidents, after the mobile not being able to be moved, out of options and out of dreams. I asked God what we are doing wrong.
“I cannot give you your house until mine is finished. Plus, you turned it into a barn.”
Oh, my stars, I was instantly convicted, He was right.
The chapel was sitting there cute as anything but we had only 80% finished it. Then when the bear arrived we put the cow grain inside of it to protect it. God was right – He gave us 3 things to do and we had not completed the job. (buy the land, build the outhouse, build the chapel).
Just so you know the bear disappeared that night after God told me this, never have seen him again, perhaps he was our attention getter. He got it!
I think back in the Old Testament and how important the building of the Tabernacle was to God – immensely.
Why is the building of our little chapel something that would be important to God? Because the chapel represents the first offerings of our property. The Bible talks a lot about tithing, meaning giving the first portion of your income, time, crops, animals and even our field, to God.
“Leviticus 27:30 “A tenth of the produce of the land, whether grain or fruit, is the Lord’s, and is holy.”
Proverbs 3:9 “Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops.”
There are huge promises attached to this kingdom principle. You cannot afford not to tithe. God blesses your income when you bless Him first, He blesses your income when you are generous and help others. God is a God of giving, but we have to offer to Him the little bit He asks for and He will open the flood gates of heaven.
There are laws on earth and there are laws in heaven. The law of gravity, if I throw something up it will come down. If I tithe God will bless me. These are laws for the way God set up His earthly system. These laws pertain to individual people, families, and businesses. We had not finished the chapel, perhaps 80% done and then we had left it.
I heard a question posed to a Pastor who understood tithing -about why the wicked prosper, he explained that often times the wicked have discovered the law of tithing and they know that if they tithe their money will be blessed. He actually said often the wicked have figured this out way before Christians have.
Malachi 3:10 “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.”
I am happy to report there was a chapel work bee and the chapel is 95% done. We need to put some shiplap on the ceiling but it needs painted and we have lost paint weather so I think we will have an unpainted ceiling in place very shortly, until spring, when I can paint it.
Again no idea why we need a chapel but we now have one, take a look.
As for me, I will be expectantly waiting each day for my advent calendar box to open and behold another new surprise and another piece in the puzzle of the field saga.