An Answer to Prayer

Late in 2011, an injury left me unable to do many of the things I used to, and those things all fell on Herb.  One of those things was me being able to drive down to Leahaven and spend 4 or 5 hours cleaning whenever needed.  As I saw Herb taking on one more burden on top of all he was already doing, I began to wonder if it was time for us to end our ministry at Leahaven.  I asked Herb if he thought we should sell.  His answer was a resounding no!  He loves this farm, he said, and wants us to keep it.

We can keep the farm without keeping up the ministry, I told him, but he wasn't ready to quit.  So I began to ask the Lord:  "If you want us to keep up this ministry, please make Your will clear to us."

Now that we've reached the end of 2012, Herb and I looked back over our bookings for the past year.  Since I began keeping records in 2010, we have had 17 bookings each year.  This year was the same--no more, no less.  What changed, though, was the requests that came our way.

We used to get mostly pastoral and missionary families wanting a low-cost vacation.  While we are glad to help them, that was not our vision in founding Leahaven.  Our heart's desire was to minister to hurting servants of God, those who were truly in need of a spiritual retreat.

And those are exactly the people that the Lord has brought us this year.  He's sent us people who were bereaved, whose hearts were breaking under burdens that moved us to tears;  people who were suffering physically and in pain; people who have gone through one trial after another; people who have poured themselves out in God's service till they had no more to give.

Of course it grieves our hearts to know that our brothers and sisters are suffering so deeply!  But we know they are suffering anyway, whether we are here to help them or not.  And as long as they are suffering and in need of a retreat, we thank our loving heavenly Father Who sends them to a place that He has ordained to be a place of blessing for them.  We are thankful and encouraged that we are, indeed, meeting a need that the Lord has called us to meet.

As we finish our fifth year of ministry at Leahaven and look forward to a sixth year, we give all the glory to God for His rich blessings on so many lives and for His many, many answered prayers.

"Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed,
    for his compassions never fail.
 They are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.
 I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion;
    therefore I will wait for him.”

 The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him,
    to the one who seeks him;
 it is good to wait quietly
    for the salvation of the LORD."

Lamentations 3: 22-26

God Is Faithful

I was just writing a thank-you note for a gift to our ministry here at Leahaven and realized I should share with everyone what I shared with this family.

This has been a hard year for us.  I had a bad fall last November and have still not fully recovered, and Herb has been carrying much of my load both at home and at Leahaven.

Last year was rather slow as far as people using Leahaven, and I wondered if there really is a need or if we just thought there was because many years ago WE had a need for such a place.

One day when Herb was preparing to go to Leahaven to mow and bush-hog, I asked him if he thought we should sell Leahaven, if it is too much for us?  He said no!  He loves Leahaven and wants to keep going.

So I asked the Lord that if we are truly filling a need for His people, if HE wants us to keep going, He would show me clearly that it is His will--not ours--for this ministry.

The Lord has answered me so clearly, and I want to share that answer with you, His people. Between July 1st and August 31st, there have been just 13 days where Leahaven was not being used.  Eight families with a total of 30 individuals plus one youth group with 13 kids and four adults have been at Leahaven.  So many have let us know that they were deeply blessed by their time there.

During one brief period that the house was empty, I received a phone call from a pastor asking if there was by any chance a vacancy for that night.  He and his wife had a heart-rending need, and they needed to get away and retreat to God.  While my heart was breaking for their grief, I was incredibly thankful that they had called at the only time (up till then) that I could have said "yes" to them.  I know that was from God!  And it was from Him that the lock-box code I had chosen for this year and told to the pastor's wife was a verse that was dear to her heart!  No human force could do such wonders!

By God's grace, most people who come to stay at Leahaven don't have such a heart-rending need, but whatever their need, we are privileged and blessed to be there for them.  I praise the Lord for His clear answer to me in my moment of doubt and weakness.

He is faithful!

"Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail.  They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.  I say to myself, 'The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for Him.'  The Lord is good to those whose hope is in Him, to the one who seeks Him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord."  Lamentations 3: 22-26

The Colors of Spring

We spent a day and a half at Leahaven, just resting and enjoying the beauty of God's creation as new life appears all around us.

The neighboring farm glows in the afternoon light.

A bee visits the grape hyacinths in the front yard.

Forsythia blooms next to the pump house.

The Bradford pear glows white against a deep blue sky.

Tiny field pansies pop up their cheerful faces everywhere.

Hero bounds across the grass, so green it almost hurts your eyes.

Budding maples burn bright red around the pond.

Their tiny helicopter seeds sprout like fireworks.

Bluets nestle among the grass.  No  earthly palette can rival that of the Heavenly Artist! 

Our Annual Collegian Outing

The Collegian group from St. Elmo Presbyterian Church came out to Leahaven the end of September.  That was right before we went to Scotland for 2 weeks so it took me a while to get the pictures posted.  Better late than never!

 The whole gang enjoys a cookout on straw-bale benches under the sycamore tree.  And yes, those boards do act like see-saws if people stand up in the wrong order!

Setting out on a hayride.

Misty jumped off the wagon and tried to keep up.

 We had a beautiful, sunny day.

It's a toss-up which job Herb enjoys most: grilling the meat or driving the tractor for the hay ride.

 Everybody piled off the wagon at the lake and took advantage of the beautiful weather.

 Zephyr barks frantically at the kids in the boat--after all, she's a shepherd!--and Misty grabs her tail to try to haul her back.  After all, she's a guardian!  The poor girls just want to land their canoe!

Our daughter Kara reacts as Herb belly flops into the lake.

The kayaks are perfect for racing or companionable moments.

After dessert, good-byes, and a clean-up of the house, we leave Leahaven ready for the next people who want to enjoy all that God has blessed it with.

God's Protection in the Midst of Destruction

Wednesday, April 27, was a record-breaking day of destruction as tornados tore across the entire South, leaving hundreds dead and destroying many more homes and businesses. For several days, all we heard about in our local news was the terrible destruction in nearby Ringgold. Then on Friday we read some news of DeKalb County, AL, where Leahaven is located. The entire population of DeKalb County was without power and 35 people were dead. We had to be at home for a plumber that day, but Saturday morning we headed down to Alabama to check on Leahaven.

On our way we passed through Trenton, GA, about halfway between home and Leahaven.  These pictures were actually taken on the way home, but they show the devastation the tornado left in Trenton.  A huge swath of trees was stripped bare all the way up Lookout Mountain (look above the white SUV) as the tornado passed through Trenton, went all the way up the side of the mountain, and came over onto our side.  The smoke is made by branches cut from downed trees that are being burned.

Here is one glimpse of the havoc in Trenton--not one of the worst scenes, by far, but it felt too voyeur-ish to take pictures of the ruins of peoples' houses.  This is a commercial site, although an apartment in the distance is covered in a green tarp after its roof was ripped off.

 When we got down into Alabama, everything looked fine until we got off at our exit on Hwy. 40, about five minutes away from Leahaven.  We could see stripped trees and stopped traffic ahead of us, and our hearts sank.

We sat for about 10 minutes waiting while the electric crews rehung a large power line across the road.  From the car windows, we could look out and see complete desolation on both sides of the road.  This is what was left of a group of homes, their remnants wrapped around denuded tree stumps.

The last two miles to the house, our hearts were in our throats.  Across the road from our driveway, to our shock, we saw our neighbor's flattened garage.  However, since his house looked intact and no one was in sight, we turned down the driveway.

One more anxious tenth of a mile--and we got a glimpse of the house.  It was still there, along with the shed!

In the front yard, a huge limb from the sycamore tree hung down to the ground.

But as we hurried around the side of the house, this is the sight that met our eyes--a gigantic tree toppled over onto the roof right above the master bedroom.

Around back, we could see that the new gutter was completely ripped off, but the roof looked barely dented.  Of course it is impossible to know the full extent of the damage until the tree is removed and the structure of the house examined, but our main emotions were relief and gratitude.

After all the horrors we had seen in Trenton and nearby on Sand Mountain, this was minor!  It almost looks as if God's hand had guided the falling tree between the pump house and the corner of the house, bringing it down against a bank of earth that kept it from falling too heavily on the roof.

After verifying that there was no visible damage in the house, although the power was out and there was no water, we set out to inspect the rest of the property.

We already knew about one bit of damage awaiting us.  Tony, the farmer, had let us know that when we drove his truck of chicken manure over the culvert, it collapsed under the weight of his truck.  This nice flat piece of metal is supposed to be a big round pipe!  This will be a job for someone with earth-moving equipment . . . after all the tornado damage is repaired.

Back by the lake, a panel of metal roofing had blown off the cabin and some screen was loose, both things that Herb can repair.

Here and there across the property, we could see a tree snapped off or a giant limb dangling, letting us see the path the storm had taken right past our house.  Obviously, we received only the wind at the edge of the tornado and not the full force of the tornado itself.

One bright note was this beautiful blue-eyed grass that came up right next to the area that was denuded by TVA's spraying (see the previous post).  I was particularly worried about these wildflowers, knowing that they grow in abundance right where all the vegetation was killed.  But by God's grace, many of the plants survived and will hopefully spread to fill in where others were killed.

Going back to the house, we passed our barn--or what passes for one!  It was so bad even before the storm that the insurance company refuses to cover it!  But it sheltered our tractor, coming through the storm looking only slightly the worse for the wear.  There are definitely a few more pieces of roof sticking up in the air, but seeing what the tornado did to steel barns, I can only say, "They don't make 'em this way anymore!"

Driving up to the house from the back of the property, we saw an encouraging sight:  There in the yard near the uprooted tree was a red rose blooming its little heart out.  It was like a gift from God, a sort of floral rainbow, promising that He is in control of nature and He will not let it ravage out of the bounds He maintains.

We thank God for His protection of Leahaven.  We thank Him that He is continuing to answer the prayers that dedicated this place, by preserving it to continue its ministry to His servants.