Cabin 14 

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart…” Proverbs 3:5-7

In the mountains near Big Bear, a simple preacher, with a simple message, changed our lives forever.

While preaching a message on trust, my husband had to stop and say to the congregation, “You all are welcome to listen to what I am saying, but really this message is for me.” The group chuckled; little did they know this would be one of his last messages for them.

For 25 years, I had been praying that God would call us to a foreign mission field. My husband had been a youth pastor for most of those 25 years. We had seen hundreds of youth come to Christ. For me, I loved it all, but had never unpacked my bags. I longed to be in a place where the Good News had never been heard.

After my husband preached on trust, the Holy Spirit spoke to his heart saying, “You have trusted Me for many years, but not with your paycheck.” Wow! This hit him hard. He thought he had trusted God. We tithed, gave all we had to youth ministry and, now, camping ministry, but had always done missions through the church. We always had a paycheck to come home to. Raising support was not something my husband thought he could do.

After the message on trust, my husband called me into our room and began to share what all the Holy Spirit was teaching him. He then said that it was time for us to GO. GO on the mission field wherever God called us! I jumped on the bed with great excitement in my heart. We were to go—but first trust.

We told the director of the camp that we would finish our commitment, and then we would be moving on to training for missions. The director was none too happy with this idea. We moved out of our home and into Cabin 14, leaving a place for our replacements to live.

Cabin 14 was a one-room cabin that was about to be torn down. We didn’t care—it was a place to prepare us for the future. A few days later the director called my husband into his office. He told him that he had replaced us and that we were no longer needed, which meant we had nowhere to live and no income.

My husband thought he could fight this and win since our contract promised us employment for the summer. Instead, my husband decided to trust God for our paycheck since that was what God said he needed to work on. Within 24 hours, he had a job working for a construction company making the same wages as at the camp AND with a beautiful home on the lake in Big Bear for FREE. We lived there throughout the summer at no cost. If we had fought for Cabin 14, yes, we could have won the war and lived in a falling down, one-room cabin. By trusting God, we found HE had so much more planned for us. We wondered how many times had we fought for “Cabin 14” and missed out on the wonderful blessing God wanted to give us.

How many times have you trusted in your own rights and ideas?

Father, we trust in You. You won’t fail us. No matter the situation, You have a better plan.