A TESTIMONY...

Casting all your care upon Him;
for he careth for you!
1 Peter 5:7

Have you ever wanted something, prayed about it, then waited and waited for God to work things out? I most definitely have. I can also admit that some of my personal prayer requests are often wants rather than needs and I catch myself feeling guilty for coming to God with all of my wants. However, this particular want was one that I constantly asked of God without guilt or shame. My prayers would be something as simple as, “Dear Heavenly Father, please make a way for my mother to come and stay with us here in Oroville. I thank you in advance. In Jesus name, Amen.”

I won’t go into great detail about how big of an ask this was, but I will say that with this situation, everything was working against me. My mom suffered a stroke in 2016. We moved to Oroville in 2018. Since then, no one in my family supported my requests to allow my mom to visit and stay for a while. Even my mom was very clear that she did not want to stay under any circumstances. She was still very upset that we had moved so far away from her, and she was stubborn enough to make her point extremely clear by refusing to even visit at times. All I could do was pray and visit my mom in Sacramento as often as possible.

With plans to visit Leoni Meadows last weekend, I had it in my mind that we would take her with us. I prayed and prayed. I informed my mother weeks in advance and her reply was, “No. Please! I don’t want to go!” Every time I would see her, I would remind her, and her response was the same, “No!”
 

CONTINUED BELOW ...

The morning of our trip I prayed as we left Oroville. When we arrived in Sacramento, I greeted my mother then disappeared to pack her bags. Once packed, I went into the bathroom and prayed again, “Dear Lord, please allow her to come with no resistance. Please let her be calm and willing. Thank you, Amen.” I went back into the living room to get her dressed and I put on her shoes. But suddenly I remembered I needed to insert the newsletter into the church website! So I quickly ran into the next room, struggled to get logged in, then finally put up the page as quickly as I could. When I returned to my mom, she had kicked off her shoes and laid back down on the couch. I couldn’t help but laugh. Then suddenly, we were both laughing. And amidst the laughter, we put her shoes back on, got her up, and into the car. What in the world just happened? We were on our way to Leoni Meadows, and my mom gave very little resistance! I had to give God all the thanks and praises!

When we arrived, we checked in at the inn, but I reserved a cabin. Mom looked doubtful about leaving the Inn, and joked about us staying in the cabin. But once we settled in, all was well. The event was prepared for a small group of Adventurers, however, it felt like it was designed specifically for her. The theme was heaven, and the first session was flowing with heaven themed songs and a sermonette. I don’t know how much she understood, but she clearly understood the word heaven and said, “I want to go to heaven.” Hallelujah.

The next morning the sabbath school lesson involved sewing. My mom is an extremely skilled seamstress, but lost the use of her left arm as a result of the stroke. But after soaking in the sun and gazing at the inspiring view, mom sat at the bench with the little kids, and we started sewing. I was overjoyed, and praising the Lord. Mom took a nap for the next few hours. But after lunch we visited the Leoni House, rode the train, and walked through the nature center. We went to the Campfire Bowl to close out the Sabbath with more music and messages. Afterwards we went on a wagon ride then watched the kids go go-karting. Mom was a little tired, but she wasn’t complaining and she appeared to be very happy!

Sunday morning we packed up, enjoyed our final meal at Leoni, then head to the zip lines. The hill to the zip lines was fairly steep, so we had to put mom on Phil’s back. She was scared and resistant, but she did it anyway. Phil hiked her up to the foot of the zip line deck. I had an extra ticket for the zip line, and we laughed as I tried to convince her to ride. Then one of her new friends, a little girl named Audrey, came by to sit with mom. They sat and talked about how scared they were, then they made a pact to ride together next year when Audrey would be 7-years old. It was a precious site to see. 

As we left Leoni Meadows my heart was filled with joy to see mom so happy. I called my aunt to let her know that all was well. Then I also asked her to pack some supplies for an extra week because I wanted to take her home with me. My aunt seemed hesitant, but she did as I asked. We stopped and picked up her things then headed toward Oroville. Mom was mad for a moment, then we just enjoyed the ride, had a nice conversation along the way, and suddenly, we were home. Mom has been with us all week and it has been amazing. We made homemade vegan gyoza, stitched up some old dolls, picked up the Oroville newspaper where the girls are on the front page, we visited the commercial kitchen where they make popsicles, made deliveries, took a brief walk through downtown Oroville, then had a nice Japanese dinner at Nori. 

It’s been an amazing week but it didn’t come without its challenges. My aunt misses my mom and my brother expressed his disappointment that I did not tell him. Nevertheless, I cuddled in bed with my mom last night and told her how much I’ve enjoyed her and how much I love her. The girls eventually jumped in the bed too. They read a young readers book on Esther and Joshua, worked on a Japanese language app, then we all went to sleep. We’ve laughed, loved, and mom isn’t sitting on a couch all day in front of the TV. In fact, she has asked that we work on the garden in the morning.

My final prayer is that she will be at church this Sabbath to meet my new family. I know that many of you have been praying for us as well, and I thank you and love you. God has answered our prayers. What a wonderful and mighty God we serve. I love Him so much.
 

Give Thanks to the Lord for He is good.
His love endures forever!
Psalm 136:1