I shared a picture on the various country living groups on Sabbath, Sept. 26, 2020, and just a couple days later, Julio Castillo, the moderator of the group SDA Networking country Living, asked me to be his second person to interview on how I was able to move to the country. I already did a podcast that covers a different angle of my story.
Julio asked for a picture and he made a thumbnail to share. It was shared in all the country living groups on Facebook. I shared it with a number of friends on Messenger and text messaging. We decided to try the Jitsu platform. I had a couple of friends say they would for sure be on the call. I wondered who would really be on the call since it is so easy to forget. I hope no one feels guilty. I sign up for webinars all the time and forget about it until it is over.
I decided to do the webinar outside since there would still be daylight. I set up my tripod and taped my cell phone holder from my car to it. It worked quite well. I brought out a long extension cord that I could run from the generator to my phone so that my battery wouldn’t die. I turned on the generator and was ready to go. Julio said to be on 15 minutes early and as 5:00 neared, I wondered what was happening with him. I tried to remain calm, and he showed up a little after 5:00. My friend, Susan Coon, from Montana, showed up first, but she wasn’t talking to me. She told me later that she was unmuted, but couldn’t talk.
We waited until 5:15 to give more people a chance to get on. I think that there were about 5 besides Julio and myself. My dear friend Claudia from Southern California was able to get on. She was my children’s adopted grandma as they were growing up. They called her Nana Claudia. She got to have the closing prayer. My brother, Tracy Truman, and his wife, Cindy, were able to get on for the last half. At least they remembered before it was over.
Technical difficulties like to plague any live presentation. Julio tried to start the recording and it didn’t work. He was smart enough to know how to do video screen recording from his computer. I don’t have any idea how he did it, but I am glad he did it. That took him a few minutes to get figured out, and in the meantime, I was having an opening prayer and then started talking. The next day, I recorded that part again. I also found out that some parts, in the end, were also lost. This included the question and answer time. No one asked questions except for Julio. I couldn’t do that over again. Some information was lost on the recommended YouTube Channels that helped me to prepare for country living. So, I have decided to share them here and to give move details about them. I shared the links under the video but didn’t explain them.
The first person that influenced me to want to be prepared and to move to the country was Charles Wheeling. I used to go to his seminars when he came to Southern California. He emphasized the kind of property we should look for. His favorite subject to talk about was end-time prophecy. He has a publishing ministry to get out Ellen White’s books in paperback. Here is his channel.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Charles+Wheeling
Dave Westbrook took up the cry to move to the country some time later and he would hold his seminars in big cities like L.A. He wrote a book called Out of the Cities that tells a lot of information about moving to the country. He has a website https://backtoenoch.org/ He has a country living university website http://countrylivinguniversity.com/author/admin/. If you can’t move out yet, it would be a good idea to go through his school of hard knocks so you won’t do things the hard way. Learn from the mistakes of others. Videos on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=dave+westbrook
Jere Franklin wrote a book called You Can Survive which basically shows how to survive the coming time of no buy no sell. He came to Southern California a number of times when I lived there and gave practical training for country living. He has since passed away, but his wife and son carry on the ministry. Here is their website https://youcansurvive.org/ You can learn from his YouTube videos. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=jere+frankling.
Sometimes it helps to watch the struggles of others to help prepare you for country living. That is why I decided to document my struggles and adventures to give you all encouragement. I liked watching The Wilderness Family as they homesteaded in Alaska. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=The+Wilderness+Family
The Swiss Family Robinson Cartoons document a family’s move from Switzerland to Australia and they get stranded on an island. You can actually learn a lot about survival and perseverance from watching them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9kAaTrjBqw&list=PLdthKo72RLhXedA9zVgCuhahU2isTceu_
Frontier House is where several city dwellers were asked to pretend to be homesteading pioneers and attempt to rough it for a certain amount of time. If you want to make sure that you never become a complainer, then you might want to watch this. I thought it was interesting how every family dealt with the problem of having no toilet paper. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4m7ovkbu7cw&list=PL72jhKwankOhv7Km9MnrvKrfZ8hhHnpAc.
Some resources are faith-building, for you will need faith to believe that God can help you find and afford a country property. Glen Coon wrote a book called The ABCs of Prayer. There are also recordings of his series by that name. He tells how he prayed for just the right country property and how he got it by faith. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZErrb4gutQI&list=PL-S3F8I9GeOBW8TI-dScL6G7fIZqStwpa.
Roger Morneau has some talks on Incredible Answers to Prayer and you can search his names for his books. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=roger+morneau+incredible+answers+to+prayer+.
Otto Konig tells his amazing faith-building stories of being a missionary to the head hunters of Papua New Guinea. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=the+pineapple+story+missionary.
Bruce Wilkonson wrote a book called The Prayer of Jabez. This book inspired me to write the Jabez Prayer song I share in the video of my testimony. You can listen to the book on YouTube and learn to pray the prayer and watch God work miracles in your life. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEf7pj9i1Aw.
There is a “Christian” film called Facing the Giants. I don’t agree with their choice of music, but this section from the film has a good lesson. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxwTomRwfRI. It is about getting ready for the rain of God’s blessings.
I hope you will take the time to listen to my testimony now and that you will be encouraged in your own journey to make the move to the country.