August 25th, 2008 Ranch update and tim’s musings (via postie)

Author: TinyTimbly, March 24th, 2010

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August 25th, 2008

Dear Friends,

Summer is over, and school has started. What a busy time of year! How many of you are overwhelmed already?

1. family news 2. ranch news 3. Tim’s musings

Family news.

So the long and short of it is that we have found a new house that we really like. Apparently, the owner actually was working with someone else to buy it too, but after I talked to him, him and his wife decided to offer it to us instead. And offer they did. For a downpayment, and proving to them that we could cover the current mortgage, they would carry it for us for a year, then help us refi into our own name so we could buy them out. We thought we had the downpayment money coming back to us in a refund check, but then the IRS lost some of our paperwork and we haven’t seen any of it yet. And they will likely garnish some of it anyway to help pay off my old debts from my first marriage. So we are praying that we somehow find the downpayment asap, so that we can move, asap.

Why the push to move so quickly? Well for one, it’s already getting colder at night here, and our 2 boys who have returned home from their summer in Portland are still camped out in RV trailers outside for their bedroom space. Plus we have a deadline of Aug31 to get the thorn creek stuff off that property and into storage somewhere. The new house has that storage room.

Ranch News

The prospective buyer that the owners had for the ranch has apparently backed out of the deal. That leaves it wide open again. Thus there are now several people of means planning within the next 8 weeks to view the property with us to possibly partner with us to get it and convert into that retreat center that we have been dreaming of. This is neat news. We’ll see.

We have not made any progress yet with the second piece of property we were looking at for the foster home community. Our phone calls have been unreturned. I plan to follow up again today on this.

Tim’s musings

I looked over the edge of eternity again this week…. Honestly, I don’t try to keep doing this, but it keeps happening. This time it was a tree that I cut down which then snagged up in another tree, known as a “widowmaker” in the logging business . When I pushed on it to unsnag it, it came down, the wrong way….. After hitting me square in top of the hard hat, it sent me into an uncontrolled somersault down the hill. I remember the sun flashing past as I flew through the air, and an incredible roar in my brain. When I landed finally in a heap on the ground a little ways down the hill, with the tree falling next to me, I couldn’t move anything, and believe me, I was trying. I didn’t even know which way was up. I could see dirt and dry grass in my face. My head was roaring, and I couldn’t move a muscle. Apparently I laid there for 30 seconds or more, according to the other guys that were there. I don’t know how long I did. But after desperately trying to focus, I was finally able to move my arms and legs, tell which way was up, and get back to my (unsteady) feet, just about the time one of the other guys made it up the hill to me to see if I was ok… This was a new experience for me. I never been hit that hard before, or been stunned like that.

Now almost a week later, my back and neck are incredibly sore (they weren’t much the first two days), and thus I prolly need to get them checked out by a professional.

But as I considered the scenario, it dawned on me that if that tree branch on that falling tree that hit me, had it hit me just one inch to either side of where it did, it would have glanced off my hard hat, snapped my neck sideways, and completely shattered one shoulder or the other, puncturing lungs and everything. In short, I wouldn’t be here today. Just one inch either direction. Do you realize how little a distance that truly is when we are talking about big trees, falling objects, and my body in movement already?

So I took comfort in that. I serve a big God who protects me daily as I try to honestly serve Him. Not many people that I know walk in that kind of daily assurance, and it’s sad. If I am serving God with my whole heart and life, He absolutely will not let ANYTHING happen to me that He isn’t going to turn into something bigger and better. And I simply will not die until I have accomplished what He has laid out for me. I take comfort in that. I’m not sure what the greater good will be from getting hit in the head so hard, but the reminder to me that God IS taking care of me, was worth it.

But it does raise an interesting conundrum on my part. I was planning to take some time off work this week to finish cleaning out thorn creek before our deadline and making it presentable for our investor friends. But now having been ordered in no uncertain terms by 2 nurses and my wife that I am NOT to be doing any heavy lifting or strenuous physical work for several weeks, I’m not sure what that means. And without the new house in our possession yet, we don’t have anyplace to move it to anyway. So I’m waiting on God on this one… And that is faith…. And someone offered/gave us a whole bunch of moving boxes yesterday….. *raised eyebrow*. There are no coincidences in God’s kingdom….

Me and Karen have been trying to finish up the editing on my “The Innocence of God” manuscript (rough draft available for free at http://www.theInnocenceofGod.com) this past week, so that it can be turned in to the publisher. We found several glaring mistakes that I need to fix, but other than that, it’s about ready. Karen read part of it back to us in family circle last night, a section on how God truly wants to love us with an innocent, tender, and pure love. And it spoke to me, especially in light of my tree incident last week. God loves us. When we line up with Him in every area of our life, we make it easy for Him, not just to protect us, but to also lavish love on us. (As a side note, I have noticed a distinct tendency for life to get “strange”, chaotic, and full of turmoil, EVERY time we work on this manuscript. Think about what that says…. Needless to say, I am asking for, and actively relying upon, God’s protection, much more so right now than I have at times in the past.)

Anyway. God loves us. And if you aren’t resting in the shadow of His protective wings right now, you better get there. Life is too uncertain without Him.

Thanks for praying for us, reading our notes, and being our friends.

In Him, Sincerely,

-Tim, Karen, and the kids Benedict

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