Back To The Basics
From the Archives: 2008
By Don Woodruff
My Dad worked for the NC Fish and Game Commission, so I learned early that the outdoors are “important”. It was a place of peace and refuge, especially for a little boy who lost his mother at five years of age.
Living in Alaska was Dad’s big dream. At one point he applied for a position there, but Mom developed cancer and died and the dream died too. However, my wife, Tracy, and I leaped at the opportunity to go to Alaska. We packed up our two children and headed for adventure. Alaska was everything that we had hoped for. It was “outdoors” personified and we jumped in with both kids. We went back country camping, blueberry picking, prospecting, fishing creeks with grizzly bears, catching salmon, halibut and graylings hunting. It was the adventure of a lifetime.
We were so infatuated with Alaska. I’m sorry to say we put Christ on back burner. The architecture business was booming and money was flowing. We invested in a large house, property in a mountain side, a camper, cars and other toys. Life was great! But in the late 80’s, the economy in Alaska, went “belly up”. Basically, we lost everything in the process. Our whole lives were turned upside down.
About this time, my niece, Lisal, came to visit us. Lisal was a seminary student who wanted to go to church to worship on Sunday. We didn’t even know where to find a church so we began to make inquiries. It seemed the “big” church in town started at 11:00 a.m., so Sunday found us lined up in a pew. Pastor John Tindall’s sermon was from the book of James. We were told to count it all joy when we encountered trials and hardships, because they would teach us endurance, steadfastness and patience. It wasn’t what I wanted to hear. I was desperately trying to solve financial, business and family problems. Yet, the harder I tried, the deeper in the hole we got and more depressed I became.
Anchorage is a relatively small town so you soon begin to recognize everyone. I knew most of the folks around town at least by face. One day we went into town for ice cream. I was mad at Tracy, mad at the kids and mad at the world. As we sat there in stoney silence, a stately, elegantly dressed older gentleman came into the store. Among men who wore bear claw necklaces, he definitely stood out. As he passed our table, he paused, looked at me and said, “Sir, you have a fine family here.” He then smiled and walked away. We had never seen him before and we never saw him again. We looked at each other and that was the turning point for us. The reality of what was really important sunk in.
I began looking to God for direction rather than trying to solve everything myself. Pastor Tindall had mentioned “heavenly nudges” in his sermon. Some of use needed a “heavenly hammer.” Everything changed — our relationship with each other, with the kids and with God. We got involved in church. I went to “Promise Keepers.” During the early 90’s I experienced the greatest explosion of spiritual growth in my entire life. I began to think about coming back to NC, but we were literally so broke we couldn’t afford to come back. For the next four or five years, we learned about the joys of a simple, quiet life and trusting God and enjoying one another. When we recovered financially, we headed back to North Carolina.
The kids are grown now, but this past summer Tracy and I found ourselves once more caught up in the hustle and bustle of life. We knew we needed to go away and take stock of our lives, get quiet and seek direction. We got in our little Volkswagon camper and spent the month of July with our God getting back to the basics. After all, isn’t that what Jesus did? He found a quiet place on a mountain top or beside a lake and talked everything over with His father. I can relate to that.
Economic crisis and world events don’t shake us anymore. We’ve seen what God is able and willing to do, so we just take a deep breath and relax.
