“There is nothing--no circumstance, no trouble, no testing--that can ever touch me until, first of all, it has gone past God and past Christ, right through to me. If it has come that far, it has come with great purpose, which I may not understand at the moment; but as I refuse to become panicky, as I lift my eyes up to Him and accept it as coming from the throne of God for some great purpose of blessing to my own heart, no sorrow will ever disturb me, no trial will ever disarm me, no circumstance will cause me to fret, for I shall rest in the joy of what my Lord is.” (p. 166).

“It is God who gives us, along with you, the ability to stand firm for Christ.” 2 Corinthians 1:21

We had a great time on our trip to the White Mountains. The weather was beautiful, lots of rain too the average temp was between 60-84 degrees...at times the 84 degrees seemed a bit warm still, however I shouldn't complain because it sure beats the HEAT in Tucson, and Phoenix for that matter, I heard that it was 118 degrees in Phoenix.

We left last Wednesday evening, we wanted to leave about 6:00 p.m. but for various reasons we were delayed until about 8:30 p.m. .... God had plans that we were blessed to be able to see parts of throughout our whole trip....some of you may know that my husband is starting a business making vinyl decals for cars and businesses, so our car is basically getting covered with decals he has made as a way to show what he can do, so we get all kinds of comments from people, some negative, but many more that are positive (pictures of the decals below, click on them to make them bigger)...when we finally headed out of town we made one last stop at the convenience store and a man walked up to Mark (after seeing our truck and all the Christ centered decals on the truck) and asked Mark if he would pray for him as he is 56 years old, just lost his job, and he knows the Lord, but he was very discouraged in his life right now...so Mark did pray for him right there outside the store... that was the first of one of Gods plans that we were honored to see, I suppose we were not really delayed, but rather directed huh?...Remember when your plans do not go your way, maybe God is working on directing your paths Proverbs 16:9  A man’s heart plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps. (also see Alan Redpath quote above There is nothing--no circumstance, no trouble, no testing--that can ever touch me no trial will ever disarm me, no circumstance will cause me to fret, for I shall rest in the joy of what my Lord is) I say that because everything we do is being watched by someone and can be used for Gods glory, sometimes we may never see the things God uses us for though...but these past few days He allowed us to see him in action more then once!!!

On Thursday we headed into the towns of Show Low / Pine Top-Lakeside to check out some antique stores and just explore the areas beauty...we got rain and it was just beautiful, considering we get very little rain here in Tucson, so we thoroughly enjoyed it...well all except Marks knee, the coolness and damp air really caused him discomfort...

Here are pictures from our exploring the town, the first one is of the house we stay at when we go to the White mountains once or twice each year, (friends of ours own the place and let us rent it from them for several days for less then the cost of one night in a hotel, so that has become our families favorite place to go on vacation for the past 4 years or so...)

We went back to the house after our exploring kind of early in the day as we were pretty tired having come in to town about 1:30 the previous morning, so we just hung out made smores and laughed alot, it was very nice and relaxing....here are pictures of the girls and my mom...oh yes and Marks fire that the girls were very proud of...

I am by choice always on the other side of the camera....

Friday morning we headed out to find a place called Hannigans meadow....on our way we spotted an older woman alone on the side of the road with her hood up on her car...we pulled up to her and asked if she needed any help she smiled really huge chuckled and asked if we could follow her home because her check engine light came on and she was worried it wouldn't make it...so we did. When we got to her place we found out that her name was Violet and her cars name was Elizabeth, she asked us if we were heading into town and if we could pick her up some antifreeze...we said of course and told her we wouldn't be back her way till later in the afternoon, she handed us some money and said no worries, because her and Elizabeth wouldn't be going anywhere... So we took off to find Hannigans Meadow...no such luck we couldn't find the place, so we ended up exploring the area of Hawley lake...it was sure pretty, here are some more pictures (you can leave now if I am boring you with our vacation pictures...lol).

We saw many signs proclaiming that there was the possibility of spotting Elk, Deer, wolf etc... in the areas we explored, I was so hoping to see some 'wild' animals so I could photograph them...however we only saw the following:

The cow was spotted on the road to Hawley Lake, and the snake (which we found out later was a narrow headed garter snake (harmless) was found on the patio of a some friends home we stayed at on our last unexpected one more day stay in the area...(that story will be towards the end of this already very long post...More of Gods hand over us this past week)

These were the only thing close to what the signs said we may spot, but they were the stuffed kind in a hotel lobby where we stopped for a necessary room break......

We headed back to the house to take Violet her Antifreeze when we got there she said "I need to tell you something...just before you guys pulled up this morning to ask if I needed help, I prayed and said well God it is just me and you and I need you to help me and Elizabeth get home"...she said no sooner did she end that prayer that this truck with Jesus Freak stickers all over it pulled up...she said that is why she chuckled when we asked her if she needed help...

Here are pictures of Violet and Elizabeth...

I know this is a pretty long picture intense post...but this blog is also a way for me to be able to chronicle things in my life...and since I do not scrapbook or anything, then this is the one way I know how to keep my memories preserved...

These are pictures of a cabin now turned into an antique store...the cabin is one of the old Murphy's cabins that my family used to stay in when I was a child...

...this picture is of a pair of Long Johns hanging outside the cabin / antique store...Mark took that picture...I have no clue as to why, but here it is for your viewing pleasure...LOL

On Sunday morning at the very last minute Mark and I decided to go to church at a sister church of the one we used to attend here in Tucson, the girls and my mom wanted to hang out at the house and just relax so off we went...when we got there we saw  a family from the church in Tucson also visiting (they were staying with friends that had recently moved up to the Show Low area from Tucson, it was nice to see them ) after church Mark and I drove around the town looking at homes in the area and dreaming of living in the area...knowing Marks knee could not handle the cold weather there, so that is why we were dreaming...that area of the state is so beautiful, especially because everything is so brown here in Tucson...

As nice as it was in the White Mountains we were ready to be heading home to our own beds, no place like home right? Monday morning...we got about 45 miles out of town close to the Salt River canyon (a pretty steep and winding road) when our truck made a loud noise kind of a crunching noise...Mark pulled over at a Chevron station practically in the middle of nowhere...and looked under the car checked things out...all seemed ok so he started to head out toward the Canyon again when the truck shook pretty hard and made the noise again...Mark said umm Ok we should head back to town...we drove about 24 more miles at a slow pace with our hazard lights on..Mark asked me to look outside and see if the wheels were wobbling at all (they were not). Some young guys in a  truck followed us at the same slow pace the rest of the way back, they could have passed us a couple of times they did not however, I felt a sense of peace and said to Mark maybe God sent that truck to  be near us in case something more serious happened...Mark did not say anything because he was staying focused on a fact that I was not aware of...at the time I had no clue that we practically had no brakes.When we got to the first traffic light in Show Low the guys in the truck pulled up and asked if we were ok Mark said nope I have no brakes and that the ABS light just came on...YIKES!!! They said about 100 feet up the road is a side street and for us to try and get over there to be safe...we did that and waved as they continued on there way...when we turned the truck shook again and made a very loud noise I can not describe...we got out and this is what we saw...

...the wheels were almost falling off...mostly the passenger side, the drivers side one was tilted out somewhat, but not as much as my side... the road we had turned on was right next to a dealership...I really did not want to pay the price or even spend the time up there that it would take for the dealership to repair the damage....but it seemed we didn't have much of a choice....

(I will explain the rest without using the names of our friends as I have no clue if they want their names published on the web...)

Suddenly I remembered about the friends we saw at church the day before from Tucson and that the husband in the family they were staying with was a mechanic, (we knew that family as well, but we were mostly acquaintances with them, as the church we attended together when they were in Tucson was so large it was difficult to get to know people on a very personal level)

Anyhow I am not so good at remembering things like phone numbers, however the phone number of our friends from Tucson that were visiting popped in my head as clear as day (Thank you Lord) so I called her and she gave me the number of the mechanics family...the husband showed up and handled getting a tow truck to the shop he worked at, just 2 miles from where we were (Thank you again Lord) ...it turned out that the wheel bearings were bad and the spindles (?) on one side was broken and the other side was bent...I thank the Lord for His hand in this situation because as steep and winding as the road through the canyon is, we very well could have gone off the side...it amazes me that God guided the car back as far as He did and got us as close as he did to where we needed to be to get it fixed and be safe...

I am not surprised that God did that as I know He can and does do things like that all the time...it just amazes me! It strengthened my faith immensely, and I do not believe I was lacking much in that area to begin with...

Romans 5:3-5

3 And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; 4 and perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

The family that lived in the area offered a vehicle of theirs and their home to us to stay in as the parts had to be brought in from out of town and we would need to stay at least one more day...we could have stayed at the the house we usually stay at or a hotel close to the repair shop, but they would have nothing with that...they gave up their beds in two rooms and sacrificially shared what they had with us....that was the love of Christ in action... Gods hand was all over this whole situation from seeing our friends from Tucson up there so that I would know to connect the mechanics family with them so we could be helped getting our car on the road...all that God did made paying the high bill easier to deal with all the way around...I am thankful though that we did not have to pay the dealership prices or even spend the time that would be needed to stay up there until the truck was repaired....God is so so good!!!!

Psalm 9:1-3

 1 I will praise You, O LORD, with my whole heart;
         I will tell of all Your marvelous works.
 2 I will be glad and rejoice in You;
         I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High.

Last pictures of us at the mechanics families home...I am there just as always I am on the other side of the camera...