Monday, August 4

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.  Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.  Ephesians 6:10

On this trip I have been reading Joyce Meyer's book, Battlefield of the Mind.  I have discovered that I am a very negative person.  I usually see the glass as half empty and my trust in the Lord to deliver me from this is sadly lacking.  Last night I determined to allow the Lord to show me when I become negative and to help me to trust Him in all things.

Tonight He gave me opportunity to trust Him when several things went wrong at once.  Thankfully, I recognized that this was the moment I could prove to Him that I do trust Him, rather than get hysterical.  I believe this mind set I have had for so many years can be changed supernaturally, but I really hope God doesn't give me too many additional things to trust Him for!  We are limping towards Kalispell with no air conditioning in the front and no microwave, but we can live without those things and know we can get it fixed when we get there.  Den managed to get his insulin pump situation sorted out with the help of a very kind person at MiniMed.  We know what to do about the medication that didn't get delivered where it should have been.  And I actually was calm and in prayer through the whole thing.

I am learning a whole lot more than how to connect sewers and water hoses!

This is such a beautiful and interesting place.  It is a haven for wind surfers and there are many kite-boarders.  We are staying on the Washington side of the river.   This morning we visited the Chamber of Commerce and had a nice visit with the ladies there who gave us so much information we would have to stay a month to see it all!  We decided to go across the river again to the Oregon side of the river and drove a little bit of what's called the Fruit Loop, because there are so many orchards.  The pear trees were absolutely loaded  and we were sorry we bought so much fruit at the market yesterday - should have waited!  Who knew?  We found a wonderful Lavender Farm and I picked my own bunch of lavender for $4.  Lovely to have it hanging in the RV.  We then drove very high up to Panorama Point for a fantastic view of this beautiful place.  You should see all the sweet houses with flowers everywhere and orchards that extend for miles. We found a lovely place for lunch in Hood River followed by a huckleberry shake for Den at Mike's Ice Cream.  A very wonderful day!

Tomorrow we have a long drive ahead of us and are leaving early in the morning - destination, Newport, Washington!  Next day - Kalispell!

Here's a picture of the lavender field and Den enjoying his shake.  If you look very carefully at the lavender field picture you can see Mt. Hood in the background.  And Josie, note how much I am enjoying my new purse - glad you talked me into it!

God is good - all the time!