Camping Trip:

A Christian camping friend called and asked if I wanted to go to Yosemite camping because his job had surprised him with some time off. They had messed up his previously planned vacation, so now they offered him this extra time.

I said yes, because I was exhausted and wanted to just relax, rest, and to get focused, and get some quality prayer time with the Lord. So my friend picked the date and called the day before to see if everything was still set. My friend knew that nothing is set with me until the very last minute because the Lord deals with me from day to day without any advance notice. So the next day I packed up my tent and sleeping bag and we hit the road.

As we were driving toward Yosemite, the radio station we were listening to mentioned that it was exactly six years ago that the 1989 earthquake hit California. I began to wonder if the Lord had all of this planned even before my Christian friend had decided to ask me to go camping. For I was in Yosemite two days before the California earthquake. It was exactly this week six years ago that I had helped this young man with his two children down the mountain trail from Vernal Falls. Yosemite was the place that one of the big three things that I had done; happened. This was one of the occurrences that I wrote about in my opening testimony. The Lord was going to give me whatever I wanted because of these three things, and one of these things I did was to help this young man with his two children down the hiking trail from the Vernal Falls. I mean almost to the day, I am back at Yosemite! I think about this Vernal Falls occurrence a lot, and this later led to this quest of seeking the Lord blindly through tears and prayers. Suddenly this whole resting trip took another focus.

Well on Tuesday, I found myself going up the same trail, only this time, I am walking by myself praying in tongues, something I didn't even believe in six years ago, and wondering what was up ahead. I was almost at Vernal Falls when I found the trail blocked with some kind of gate about a tenth of mile from the top. There was this man from the search and rescue department guarding the gate. We began to talk and he told me about the things he did. So I spent the next hour and a half sharing with him the things that the Lord had done with me and what had happened to me on this trail. And he shared some of his experiences of rescuing people and some of the things he had seen. His job was to pick up people that had fallen off cliffs and people that had gotten hurt with broken legs and things like that. He said he had been doing it for three years and had seen some strange things while doing his job. We both were touched with each other's testimony. As I left he said, "God bless you." I never found out if he was a Christian, though he talked like a Christian, but he never admitted he was. Maybe he's one of those Christians under the water line of the iceberg, that the Lord mentioned in an earlier prophecy.

This was a very interesting trip. I spent the rest of the day praying and reading the bible and I came home refreshed. It's funny in how the Lord works. You think you are out doing your own thing, but you're right where you are suppose to be, doing the Lord's work and you don't even know it or sense it. The Lord always seems to be ahead guiding and showing us. I felt very strange being the only one back to Yosemite on the six year anniversary of the group's camping trip. I guess there were about twenty or so people in the group, and I was the only one back on this unplanned six year anniversary trip going up the same old hiking trail. I am going to say it again, "It was strange going there, and finding out the Lord had arranged it, and not even know it, until I was on my way there." (over)

Safari ya kwenda kukaa kwenye kambi:

Mkristo fulani rafiki yangu ambaye huwa tunaenda pamoja naye kukaa kwenye kambi; aliniambia kama ningelipenda kwenda kukaa kwenye kambi ya Yosemite kwa sababu kazi yake imemshangaza kwa kumpa zawadia ya muda wa ziada. Wao walivuruga mipango yake ya zamani ya likizo, kwahiyo hivi sasa wao wamempa muda huo wa ziada.

Mimi nilisema ndiyo, kwa sababu mimi nilikuwa nimechoka, na nilikuwa ninataka kujinyoosha na kujipumzisha na kuweka umakini wa mawazo yangu kwa Bwana. Pia kupata wakati mzuri wa kuwa mbele za Bwana kwa maombi. Kwa hiyo yule rafiki yangu aliamua kuchagua tarehe na kuniuliza siku mmoja kabla ili kujua kama mambo yote yanaenda sawa sawa na mpangilio huo. Yule rafiki yangu alijua kuwa hakuna lolote linaloweza kuamuliwa na mimi hadi dakika ile ya mwisho kwa maana Bwana alikuwa ananielekeza, na ya kuwa Bwana hatoi taarifa mbele. Kwa hiyo siku iliyofuata, mimi nilichukua hema yangu na begi langu la kulalia kwenye safari ya kambini, na kuondoka kwenda kwenye hiyo safari.

Wakati tukiwa tunaendasha kuelekea Yosemite, radio ile tuliyokuwa tunaisikiliza ikaeleza kuwa imefikia miaka sita kamili tokea tetemeko lilikumbe Jimbo la Kalifonia mwaka 1989. Mimi nilianza kufikiri kama Bwana alikuwa amepanga mambo hayo hata kabla rafiki yangu yule katika Kristo kuniambia tukasafiri kwenda kupiga kambi. Kwa maana mimi sasa hivi niko hapo Yosemite siku mbili kabla ya siku ya tetemekeo la Kalifonia. Ilikuwa wiki hii baada ya miaka sita kupita mimi nilimsaidia yule kijana na watoto wake wale wawili kutelemka mlima huo baada ya kutembelea maporomoko ya Vernal. Yosemite ni mahala pale ambako mambo yale makubwa matatu ambayo mimi niliyafanya yalipotokea. Mambo haya ni yale niliyo yaandika kwenye maneno yangu ya ushuhuda wa kufungua kitabu hiki. Bwana anaenda kunipa yote ninayoyahitaji kwa ajili ya mambo haya matatu, na mmoja ya mambo hayo niliyoyafanya yalikuwa ni ya kumsaidia kijana huyo, pamoja na watoto wake hao wawili walipokuwa wanatelemka kutoka kwenye mlima huo wa maporomoko ya Verna. Naam karibia siku hiyo hiyo miaka sita iliyopita; mimi nimebahatika tena kurudi, na kupatembelea mahala hapa tena! Mimi nimekuwa nikilifikiria tukio hilo la kwenye Maporomoko ya Vernal mara nyingi, na tukio hilo baadaye ndilo lililonipa shauku na hamu ya kumtafuta Mungu kwa bidii kubwa, kwa upofu na kwa machozi mengi na maombi. Kwa ghafla mara likizo hiyo iliyokuwa ya kupumzika ikachukua sura mpya.

Naam siku ya Jumanne, nikajikuta nikienda njia ile ile ya kukwea juu ya mlima huo, na kwa kufuata nyayo zile za zamani, ila kwa safari hii mimi nilikuwa ninaenda mwenyewe nikiwa nasali katika lugha, kitu ambacho miaka sita iliyopita nilikuwa wala siiamini, na nikijaribu kutafakari ni nini hasa nitakacho kikuta kule juu kwenye safari hii. Nilikuwa karibu kufika kule juu pale nilipogundua kuwa kile kinjia cha kupandisha kilikuwa kimewekewa mlango wa kudhibiti kwenda na kurudi kutoka kule kwenye maporomoko yenyewe ya kiasi cha umbali wa kitu kama sehemu mmoja ya kumi ya maili kutoka kule juu. Kulikuwa na mtu fulani kutoka kwenye idara ya uokozi na utafutaji wa wale walio patwa na ajali; akiwa anaulinda mlango huo. Tulianza kuongea naye, naye akaniambia kuhusu kazi anazo zifanya. Ndipo mimi nikakaa naye kwa muda wa saa mmoja na nusu hivi, nikiwa ninamweleza kuhusu mambo ambayo Bwana amekuwa akifanya kupitia kwenye huduma yangu hiyo, pamoja na yaliyonipata kwenye njia hii miaka kadhaa iliyopita. Naye akanieleza mambo kadha wa kadha; aliyo kumbana nayo kwenye kazi yake ya kuwaokoa watu wanaopatwa na ajali kwenye eneo hilo na mambo mengine aliyo yaona. Kazi yake ilikuwa ni kuwaokoa watu waliopatwa na ajali ambao wameanguka kwenye mtelemko ule na kuvunjika viungo pamoja na mambo mengine kama hayo. Amesema amekuwa akifanya kazi hiyo kwa muda wa miaka mitatu sasa, na yakuwa amekuwa akiona mambo kadha ya ajabu ajabu akiwa kwenye kazi yake hiyo. Sisi sote tulikuwa tumeguswa na ushuhuda wa kila mmoja wetu. Wakati nikiwa ninaondoka yeye akasema “Mungu akubariki”. Mimi wala sikujua kama yeye ni mkristo, ingawa aliongea kama mkristo, lakini yeye hakuweza kuniambia hivyo. Labda yeye ni mmoja wa wale wakristo walioko chini ya maji ya mlima ule wa barafu (wakristo wa siri), wale ambao Bwana alizungumzia habari yao kwenye unabii ulio tangulia.

Hii ilikuwa safari ya kuvutia sana. Mimi nilitumia sehemu ya siku iliyobaki kuomba na kusoma Biblia yangu na kurudi nyumbani nikiwa nimepata nguvu mpya. Ni majabu kutafakari jinsi Bwana anavyo fanya kazi zake. Wewe unadhania kuwa wewe umeenda mahala ili kufanya shughuli zako, lakini unajikuta uko mahala pale ambako Bwana amepanga, ukiwa unafanya kazi za Bwana, nawe wala hujui wala huhisi hilo. Bwana anaonekana kuwa mbele yetu akiongoza na kutuonyeshea la kufanya. Mimi niliona ni jambo la ajabu ya kuwa mimi pekee ndiye niliye bahatika kurudi Yosemite siku ya kumbukumbu ya miaka sita ya safari yetu kati ya kundi letu la watu ishirini au zaidi hivi, nami nikiwa peke yangu katika safari hii ambayo wala sikupangia. Siku ya kumbukumbu ya miaka sita ya safari yetu hiyo ya kwenda huko nikiwa natembea katika njia ile ile tuliyo pitia miaka hiyo. Nitasema tena kuwa, "Ilikuwa kitu cha ajabu kwenda tena pale, na kukuta na kugundua kuwa Bwana alikuwa ameipanga na bila hata mimi kujua hadi pale nilipokuwa tayari niko njiani kwenda huko." (Mwisho).