After Mom’s death and all her papers were in order, I decided that I wanted to begin the process of moving out west. Since 1990, I had worked and visited Colorado many times and had fallen in love with the west, the mountains, the clouds and the dry weather. I planned a week’s trip to Redding, California, to visit Bill Johnson’s church in December, but before going there, I took a trip with a friend to Idaho. I just wanted to open my spirit to all of the West just in case the Lord had a place for me that I hadn’t visited. I then flew to Colorado to see some friends in Trinidad in the very south of the state. On my way there, I attended a New Life Church Sunday morning church service, and that day they just happened to have a luncheon for all visitors. I plopped myself at a table at the front hoping to see Ted Haggard up close. His wife came in and sat down right next to me. We chatted, and I told her what I did for a living. She told me to send her my information because she might want me to speak at one of her conferences.
I then went on to Trinidad and then to a friend’s house in a remote canyon near Raton, New Mexico. While we were eating the phone rang, and as she answered the phone, she handed it to me and asked me to hang it up, that she wanted to take it in the other room. I was holding the phone when she casually mentioned that she was talking to her sister from Redding, California. I perked up as I was planning a trip there in December. I took the phone and introduced myself to her sister. I told her that I was coming to Redding in December for a week and if I liked it there would eventually move there. She got really quiet, and I thought she was just waiting for her sister to pick up the phone in the other room. She then shocked me by saying, “Are you that organizing lady?” I said yes and she asked if I had given a seminar at her sister’s church in the late 80’s. I was surprised and told her that I didn’t remember. She then laughed and told me that she had attended this seminar and knew just exactly who I was. She then dropped a bombshell. She said that she and her husband were going on a ten-month trip in their RV and needed someone to take care of their house. She said that I could live there as long as I wanted for free. I would just have to pay the utilities.
What a miracle! Sitting in a remote canyon in northern New Mexico, the Lord provided for my next season of adventure to live in northern California. God will go to extremes to bless you. Just ask, and He will respond with all kinds of surprises.
“For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper and not to harm you, plans for a hope and a future.
—Jeremiah 29:11