AN AMAZING TESTIMONY AND THE COLOR REPORT

We are back from the northern color tour! It was a fast trip, but a lovely one. The color north of Traverse City was said to be at 100% while we were there. We spent lots of time driving the back roads, even many two-tracks, looking for elk. We never did see any, but did get a picture of a porcupine. I noticed him out of the corner of my eye as we drove very slowly down one of these two track "seasonal" roads. (I guess seasonal means they don't plow those roads.) We were driving very slowly and I saw something scurry into the brush. We backed up and here was Mr. Porcupine slowly lumbering away from our vehicle. Clint took his picture as he headed up a bare tree. Isn't he cute? It was close to dark when we took the two porcupine pictures.

The other picture is of us by a waterfall in one of the cities, either Traverse or Petosky--I can't remember for sure. We thought it was a lovely place to pose! Other people were using it for photos as well. It was very cold up north! See our winter jackets?

It was interesting that on the way home we seemed to detect a sudden "line" where the color was much less pronounced. Only low areas were very colorful south of that line.

The one thing we regretted is that we had almost no sunshine while we were up there which made the colors appear more dulled. It was still lovely, though.

Update: the surprise item is still in pieces, but I sanded it today. One more coat of tung oil and it will be ready to assemble!

I want to give you a little testimony that I hope will encourage your faith. Today while I was cleaning suddenly a person came to mind that I hadn't thought of for probably more than a year. I do not know the individual, but someone at our church babysits for them and has asked prayer for them before. The individual is a child that has physical challenges and handicaps. It has literally been over a year since their name was mentioned as a prayer request, but this child suddenly came to mind today and I felt I should pray for him. Later in the afternoon I was taking my walk and I had been praying all day about various things among which was the fact that I want to be more keen and aware of hearing God's still small voice, giving me warnings, instructions, etc. I was really beseeching the Lord to speak to me and help me hear His voice in very accurate ways and about minor details of life. After supper we were all sitting around in the living room and the phone rang. It was a lady from our church, the one who babysits for this child. She was asking that we pray for the child since he had been exposed to the H1N1 virus and apparently tested positive for it. This child's resistance is compromised by the physical limitations he faces to start with. Clint took the call and when he told me what it was, my heart was so encouraged by the fact that God was WAY ahead of this whole situation! He was prompting the saints to pray even before the request came! I can only imagine how many other Christians there were who were familiar with his situation that the Lord might have been prompting in the past few days. Isn't that exciting? I have had that happen several times before, but it has been a few years since I experienced this. It was a boost to my faith to know I had "heard" God correctly. I called the lady back and told her what had happened and I think it was a great encouragement to her to know that the Lord cares so much about a situation that He goes way ahead of our concerns and tries to motivate and mobilize the saints to stand against an attack! Isn't that cool?! Made my day to know that maybe I was used to help this child remain strong.

The lesson of that account is this: pay close attention to those little promptings that seem so small. When the name of someone passes through your mind and you think it was merely your own thoughts, pray for them. It may well be the Holy Spirit trying to speak to you to warn you of a need. I had this happen also with a couple of countries long ago. Suddenly the name of a small, little heard of country went through my mind one day and so I prayed for that place only to find out a day later that they were experiencing a coup at that time. It turned out to be largely "bloodless" according to the newspapers and that made me know that the Lord was possibly prompting people all over the globe to pray for that place at that time. What could have been an uprising that claimed many lives turned out to be pretty quiet in the end! That has happened to me more than once. The second time it was another country and I found out a few days later that a plane had crashed there. We do not realize what all types of things we may be called on to pray about, do we? Another Christian friend of mine has had the same type of thing happen to her. She stops and prays and has sometimes found out later that the person she was praying for was in danger at that time. God still speaks to prompt us and longs to have a close relationship with His people. I want to draw closer to God. Loving Him and serving Him is an exciting adventure! May He receive all the glory! Blessings, LORI