Raised in the Blue Ridge mountains of southwest Virginia, USA, I was indeed a “country” girl. As a youth who had only faintly heard about Jesus, I was quite a rebel. It was instilled in me early on to be aggressive and to make things happen. I had one goal in mind: Obtain a college degree, move to the big city, and get what I wanted. And that’s just what my husband and I did. Our careers began to prosper and bring in the income that would provide us with the lifestyle we desired. We acquired a beautiful home in a neighborhood where all the “Who’s Who” people lived. We drove vehicles that cost as much as a fourth of the cost of the home in which we lived. Shopping sprees obtained for our children the name brands and styles in which we desired to see them dressed. Nothing seemed impossible for us to obtain, as our desire for more grew and grew. My husband began to work different shifts and overtime to make even more money. We seldom saw each other with our busy schedules.

During the quiet time I did have, I began to read a Bible that I had in my possession. It had belonged to a childhood friend of mine. I do not remember how I got it, and after so many years how I still had it. But it became my close companion. I read it at every spare moment, taking the word into my very bones. For hours into the night I read of the Saviour that loved and died for me.

Soon, our trips back to the countryside to visit our family left me somewhat empty when we would arrive back to our city home. I felt an urge to be back there, to that place from which I had so longed to flee. An internal struggle began. Leave all that we had worked so hard for? Give up our grand lifestyle to be “out in the sticks” again? The word of the Lord came to me, “Forsake the idols of Egypt” (Ezekiel 20:8). So we put our house on the altar and it sold in less than two weeks. Cars and furniture were sold. Our relatives even offered to give us a piece of land in the country on which to settle. We felt that God was indeed moving in our behalf. It was not long before we pulled away from all that we had cherished and served, now to depart with nothing but a camper and a truck as we headed back to the country.

We lived in our camper while working to prepare a home on the land that had been so graciously given to us. But as we worked on the land, circumstances and problems arose in connection with the property that seemed to say, “Don’t go in this direction.” While leaving the city with the same character we had left with - that of expecting instant gratification with the tendency to try to make things happen in our own time and way, we dismissed the “still, small voice” that was trying to give us warning. We moved ahead nonetheless with preparing the land and soon we were living the country life. We planted a garden, bought some farm animals, and cut wood for the winter time. We simplified our lifestyle, as we felt the Holy Spirit was teaching us that less was actually more.

During this time we discovered the Sabbath truth and began to worship at the SDA Church in our hometown. Within a couple of years we discovered to our horror that we had yoked ourselves up with dishonest relatives. We would again have to leave all that we had labored for, and move off the land we had thought would be our “forever” home in the country. Through this experience God’s word was indeed to come alive for us, as it is written, “I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household” (Matthew 10:35, 36). Our characters would be tried in the fire of affliction and suffering. How could we handle being lied to by those we loved and those who should love us the most? How would we handle anger and bitterness? How would we handle the disappointment? The betrayal? The financial strain it caused, and now the burden of still another move with three children to start all over again? We lost our home, our vehicle, our finances.

In all this, the Lord brought the darkest corners of our heart to light. We no longer had any control over our circumstances! We were at our lowest. But the word of the Lord came, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee” (Isaiah 26:3). We clung to Jesus, knowing how He had worked for us in the past. This brought us encouragement that He would again work in our behalf. “The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace” (Exodus 14:14). “I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. He is ever merciful, and lendeth; and his seed is blessed. Depart from evil, and do good; and dwell for evermore. For the Lord loveth judgment, and forsaketh not his saints; they are preserved for ever: but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off. The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein for ever” (Psalm 37:25-29).

As we pressed on despite our circumstances, our only source of fellowship was our church family. We studied with a zeal like never before, especially now that we had found the Spirit of Prophecy. As we discovered truth, we would share it with our church family, only to find that they were unteachable and in opposition to the Word of God. Characters were soon unveiled to disclose their real “fruit.” We would go down the road of disappointment and separation again. It seemed as though the Lord was removing every earthly support from us to depend wholly on Him. This brought us great perplexity. I said to the Lord, “They worship on the Sabbath and have the Spirit of Prophecy books - this must be your church, for there’s nowhere else to go.” Yet we could not find peace about supporting with our presence the apostasy we were seeing. “We should never give sanction to sin by our words or our deeds, our silence or our presence.”1

Psalm 27:14 came to mind: “Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.” And wait we did. In idleness we were not. The Spirit of Prophecy became our “food and water.” We discovered that our church may have worshipped on the Sabbath and printed all the Spirit of Prophecy books, but they were not God’s true disciples, for the Lord gives a clear condition: “If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed” (John 8:31). “For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified” (Romans 2:13).

One sunny autumn morning we received a telephone call; a friend shared with us about her visit to the SDA Reform Movement. Just as the children of Israel were freed from the Egyptian bondage, so we felt as if we then got a chance to learn from a body composed not merely of hearers of the Word, but doers of it. Providence would have it such, “because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it” (Matthew 7:14-27). “Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city” (Revelation 22:14).

Waiting on the Lord was hard for us. It was not in line with our character. But, praise the Lord, that is just what Jesus wants to do for us - to change our character to the similitude of His. Is this not the purpose of the Exodus history? To prepare us for the kingdom that is not of this world? If we will only give up our idols from Egypt and head for Canaan, forsaking all for Him, the Lord will fit us for Heaven. Let us be found among the faithful few who are able to stand. “And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation” (Isaiah 25:9).