We are at peace enjoying a season of "everyday hum-drum life."

We are in West Linn, Oregon getting to spend some time with several of our children and grandchildren.  

This bridge is a couple of miles from where we are staying in West Linn, Oregon. It goes between West Linn and Oregon City.  You can see the spray of the the Oregon City Falls behind the bridge.

This is the view of the Falls at Oregon City from the Oregon City side of the river.

We are enjoying the fact that we have a kitchen.  While in Mendocino we did not have a full kitchen for almost a year.

Our daughter Suzanne turned 16 in September and got her first job a week ago at a "Five Guys," hamburger restaurant as a cashier which is about a mile and a half from where we are staying.

Ministry is slow for Daniel at this time of year. (Due to the holidays) So as the saying goes, "Make hay while the sun shines," Daniel is making websites during the holiday season... which is helping to generate some needed cash flow.

Our granddaughter Shannon (on the right) has been enjoying playing with her friend Sophia.

We are at peace enjoying a season of "everyday hum-drum life."

Back in Mendocino

We are back in Mendocino, CA for three weeks. (We leave around the 25th of August)

Back in Oregon

We are back in Woodburn, Oregon 15 miles north of Salem.  Gonna miss the cool coastal weather. As I write this the thermometer is rising to 97 degrees today and possibly 100 tomorrow.

Hiking in the Redwoods

This is a picture of Shannon and Suzanne in front of a California Redwood Tree.


We took two hikes today one in Stout Grove and the other along Nickerson Ranch Trail both in Jedediah State Park about 20 minutes from where we are staying in Crescent City, CA.


We never get tired of of seeing these massive trees... A tad different from the pigmy forest in the Mendocino area where all the trees and vegetation is stunted.


The Smith River goes through this area... it is pristine at this time of year.

First Stop The Lost Coast of California... Honeydew, CA. with the Mattole Family

The road to Honenydew is very curvy - 10 MPH signs... abound.  If you ask me some of them should say 6 MPH!

This is the bridge that crosses the Mattole River in the Mattole Valley on the "Lost Coast," of Northern California.  Only one vehicle at a time can pass... 15 MPH speed limit.

Honeydew has one store with a Post Office. Taint no Wal-Marts in these parts.

Our Destination... Our friends the Mattoles and their new Timber Frame House.  Wonderfully Rustic. The Timber Frame Technique dates back centuries...

Look Ma no Nails!  The construction uses only wood... oak dowel pegs and mortise and tennon joints.

We had two meetings at the Mattoles, one on Friday Night and another on Saturday. This is the Saturday meeting with the folks at the Mountain of Mercy; a ministry to recovering addicts who have given their lives over to Christ.  We encouraged a dozen saints that day. Several of them told us the Lord had done a deep work in their heart.

Shannon and Mattole in the "Bad Boy," Mattole's souped up 4 wheel drive golf cart.  Mattole and Jean are very special to Shannon... kind of like grandma and grandpa... since Valerie and I (her real GM and GP) are more like her mom and dad.

This is another bridge over the Mattole river.  Years ago Mattole would hitch up his horse and wagon and take us across this bridge... now we go across on his "Bad Boy."

A glimpse into, "A Day in the Life," for us to live by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

On Tuesday, June 1, 2010 we had just enough gas to go to a meeting at the Lord’s Land and drive into Fort Bragg, CA., a total of 30 miles. We have three bank accounts, one for ministry, one for business and a personal account. The grand total in our three bank accounts came to $4.97. In addition to our bank accounts, we have a support page on our website, markoya.com, that has a Paypal button for donations. Our Paypal balance was $16.01.

On Wednesday, my wife, Valerie and I prayed over our current list of needs. We were very low on everything. First, we needed a bridesmaid dress for our daughter, Suzanne for $135 that had to be ordered within a couple of days so it would arrive in time for our son, Joseph’s wedding. Then we needed $30 to fill a prescription medication which I take daily (only 2 pills left), $100 for food, $60 for our storage unit in Oregon which had to go out in a few days, $100 for gas for our thirsty Suburban (we are getting 10 miles per gallon… I’m pretty sure she has a drinking problem), $200 for work on the Suburban (need a tune-up and oil change), $35 for our PO BOX in Salem, Oregon (due immediately), $300 for a necessary software upgrade so I can finish building a website for a dentist that I have traded with, and $170 for our three phones the total of which came to $1130.

Our daughter, Suzanne called our son Justin to ask if she could borrow $135 for her dress. He agreed so we were able to order the dress that will take 5 weeks to arrive just 5 days before the wedding.

I had committed to go to a meeting at the Foursquare Church in Fort Bragg, which would take at least $10 for gas to get into town and back to where we were staying. As I was praying, it came to my mind that I might have squirreled away some money in a brief case. Praise the Lord I found a $20 bill. I went into town packing an additional $4 in coins. I made the rounds to 4 grocery stores getting, a few tomatoes here a loaf of bread there, etc., and put $13 of gas in the tank.

The meeting at the Foursquare Church had a dozen people including myself. I sang a few songs and mostly preached. At the end of the meeting, someone asked me if I had any CDs with me. Praise the Lord, I sold 3 CDs bringing $40 into the treasury.

On the way out of town, I went back to 2 grocery stores to get the rest of the items on my list and to the gas station to put an additional $5 of gas into the tank. This left me with $3 cash in my pocket, a little less than $5 in the bank and a heart full of joy due to the Lord’s provision.

I returned with half a dozen bags of groceries causing great joy for 7-year-old Shannon… and the rest of us.

That night when I checked my email and I was blessed to see an unexpected donation of $200 had come into our Paypal account causing a thankfulness to rise up in Valerie and my heart. God is good. He is our provider we lack nothing in Him.

As I was writing this Valerie informed me that the night before she opened the scripture to:

Philippians 4:19
And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.

These two scriptures had come to my mind.

What came to my mind was to trust the Lord and to be content with what we have.

Hebrews 13:5 (Amplified Bible)
Let your character or moral disposition be free from love of money [including greed, avarice, lust, and craving for earthly possessions] and be satisfied with your present [circumstances and with what you have]; for He [God] Himself has said, I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. [I will] not, [I will] not, [I will] not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let [you] down (relax My hold on you)! [Assuredly not!]


Matthew 6:25-27
 "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life.

As for the $725 yet needed, I am confident of this… God will provide. My task today is to divvy up the $200 ($194 after the Paypal transaction fee) that came in. Let’s see 10% of $40 plus $194 is $23.4…

UPDATE TO THE ABOVE STORY

Thursday June 17, 2010 the above story ends with our needing $725 and trusting that the Lord would provide.

We received a $300 unexpected gift two days later. Grace Community Church in Fort Bragg, CA had a going away reception for us and put up a money tree for people to donate to us... $ 390 came in. We went to a home group meeting where Daniel sang, and $44 came in from CD sales, A brother in Colorado called out of the blue wanting 5 CDs to send to Pastors in his area resulting in another $50 and $144 came in for a website that I host. The total: $1215.25 enough to take care of our needs and for us to have enough for gas money to head north.

Our Vehicle is Working!

We are still in Northern, CA the Mendocino, Fort Bragg, area it's hard to believe but it has been 10 months!

Daniel built a website for the lodge we are staying at on the coast seafoamlodge.com. We were paid a fee and the grace for our family to stay in two ocean view rooms, one for Val and I and the other for Suzanne (15) and our granddaughter Shannon (7). The scope of the project expanded into several print collateral pieces etc. and the grace to stay got extended... a bunch.

Daniel has been singing in various churches, home meetings, and at the YWAM base weekly. Many people in this area have been praying that we would stay here. During the course of our time here our suburban broke down and was out of commission for 6 months. During that 6 months 8 different people came forward to let us use their vehicles. Daniel made a request in a church meeting for folks to stop praying for us to stay here and to start praying for the Lord's will to be done. Two weeks later we got the suburban working. The money we saved on gas, approximately $1,000 paid for the parts to fix our rig.

We will most likely leave the area we are in sometime in June to head north as our son Joey is getting married July 17th in Oregon. He has spent the past two years in a Bible (Bridal) school in Maui where he met his finance. She (Jessica) comes from a family who are missionaries in Mexico. We were able to meet Jessica and her family recently. They are solid believers. Praise the Lord!