LIKE A WATERED GARDEN
By Ada Brownell
Scripture: “The Lord
will guide thee continually, and
satisfy thy soul in drought, and
strengthen your bones: and thou
shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of
water, whose waters fail not” (Isaiah 58:11 NKJ).
Because of my husband’s railroad job as a telegraph operator,
in the 1950s we had to move to Thompson, Utah, population 100, four bars, no
church, a uranium mill, and an acid plant.
Thompson rose in the middle of the Utah desert with cactus,
a ghost town not far away, run-down homes, and a two-room schoolhouse. We
rented probably the only house in town available the first time we landed in
Thompson. It didn’t have a working toilet (we poured water in it to get it to
flush), and no running water in the kitchen. We used an outside faucet.
We moved and came back a short time later and the only house
for rent was a tar-paper shack with an outhouse, and a cold-water faucet in the
kitchen.
It was 80 miles to Fruita, Colorado, our home, and 38 miles
to Moab--the nearest church. We drove the 38 miles on Sunday nights to attend
services (Les worked on Sunday mornings). We went to Colorado to buy food. At first we hauled coal for our winter heat
in the trunk of our car, and the neighbors kept stealing it. The only place in
Thompson to buy milk, bread, and few canned items was two bars.
“Lord, how did we miss your will and end up in Thompson?”
I’d ask when I prayed. “Help us!”
Before we moved there I was youth president in our church in
Fruita, and taught a Sunday school class.
I was particularly discouraged when my oldest brother, Dr.
Virgil Nicholson, sent me the above scripture. I hung on to it, and kept asking
God to work in our lives. Then one night in Moab during church God poured His
fire and encouragement into my soul. I
told the Lord, “If you’ll send me a helper, I’ll start a Sunday school in
Thompson.”
Within a week God sent a beautiful Baptist woman my age to
town, and we got acquainted. Within days we had permission to meet in the
schoolhouse. In no time, 16 kids were enrolled, and another young mother
volunteered to help.
I’d already been doing a little writing, sold some, and
became interested in newspaper work. I was accepted as a correspondent from
Thompson for The Grand Junction Daily
Sentinel.
We eventually purchased a beautiful mobile home.
Looking back I see the Lord guided my footsteps right
through that desert. I probably would have never become a successful writer or
a newspaper woman had I not gone through Thompson. He satisfied my soul in the
desert, strengthened my bones, and guided my footsteps.
PRAYER: Lord help me to
not to stagger at your promises, but believe your Word and be victorious
through your mighty power.
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