The Abraham Trail

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Part II

My husband was not comfortable with the whole idea. So I suggested we ask God for a sign. We remembered the old school bus, maybe a

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Part III

As we got ready to leave, my husband would occasionally send a message through me, to people with whom we had business dealings. In the past I had chickened out when the opportunity arose to deliver the message or talk to that person. I was often very uncomfortable by angry words, in fact, my cognitive processes basically shut down, and I just wait for the unpleasantness to pass. This doesn

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Part IV

And God told Abram, "Leave your own country behind you, and your own people and go to the land I will guide you to." ... So Abram departed as the Lord had instructed him. Genesis 12:1 & 4

God made it clear we weren't to stay on the ranch, and now we had a way to get to Alaska, so the packing, sorting, donating, and selling began in earnest. We sold our horses, at a loss mostly, and I learned a new lesson in trust. It broke my heart to see the tears on our daughter

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October 17th, 2001

Day One on our Abraham's Journey: I suppose if anyone ever reads this, they will think it presumptuous of me to name our trek north after Abraham. But God led him, and Sarah had faith, and it gives me comfort. Besides, the likelihood of anyone ever reading this is pretty slim.

Today, as God led, we left the ranch. So many miracles got us to today. God sold the ranch, provided the bus, worked the truck over, got a job lead for my husband, even.

God sold the van yesterday, and someone came by last night and bought a bunch of tools. We pulled out with $5000 cash.

The very amount my husband had said we would need.

We climbed into the psychedelic bus with mixed feelings of optimism, relief, and fear. My husband led us in a short prayer, (PTL!) and we headed out of the ranch's driveway. It was bitter indeed to drive under the custom sign we had purchased and had hung only a year earlier. The horse

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October 18th, 2001

What a journey. From Cache Creek we drove to Prince George, BC, a city of about 50,000 people. It is a lovely city, built on a river, and by far the largest city we will encounter on our trip. We stopped early, since the next town was farther than we wanted to try and drive, and rented a room in a hotel with an indoor pool. What a blessing the pool turned out to be. The kids had a chance to work off some of the excitement and energy from being cooped up in the bus.

The bus draws more attention than I think the kids ever thought it would. People watch us coming, turn and gawk as we go by, and I think some of them may have broken their necks gaping at as after we were already past! I don

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October 19th, 2001

We left Prince George with the goal of making it to Fort St. John. The actual Alaska Highway starts in Dawson, and Fort St. John is the next stop on the Alaska Highway.

As we left Prince George, we were just about 30 kilometers out of town, and the geography changed to mountain and farmland. We were rattling along in the psychedelic bus, and a big bull moose was feeding right next to the highway. He threw up his head, stared wide-eyed at us, and broke into a run and lumbered off into the forest. It was so funny to watch the moose run. He was all gangly legs and it looked uncoordinated until he got up to speed. And then he really moved! I wonder what that old bull thought of the contraption rattling down the highway?

The scenery was beautiful between Prince George and Dawson. The highway wound around the base of mountains alongside a river. The mountains were tall, jagged, and rocky, with forests of spruce, birch, and evergreen. The leaves were bright gold, interspersed with the darker greens of evergreen trees. Seeing the foliage changing on the trees really impressed on me that this may not have been the smartest thing we ever did.

It is definitely late fall up here, and we are moving to a place where we have no jobs, no home, no friends, and we don

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October 20, 2001

We left Fort St. John early on Sabbath morning.

The hotel we stayed at included breakfast as part of the room rate so we all had a great breakfast before setting out. It was snowing lightly, and a blizzard had been predicted as we made the beginnings of our journey into the Yukon. It was gray and overcast, and for the first time the roads were slick.

The kids and I prayed that God will provide us with weather that allowed us to travel, and didn't keep us hotel bound. It bothered me a little traveling on Sabbath, but staying in the face of obvious winter weather would have been foolhardy.

My husband has not yet made his commitment to God, and for over a year now, I have been blessed by fitting in with his plans, according to 1 Peter 3:1-6. I

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October 21, 2001

Today is my youngest child

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October 22, 2001

It