Greetings,
I want to continue where I left off last time. But before I do I want to wish my Mother and Father a very Happy Anniversary. Nov 22, 1961. 48 years if I have it right! Well, on we go!
I had told you last time how Galena was made up of one street and that there was a chapel on one side and the bar on the another. Upon arriving I had decided that due to my anger issues with God, that I wasn't sure I even believed in, I took up residence on the bar side. I stayed on thar side well into the first month I was there. Then for some reason late in June 1990 I decided to go to the chapel one Sunday. Since my stint on the bar side hadn't gotten me any results or relief from my annger and depression I figured I might as well give the other side of the street a side.
Isn't that how God works? Most of the times we never see God truly at work in our lives. The everyday businees of our lives are filled with the presence and guiding from God yet we miss it. I would like to tell you that God was waiting for me in all His glory that Sunday I went to chapel but that would be shorting God. What I came to realize later in life was that God was waitng for me in the chapel, He was encouraging me in the bar. Of course, in my ignorance, I never would have thought that God would dare enter an establishmnet like a military bar in the middle of Alaska. But, sure enough, there He was!
It was during my time on the wrong side of the road where God begin to build the foundation of my faith. I didn't know it. I couldn't participate. And even if I would have known He was there I, probably wouldn't have cared. Anger and disappointment does that to a person. Anger, depression, and disappointment is the crach that Satan uses to get into the door of your life. However, God decided that He was going to use these emotions in my life for the good of His kingdom.
He began by giving me a godly roommate. His name was Kevin Butler and he came from Pueblo, CO. I remember thinking at that moment of the odds that in a small remote base like Galen I would end up with a roomamte that lived only 60 miles from where I just left. It was during converstaions with Kevin when God decided to plant the seed. I know many people who would say tha it takes a special kind of seed to gro in Alaska. They would be right. Between the changing of all day to all night coupled with the extreme changes in temperature it makes getting something to grow a little dificult. But not for God. God knew that my life was ripe for the harvest and knew that I was in a lace to receive the seed of God.
Most of the time Gods plants in the rich and fertile soil of our lives not when things are great but when they are bad. I was sure that things were as bad as tey could get. God knew I was ready and so he released the hounds. I call them the hounds of heaven because they are relentless in their tracking. They will hunt you down no matter where you have gone. You have heard that you can't out run God. It's true! Not only could I not outrun God's hounds of heaven but they beat me to Alaska. As soon as I stepped off that plane there they were. He had tracked me down and He was about ready to plant a seed in my life.
Join me next time when I share how the seed of God grew in my life in Galena. Until next time! Blessings
Derek
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