The Journal of Plymouth Rock Ranch

The year 2009 was an exciting year of God’s provision for our family in so many different ways.

We…………

• Brought home our first ever dairy cow, our Jersey, Phebie.
• Trusted in the Lord for His provision during lean times when no work was coming in early in the year.  This both stretched and grew our faith and trust in our Jehovah Jireh, the God Who Provides.
• The boys started working in a friend’s business and have been working and learning how he runs his business.
• Rick was hired as a rehire for Boeing as a C-17 mechanic.  This was a step back in time to 19 years ago when he helped build the first C-17s and then worked them through their flight test program.
• Two months later, the Lord providentially moved Rick into a Boeing Manufacturing Operations Analyst position where his knowledge and skills could be better utilized preparing modification instructions for the 787 program coming here to San Antonio.  I thank the Lord for this provision of work that is both enjoyable and challenging to Rick and where his knowledge and skills are appreciated, welcomed and sought after.
• The 4 older children were involved in an almost head-on accident that could have been really bad.  By the Lord’s hand of mercy, Ashley was able to almost get out of the way of the oncoming driver who was passing a semi on a curve!  We are so very thankful to the Lord for his sovereign protection of the children and the minimal damage done to the van.
• We prayed about and worked toward our entire family attending the Reformation 500 Celebration of John Calvin’s 500th Birthday.  Just as it looked like we might not be able to go, the Lord miraculously provided the funds, transportation and time off of work and some gracious, generous sweet friends who cared for our animals so our family could attend.
• Three of our girls re-enacted Reformation historical figures and the rest of us fellowshipped with both old and new friends and learned so much about that time in history and the history of our faith.
• Rick accepted a 6 month temporary assignment to Boeing in Washington State where he would be able to get his eyes and hands on the actual airplanes that will be coming to San Antonio for modifications.  While difficult having him away from the Ranch, this has been a blessing to our family in more ways than one.
  • Financially…..see below…..
  • Some individual or semi-individual vacation (comparatively speaking) time alone with dad as we shuttle family members in pairs back and forth to Washington.  This also means that many of us have or will be experiencing our first flights on an airliner.
  • Meeting and making some wonderful new friends in Washington.
  • Getting to know and experience a different part of our country.
• Our Week of Thanksgiving where we said good bye to our Rechabite life in a tent ~ though I think we will always call this house a tent!  Rick was home for a week with the task of erecting a stick framed building on our tent’s pier and beam foundation.  He promptly got sick but God provided beautifully through the hands and feet of Christ’s people who came and worked long hours into the wee dark hours of the morning by floodlights to get our shelter over us before impending cold and rain hit.
• First Flight of the 787 took place in December, which means that Rick’s scheduled time to return to Washington at the end of March is still on track……..so far as we understand right now : )
• God provided a beautiful custom oak cabinet and granite counter top kitchen through CraigsList.  He provided the time and the ability for our older children to disassemble and transport this beautiful gift home.   We stand in awe of His goodness and provision for us.  After four years of camping and being kitchenless, yet still needing to feed 11 people, having kitchen cabinets and beautiful counter tops is still unfathomable to us!
• God provided some wonderful clothing for the older children in His unpredictable way of providing for us.
• Rick had 10 days at home to work on installing our CraigsList kitchen cabinets (see future post for details).
• Then he headed back to Washington for 3 more months.  His temporary assignment is half way finished, Lord willing.

How many more things I could add to the list of our lives in the year of our Lord 2009.  But, for this post, I will just focus on God’s abundant provision for us, even in times where we did not know where our provision was going to come from.  We are so very thankfulness to Him for his loving and complete care of us.

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