In July, my sister and I had just returned from taking a trip home to West Virginia and Pennsylvania and New York to see our family. We had a few dollars leftover from our trip, and I happened to not be scheduled for work for almost an entire week due to a mix up in the scheduling world. It was at this time, at morning service on the Sunday after our return that I really felt a download from God about praying for Texas.Let me say at this juncture that while we have been blessed to be here, and our needs have been amply met, none of us enjoyed being in Texas. Maybe it was the season we were all in, or maybe Texas just isn't "it" for us - I'm not entirely sure. But whatever the case, I - and I know the other girls too - had a very hard time praying earnestly for this state. I'm not saying it was right or that we were acting according to how we should have been ( in love at all times...ahem...) but that is the honest truth. Have you ever lived somewhere that just didn't "sit" right with you?
Nonetheless, God doesn't share my emotions and my dislikes and so on, and for that we can all be grateful! I hope I will not offend any reader that may be Texan, but I must speak plainly. One of the hardest thing we found to deal with here was the overgrown spirit of PRIDE that sort of parades itself around this state. I love my country and I do believe in supporting your state, by the way. I almost hesitate to write this, but if I don't you will not get the complete story and I really want to be honest about how we feel about our experiences.
At any rate, after praying some about how we were to pray - or where , or if we were even supposed to pray - I happened to read this article in the neighborhood weekly magazine that came in the mail that got my attention!
I had come to the conclusion that maybe we weren't supposed to pray in Texas, that God had brought us here for other purposes and was fine with that. But when I read this article, suddenly, a fire was lit in my heart and I recognized the Holy Spirit speaking. The article itself was about Washington on the Brazos - a state park about 3 or 4 hours drive away from us.
During worship the week before, I had asked God to show us what the key for Texas was...and this was how the article started out: " One of the first things you think of when you think of Texas is their pride," I am not kidding! I read on as the article described and boasted of Texas pride and said that it was what Texas is known for. It then stated that for a fun summer side trip, you might consider visiting historic Washington on the Brazos, which was The Birthplace of Texas - "where it all began!" There was so much significance to this article I could hardly believe my eyes.
So, fast forward then to Sunday during the worship, where I am feeling so strongly that we MUST go visit this place and pray there. Then the pastor gets up to speak and his message is, "We have to be open to the Holy Spirit, because God has places He wants us to visit and prayers for us to pray, divine appointments for us, and we need to be flexible and just go with what He is saying!" Hmmm...
So basically, Teruah and I got home from church, threw our stuff in the car with a tent and our sleeping bags and decided to set out. I am glad the desire to do this lasted all that time, because as we were driving to the middle of nowhere and it was getting dark while we tried to find a campsite, I was wondering if I was crazy for doing this on a whim. Why were we wandering around out here in the dark again?
We found a tiny Mexican restaurant open after staking out the tent, and split a late dinner that was delicious. Then headed back out to the campsite. When we arrived we realized the night guard forgot to tell us that the gate closed at 10pm sharp, and there was no other way in. It looked like we might be hiking back into the campground perhaps a few miles to where we had left our tent. Just then, he drove up (the guy happened to have seen us driving in when he was leaving and turned around to follow us) and let us in to the camp. I was so relieved!
After an incredibly humid night in the tent, and trying to sleep on a rather bumpy piece of ground, we awoke early and set off for the park.
I will not go into minute detail about Washington on the Brazos, but if you want to read further into our nation's history and how Texas came about, you can visit their site at http://www.birthplaceoftexas.com/ where there is a wealth of information about the formation and development of the state. After going through their museum, I had a new respect for the frontiersmen and women who risked much to settle the land. There was also a lot of history regarding our relationship to the Mexicans who owned the land before us. I also learned that Texas, before it was a state, was an independent nation of it's own, for a short time and had it's own elected president! It had it's own declaration of independence, signed in the small wooden building still standing on that ground.I came to understand that Texas came about after a series of intense struggles for those who settled here, and perhaps part of the pride was the fact that they had even survived in the first place.
We had stopped at a small grocery store before we went to the park, and bought a bottle of wine and a bottle of oil and mixed the two in our water bottle, so we wouldn't appear too conspicuous, so after reading a while about the hstory of the place, we went to the quiet picnic area near the river and sat on the picnic table just waiting to hear from Father God. We asked Him to forgive us for our bad attitudes in response to the attitude we had seen, and we then prayed wholeheartedly for Texas, for God to move in her, to break off the chains of religion and pride that hold her back, to repair and bring restoration to the broken places and to heal the brokeness caused to the Mexican people. It was SO interesting as we prayed there together quietly, just waiting on Holy Spirit, that I realized that Mexican blood runs through Teruah's veins, while I am a "white girl" from the North Eastern states - the states that sent out the pioneers that settled many parts of the US. And here we were, best friends, praying together for the healing of this land. We poured out the wine and the oil then and asked the Lord to seal our prayers.
God is good. He knows exactly what He is doing! Even when we are just trying to do what we think is what He is saying, fumbling around in the dark, tripping over tent pegs, waking up scared to death because of raccoons in the trash cans, and wondering if you made all of it up in your head or not.
I know God has good things in store for this state. They say everything is BIG in Texas, and so it is - the houses, the stores, the land and yes, even the attitude. But so is the LOVE and the plans that our amazing Father has for Texas! BIG LOVE and BIG plans and purposes...And no one can out-do Him on that!
I first learned of killdeer from my dad, who was walking with me out on the property of the church we attended. The land was being developed, and apparently provided an ideal nesting place for these interesting birds. I was about 13, I guess, and was listening to the long "kill-dee" sound this strange bird was making and watching as it ran about. Dad said if you got too close to its nest, it would begin to act injured in order to draw you away. I was fascinated! So I inched closer to the bird and sure enough, it began to drag about on the ground, one wing appearing to be broken. It led me further and further, until all at once, it up and flew away, back to the nesting area where we had seen it originally.
But I had never seen a baby killdeer until the day before yesterday. I had been sort of wondering what to write about, as nothing too over-the-top had happened in the last few days. Little did I know! I was amused by the mother killdeer, but as I googled their species tonite, and came across this site 