Walton, West Virginia is home to Critter Creek Farm and the beautiful Beal family. Miles of Appalachian mountain ranges, blue skies, creeks and rivers and bridge after bridge lead us into the heart of their cozy mountain home.
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| Outside of Beckley, West Virginia |
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| Somewhere near exit 79 West Virginia on Rt 77 |
A postcard perfect drive with awe inspiring scenery reminded me of God's great love. He is wonderful, and almighty Creator of the heavens and the earth. And he loves, oh how He loves! Each and every one of us! He so loved the world that he gave his one and only son so that whosoever believes in him will not perish, but will have eternal life.
We drove from Beckley, West Virginia to Walton, passing Charleston, marveling in the beautiful mountains, and straining to see the rivers through the trees. Just off freeway Route 35, we turned on to a twisty, turny mountain road that went for miles and miles around and around the mountains.
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| Capital Building, Charleston, West Virginia. My image took too long to upload so I got this one from the internet. |
We passed trucks, a string of motorcyclists and mighty oak trees, hickories, black walnuts, locust trees, tired old houses, cute old houses, newer faced houses, mobile homes, abandoned dilapidated houses, trucks and creeks. A farmer with a fresh steaming pile of manure and straw pushed his load off the bed of his truck down into the ravine. I saw a million mullein plants growing high up the side of cliffs and hillsides with companions of milk thistles, Queen Anne's Lace and blackberries everywhere I looked.
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| Walton Thriftway General Store from their Facebook page. |
The GPS took us to the center of Walton, Unincorporated, (according to the sign). We stopped at Walton Thriftway to ask for directions. The GPS did not show us exactly where to go even though we had an address.This was one of the coolest stores I have ever been in. Lined along one wall was old antiques that the Antique Archeology guys would surely love to pick, it had new animal feed buckets, wire, tools, canned goods, meats, dairy case, handcrafted furniture and t-shirts. You get the idea. It was a general store, like a miniature department store. The owner was friendly and so was the cashier. Please go see them on Facebook and tell them Gods Girls sent you:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Walton-Thriftway/196163093730599
We visited our old friend from Freedom Life Church, April, and her 4 children. Her dream has been to have a hobby farm out in the country. She had begun to live that dream out in North Carolina and rescued two neglected horses while there. On his way back from a job interview in another state, he passed through Charleston and loved it. He told April he would like to get a job there. April agreed that it was possible. He said, I think I will believe God if I get a job in Charleston. Well, guess what happened? God gave him a sign of his pursuit of him and he got a job in Charleston. So they moved and are building a homestead on about 20 acres of mountain. But that sign was dismissed as a fluke, a coincidence. Aw well, God does not give up on the first pass, there will be other signs.
About those those neglected animals, that traveled from North Carolina to West Virginia, well, they are now healthy and strong and ready to be broke to ride. Let that be a sign of things to come, April! The farm includes a horse, pony, goats, ducks, guinea fowl, and veggie garden all along a flowing creek. I went nuts over the medicinal plants growing in the yard (because I am an herbalist) and the creek. The creek reminded me of northeast Ohio and the creeks I waded in so many years ago while I was a girl. Her oldest boy gave me a tour while Lesa ministered to April. Then she ministered to the oldest boy by listening to him after asking specific questions. Her wisdom is inspirational. We gathered around April as a team and blessed, encouraged and loved her, prayed for her and her beautiful family. Suffice it to say we all were touched and God sure does love His daughter, April, and her husband and children!
PLEASE KEEP APRIL & HER FAMILY
IN YOUR PRAYERS
We all thought about blessing the children with new bicycles. They had been given some free ones but they only lasted about 2 weeks before the tires blew and the chains broke. Going back through Charleston, the GPS not once, but twice misdirected us through downtown to not Walmart, which we wanted to find bicycles at, but to The University of Charleston. We all agreed that Charleston was for April. It was past lunch time, we were growing hungry. We opted to get out of the city and back onto the highway and see what turned up. Just outside Charleston I saw a pick up truck that proudly displayed a taxidermy alligator head, with teeth clutching a can of Skoul chewing tobacco. Reminded me of that Foxworthy fellow..."You might be a redneck if...." yep. Really happened. Saw that for real.
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| Alligator holder. Yep get one here: http://www.johnwalkergators.com/taxidermy-services.html |
Then Nothing but mountains for a while. We stopped at a BP outside of Hurricane for water and bathroom break. As I entered the store, I said,"How's it going?" to the cashier who was standing behind the counter to the right of the front door. He replied,"Living the Dream, Living the dream." When I went to pay for the bottles of water, I asked,"So, what dream are you living?" He replied,"A nightmare is still a dream, right?" Derek had sandy brown hair and a sheepish grin. Young. Too young to be hardened to life and cynical. At least he had a sense of humor. I said,"How can I pray for you?" He said,"How ever you'd like." So I said,"Father, thank you for releasing Derek from his nightmare and giving him a better dream in Jesus' name. Amen."
PLEASE CONTINUE TO PRAY FOR DEREK To be released into a good dream, a good life.
By now I was very eager to do some "real ministry." On the way into our chosen lunch place, Fat Patty's, Lesa reminded me that we have no idea of the powerful impact those words had and will have in the life of Derek. This is real ministry. It is powerful. Let's not to get too hooked onto having to see the end results. We ate lunch together which was quite good, a burger joint with photographs of Marshall's legendary football team (WE ARE MARSHAL's FAME) along the green painted walls. We left there and hit the road again.
Then the landscape began to change. The hills flattened a bit and gave way to corn and soy fields. We saw a white barn with a quilt square decoration over the double door. A sign read "Jesus in the Hills Camp." Jesus was in the SUV, too. We listened to an Empowering Women PodCast by Chris Valotan (sp).
We all laughed at the highway sign:
DRUG IMPAIRED
DRIVERS CALL 800-***-**** Like they would turn themselves in. Ha! Nevermind the alcohol impaired drivers or the texting while driving impaired drivers. Or the drivers who just cannot drive.
The Ohio line is marked with the Ohio River. We crossed over the bridge into Ohio and drove and drove until we saw the water tower for Xenia, Ohio whose sign indicated we had arrived in the 'Bicycle Capital of the Midwest.' There was also a Walmart sign and an exit."Get off here, get off here!" I exclaimed. "It is our sign." So Lesa quickly changed course and we found the Walmart. Both Lesa and I forgot our combs at home, so we needed new ones and we needed some water and a few odds and ends. While there, living our life and taking care of our needs, we blessed two families. It was not forced. We walked around and listened to what the Lord had to say.
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| Xenia Water tower with Sign |
Family number one had already paid for their groceries and Lesa kept asking how we could help them in addition to it but they kept saying there was nothing. So then she just gave them a $100 gift card and the lady's tears flowed,"You have no idea!" she cried. It turns out that this couple had just experienced the loss of their best friend to a freak illness and needed to go to the funeral, which was pretty far away. They have 5 children ranging in age from 16 to less than 2 years. This would help with travel expenses to get there. The children circled around when prayer was offered, like they had done this before. They were happy, healthy and well loved children. Such a lovely family.
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| Family One Xenia, Ohio |
PRAY FOR FAMILY ONE AS THEY
MOURN THE LOSS OF THEIR BEST FRIEND
I had gotten separated from the group and ended up on a bench while family number one was being ministered to. An overweight strawberry blond boy about 11 sat down, with his little brother, about 5 years old, tagging along beside him, while their mother checked out. He said,"You are driving me crazy!" a couple of times to the younger sibling. I looked at him and said,"You know, he probably looks up to you like you are a hero." The boy shrugged, sighed like he heard that somewhere else before and grunted,"Yeah." By that time I got a text back about where the group had gotten to and i left the boys to go join them.
We said our goodbyes to family number one, then went inside to check out. (We left our basket in aisle 8 with cashier #7 keeping a watchful eye.)
In the check out line, we were behind a family of four. Lesa whispered to Hayley, "Ya think we should buy their groceries?" Then the man said to us,"Its never ending!" Lesa walked right through that open door," Can I ask you something without you getting offended?" The man said,"What? Something wrong with my pants?"
Jonathan looked like he just got off from a blue collar job. But we could not see anything wrong with his khaki shorts.
"No no no, I don't care about your pants! Can we buy your groceries for you?" The guy looked dumbfounded. He said,"I will never turn that down!" So we paid for this family's groceries and found out that the couple is getting married next week on a covered bridge. This would really help them out for that.
PRAY FOR FAMILY #2 AND THEIR
WEDDING NEXT WEEK
Today, the word has been signs. There are signs all around us. Some don't make much sense, some lead you to a new direction, some state the obvious even though we deny or miss it. And some are just plain funny. Open your eyes and read the signs. They can point ya into a better direction; one that leads to the way into the Father's heart, one that confirms his love for you.
Love ya
Carol
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