Florida Recap

It took us from 8:00am to 6:32pm to get to Norma & Luis Padilla's home in Port St. Lucie, FL. We stopped way more than normal, so if you take this trip you could most likely knock off around 2 hours. Norma & Luis are dear friends because my grampie was the person that told Luis about Jesus. Luis told us the story about how my grampie invited him to church while working on a job together. My grampie was a mason and built beautiful fireplaces. So Luis came to church one day and just drove around the church parking lot in circles over and over. Finally, my grampie came out and stood right in front of his car and told him to park it and get it the door! When Luis went inside, these Christians were not afraid to confront him with the gospel! They laid hands on him and prayed for him and Luis threw up his hands and cried, "I accept Jesus as my Savior!" Ever since that point, my grampie and Luis were great friends and brothers in Christ.

We stayed at their home for two nights. On Wednesday, my mom and escaped to Jensen Beach for the morning sun hours and it was such a stress reliever. The water was so bright and blue because it is South Florida! I spent a lot of time here with my grandparents over the years!

Around 4pm that day we arrived at Abundant Life Ministries, the Assemblies of God church that ministered to my grandparents during their time in FL (almost 37 yrs). It was lively bunch of Christians, of course, that praised the Lord & recognized that my grampie was a solid believer in Christ. This time was healing for my Gramie because she was able to see so many friends and since we have moved them up here they have not been able to find a church like home. We ate with everyone afterwards and I felt like the christians in Acts that reached out and ministered in fellowship!

Next, we went to the Jensen Beach Causeway on the Indian River. This is the place that my grandparents pased the tim. They would come here to watch the birds, dolphins, and people together as the boats passed by. Going over the bridge to the causeway God sent us a rainbow in the sky. When we got there, we stopped on the right side of the causeway first, but the wind was blowing past us and I was like "I am NOT shaking out my Grampie's ashes here! because I really would rather not wear him home!!!" So we drove to the other side out onto this sandy cove area where the water was so peaceful as the sun set a golden hue across the water. Norma read from Psalm 66 and then my mom and I threw out the ashes. His ashes just floated across the water and calmly settled there. Such a reminder that our life is so fleeting. (I might insert here that God is so good because I thought this experience was going to be so weird, but it really wasn't at all. God just gave a sweet peace.) As we got back in the cars to leave, I thought to myself, well now all we need is a white bird to fly across the sky. God gives the desires of our hearts! My mom, gramie, and I looked up to see a pure white egret wade right through the water where we had just thrown out the ashes! My gramie lifted her hands and said, "Alleluia, Praise God." It was a beautiful close to a life lived by a servant of Christ.

My grandparents had such a legacy of Christ Jesus in their marriage. They were almost married (in November) 70 years. I cannot remember a time that they did not pray together, lift their hands in song, and declare the glory of God together! I pray as a newlywed that Hart and I will lift up our marriage to the Lord as they did all those years. They were so special in my life an the spiritual heritage that I have through them blesses my soul!