We made our way from Redding to Sonoma in one of the craziest drives I’ve ever taken. I wish I had more photos, but it would seem that this part of California is getting just as much rain as Cincinnati as of late. Thankfully, there have been a few moments where the sun has peeked through long enough for us to play and explore wine country. What a fantastic place.

The view from our place:

Our main house:

Goat Rock Beach

{view large on black}

Ava’s excited…

Finn isn’t…

We’ll see what kind of trouble we can get into today as we do a winery tour and tasting. Can I move here?

We’ve spent the last couple of days in Redding California. This is the town where my younger sister-in-law Allayna goes to school. She attends the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry which is connected to Bethel Church.

On Saturday, my family had the opportunity to visit the Healing Rooms at Bethel – the purpose of this place is to have a safe atmosphere where you can be prayed for to receive physical healing. My leg is still jacked up from my motorcycle accident nearly 9 months ago and now I am scheduled for surgery June 2nd for my knee. I have been prayed for many times and have not received a physical healing, but I’ve seen it happen for other people. The Healing Rooms at Bethel have a reputation for many healings though…so I figured why not? I’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain.

My particular pain is in my right knee and right foot. Mostly the knee, somewhat the foot. As we walked into the Healing Rooms I was surprised to see so many people in there. Probably about 200 people scattered all over the place while very peaceful and dare I say it, “healing” music was being played by a live band on the stage. There was nowhere to sit, so Allison and I sat down on an open section of carpet with the kids and we started watching strange people do strange things.

It wasn’t strange to me, I’ve been in these types of atmospheres before. More accurately, it was lovely. The presence of God and a love for fellow humanity was thick in the room. So many people who desperately wanted to receive physical healing for something and so many people who desperately wanted to see them healed. As I watched people around the room, I noticed a woman who was having her right knee and right foot prayed for – hmm…same as me. She began jumping around excitedly and walking back and forth to “test it out” after some type of healing took place in her body.

Once I saw her I knew what I needed to do. So I went up to the woman and the two people who had prayed for her and explained that I needed prayer for the same area that she did. My right knee and foot were not working properly and I’d take some of that healing too if it was all the same. I may look or sound like a fool, but I’d rather be a fool for Christ than brilliant to the world any day. They immediately dropped down to lay hands on my knee and foot to begin asking God to restore what I once took for granted.

If you’ve never experienced the Holy Spirit this may be hard to understand, but I felt His warmth and tingles all over my body. As my legs began to shake I continually tested out my foot and knee to see if there was any change. Although there wasn’t in my knee, I could feel a significant difference in my foot. I’ve learned how to make them hurt quite well over the last several months and the things that normally made my foot hurt were no longer making my foot hurt. Thank you Jesus for that.

Allison and I both shared a healing experience though – she wasn’t in there for anything physical, but something definitely happened. We were both overwhelmed by the love in that room. This sounds so cheese-factor, but we both had tears in our eyes right after we walked in. It was overwhelming to see so many people who were there simply to benefit others. Knee still hurts, but my foot feels better and our hearts are filled. It was a good day to be kid in the Kingdom.

Tomorrow we are leaving for vacation. The last time we went on a real family vacation with everyone together was in 2009. We spent a week in Surfside Beach, South Carolina and it was marvelous. The kids looked a lot different then…

…they were much easier to wrangle too. This will be good though. I’m officially referring to this vacation as our rich-people snob vacation. We’ll be spending a few days in San Francisco before we move on to Napa Valley for 4 days. After that we’ll spend our last few days in Santa Cruz. I’ve been to about a dozen countries but I’ve never been to California before. I have my in-laws to thank for this incredible gift.

Our plans for this trip are monumental; we don’t really have any. It feels similar to the last time we left except I haven’t been working out. Rest for the weary is much needed right now. Wine for the weary is pretty good too.

I’ll be posting…until then, these are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise.