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October 2016: Sixth Month

So here we are in Milwaukee for a two week stay, just blocks from Evangel church. We met a very nice lady at the hotel. She was the cook and she began telling us all about her family and that she was in great need of prayer for them. The two weeks went by so fast as we were preparing to build a sukkah (temporary dwelling) at Evangel for the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot in Hebrew). We celebrated the Feast of Trumpets (Rosh Hashanah) and the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) during those two weeks at the hotel. The people at church were so excited that we were going to celebrate Tabernacles at their church.

On Thursday, the day we left the hotel, we began building the sukkah. By late afternoon, we realized that we did not have a place to go to, so we decided, with a little prayer, that we were going to go back to Mequon till Sunday. This gave us a place to have the Sabbath. The sukkah was finished and ready for the people to start going through that Sunday.

But after church, we once again found ourselves without a place to go, so we went to the one place we knew, the place we call home, our storage sheds. We went and swapped out some summer clothes for fall-type clothes, and once again we found ourselves with no place to go. So yes, we went to Walmart to spend the evening and night in the car. Now, we knew that God wanted us in Milwaukee for the winter and we had been trying to find a place, but everything is in God’s time and according to His ways. We also knew that God had told us before we left Cedarburg that He wanted to stretch our faith and that He would not leave us homeless forever. But we thought that had to do with the traveling we had just done, never figuring that He was not counting those hotel stays as being homeless.

Well it was quite a night. It makes you realize what people go through who are homeless. I’m sure that was God’s point to us. That next day when we went to church for the first Day of Tabernacles, the first thing pastor asked as we stepped in the door was, “Well, where did you spend the night?” like he knew or something. So we told him, and he said that he knew someone and maybe we could stay there. But that fell through, so he said that we could spend the week of Tabernacles at the church, even with our cat.

So we did. We had the kitchen, showers, and we brought our air mattresses from the shed and slept in our sukkah just like you’re supposed to do. Is God good or what? I never would have normally slept in the sukkah because they are built outside, and a camper I am not. But this year we built ours inside, and so that was great to celebrate sukkot in the proper manner, with indoor plumbing and everything: all the comforts of home in one temporary dwelling. It truly is the season of rejoicing!

We had so many people and kids come through the sukkah that week! We had lunch with two of the pastors and the secretary one day, and we talked for almost three hours about sukkot and the Jewish roots of our faith as we ate lunch and other little treats. We really celebrated that day in the true meaning of sukkot. We celebrated with friends from New Life church and pastor’s wives and the people of the congregation. In all, about 80 people came through the sukkah. But the day came and sukkot was over and the sukkah came down. The pastor said to us that we should stay until we had a permanent place, so here we are at the end of October, and we are still in our sukkah, our temporary dwelling. God is faithful! We have all we need and are still doing the work for God.

The holidays are upon us and we all shall be busy doing what we do for the holidays, so we will see you in January as we continue on our journey. Happy Holiday, and God bless you all!