Susan & I arrived in Montana the week before last, on July 21st. We spent the weekend with our friends Jim and Linda Fordyce. They treated us to a walk along the Jefferson River which runs along where they live. Lewis and Clark traveled there. The following morning we went to church with them and met many of the friends they have made over the last year. Jim and Linda are really integrating into their community in Twin Bridges, MT. After church we went to the Old Town Bannack Festival. We had lunch there and enjoyed the exhibits and buildings of this historic Gold Mining town. Bannack was the original capital of MT. We also went to Sheridan, MT, where Jim and Linda are building a new home.

Great fellowship with Jim & Linda the next a.m. and then we headed up to our cabin in Fortine, MT.  This has been a great time of restoration and focus on the Lord. The cabin is amazing. It is a beautiful log cabin built perfectly, it seems. Great craftsmanship!  Very comfortable. We are taking the mornings to rest and get time with the Lord. I usually take a 45 to 50 minute walk to start the day, come back have breakfast and then get the rest of the morning in the Word and Prayer.

In my reading in I Kings 3 a verse jumped out at me. This has happened a few times in my walk with the Lord through the years. This time it was so evident that it startled me. The verse is verse 5 where God says to Solomon, " Ask for whatever you want me to give you!"  When preparing for our Sabbatical, one request that I had of the Lord was that I would hear His voice... and I asked others to pray that for me. Well, He spoke to me through this passage of Scripture and His Spirit.  Now the question is "What do I want Him to give me?" Amazing!  I shared this with Susan and asked her how she would answer that question and she said, "Physical and spiritual generations through our children." In other words that our children and grandchildren would walk with God and see physical and spiritual generations through them.

I love that answer of Susan, and I want that as well. For me, I believe that there is something else that I want the Lord to give me, but it is not clear to me and I can't articulate it yet. I believe this time of Sabbatical will be the time to discover what it is that I want the Lord to give me.

We leave MT and return to KC this week on Weds the 1st of August.
God Bless!  Dave