“A PROMISE KEPT”
By
Janet Baird
Weisiger
“Abraham never wavered in believing God’s promise. In fact his faith grew stronger, and in this
he brought glory to God. He was
absolutely convinced that God was able to do anything He promised.” Romans 4:20-21
Theme of book: Jesus is the light of hope to the world of
cancer
rweisiger@gmail.com
PROLOGUE
May 26, 2010
I went to bed
early that evening. For the past few
weeks I had not been my usual energetic self and I thought a good night’s sleep
would help me.
The sound of loons on our peaceful
northern Canadian lake lulled me to sleep.
The comfortable queen size bed in the downstairs guest bedroom of our
roomy lakefront retirement home gave me a feeling of luxury. Dick would soon join me after his enjoyment
of the latest baseball game on TV.
It was the middle of the
night. Suddenly, I turned over in bed,
half awake. Something caused me to
stir. What was it? And then a vision appeared directly in front
of my face! I partially awoke aware of a
glorious event happening right before my very eyes. I saw something wondrous. A beautiful cushioned throne, glistening in a
mass of sparkling golden rays appeared a few feet from my astonished face. The golden rays looked like sunbeams but they
were coming from the throne. They shone
with intensity like nothing I had ever seen before. The golden rays kept moving back and forth
creating a visual wonder of gold sparkling intensity.
Someone was sitting on the throne
and I somehow knew without a doubt that the person was none other than
JESUS! My heart leaped. With breathless anticipation I realized I had
a special visit from the Lord himself. I
did not see his face. It was blurred. But there was what looked like a crown on
his head shining brightly in sparkling, radiating gold. Everything was glistening in gold, even the
plain colored robe He was wearing.
His hands rested on the arms of
the throne and in His left hand He held a sphere -- circular, multi-colored,
and radiating in golden sparkles. I
wondered, what did the round ball of magnificent colors and golden rays
mean? Could it be the globe with all the
countries of the world illuminated in bright iridescent colors?
Then I heard a voice. He spoke. A voice of authority, power, and
love filled my ears. The voice held
warmth as He spoke in beautiful caring tones. “You will be healed. BUT in my own time frame!”
I not only heard the words but I
saw them, like the news updates scrolling across the bottom of the TV
screen. The word ‘but’ was emphasized by
the power in his voice and appeared in capitol letters.
And then
silence. The vision left. The night surrounded me again.
My immediate unspoken response
was, “That’s nice of you, Lord, but I’m not that sick. Please help someone who needs you more than
me.”
Even though I had not been feeling
well, had been unusually tired and depressed, I never thought I had any serious
illness. So I thought that Jesus should
spend His time with a more gravely ill person.
Suddenly Dick
awoke, “Janet, who was talking to you?”
Dick had heard the voice!
“I just had a visit from
Jesus. He told me I would be OK.”
Dick responded sleepily, “Oh, that’s good.”
We both fell back to sleep. I slept peacefully, but I wondered. What did this visit mean?
CHAPTER ONE
A PERFECT RETIREMENT
Psalm 91:2
“I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and
my fortress; My God, in Him will I trust.”
“You are
retiring to where?”
“Yes, Canada. We have this gorgeous piece of property on a
lake about fifty minutes north of the border.
It will be perfect.”
That conversation was repeated
countless times in 1991 as Dick and I prepared for our retirement. We were New Jersey natives, had raised our
four children in a lovely town in northwest Bergen County, and were now going
against all New Jersey wisdom. Most
people retired to Florida, the Carolinas, or even south Jersey, but
Canada? Nobody in their right minds went
north where there would be endless blizzards!
But we had found the perfect
place, our paradise. Eighteen acres of
woodland loved by deer, porcupine, wolves, bear, beaver, fisher, turkey, black
rat snakes, and the precious loon, all of which we were interested and eager to
reside alongside. All this on one half
mile of waterfront on Sand Lake. The
lake was part of the Rideau Waterway, a series of lakes and canals connected by
hand operated locks. The waterway was
originally built after the War of 1812 as a fortification to defend the then
British Territory from invasion by that annoying neighbor to the south, the
United States of America.
We bought the property in 1985,
hoping to retire there some day.
Fortunately, by then relationships between Canada and the US were
friendly and relaxed and in 1991 we were welcomed by our northern neighbors to
settle in our newly built home and spend as much time as we wished just so long
as we returned to the States occasionally.
We spent eighteen years at our
retirement property, swimming, fishing, gardening, entertaining and
relaxing. Sure, the winters were severe
but we kept warm with the wood burning stove, special winter gear and homemade
soups. The snows were beautiful, the
sunsets breathtaking and the wildlife impressive.
Having lived in New Jersey only
forty-five minutes from Times Square, we rarely saw impressive star-filled
nights due to the ever-encroaching city lights.
In contrast, the nights at our Canadian lake house, located miles from
any large city, granted us the joy of gazing at millions of stars, heavenly
gifts in the Milky Way galaxy. We also
had the stunning display of Northern Lights, flashing across the dark sky in
pink, blue and purple colors. Such
natural beauty constantly reminded us of God’s incredible creation.
I remember one wintry day, we
looked out on the frozen lake and there was a gray wolf plodding along in the
new fallen snow. We watched from our
porch about ¼ mile away. Then Dick
whistled. The wolf immediately stopped
in his tracks and looked toward our house directly at where we were
standing. He remained motionless for a
few moments, and then turned back continuing across the ice obviously
undisturbed by our presence. He knew we
were far away and thus unable to disturb him.
In the winter, the deer visited
also, nibbling on the cedar trees surrounding our house. I would watch them from the bedroom window,
always impressed with their beauty and quiet behavior.
One Sunday on a cold day in
February, coming home from church, we saw splashes of blood on the lane. We stopped the car to get out and
investigate. There right near the edge
of the one mile lane was a deer carcass, blood surrounding it, probably brought
down by the wolves. The deer found it
difficult to run in the deep snow. We were observers of nature in action.
Finally, in 2009, we had an
experience that caused us to purchase a condominium in Michigan. We had talked with our family about the need
to establish a second home in the winter because of our entering the ‘senior
years’. Well, an event forced that decision
and made us realize how much God is in control of our lives. If we would just listen to Him, He will guide
us into the right paths.
In the middle of March 2009, we
were returning from our monthly shopping trip to Watertown, NY when we were
asked many new questions entering back into Canada. We showed our updated passports as
usual. The polite crossing guard said,
“Who owns your home in New York State?”
We had established that address when we built our Canadian retirement
home in order to maintain US citizenship.
The Canadian officer who oversaw our admission to Canada in 1991 saw no
problem with that.
“Our son does,” we responded
obediently. The border guard then held
our passports and told us to stop at the border crossing office where a very
officious, stern Canadian official interrogated us. We began to feel like serious legal
offenders!
Our defense was simple. We had entered Canada in 1991 and been told
by the officer in charge that we could spend as much time in Canada as we
wished, but could not matriculate at any university in Canada, could not hold a
job and had to return to the States at least a couple times a year. We were positive that had been documented in
our record.
Never in the intervening years of
our time in Canada had we been challenged at the border. And never, since 9/11
had we been told or officially notified of any changes in US/Canadian border
policies.
Finally, after several hours of
questioning and waiting we were told we had to get out of Canada in four days
or else we would be imprisoned! The
customs officer said there were new restrictions on US visitors and, even
though we had a legal address in New York state with our son, we were now
required to own a residence in the States and remain in Canada only six months
a year! Welcome to post 9/11 rules!
We were shocked and shaken. We had just completed a normal shopping trip
to Watertown, left our chocolate lab, Bonnie, at our lake house for the day and
had just been kicked out of Canada!
Hastily getting our things
together, we quickly scheduled a trip to Michigan to visit two of our daughters,
Carin and Diana, and their families.
Over the years we always traveled to Michigan during the first part of
April to keep in touch with our families there.
On this trip to Michigan, Dick and I suddenly realized that God had
spoken to both of us. “Buy a condo in
Michigan NOW.”
We had loved the winters in the
north but we realized the time had come to make a change in our plans. Dick would no longer have to chain down
trees, split and store the 4 cord of wood. He would not have to plow our lane
during heavy snowstorms and we would not be housebound during periods of ice
storms.
After looking at 30 condos in
Holland, MI we bought one close to our daughters. Fortunately, this was 2009 and the economic
downturn had caused housing prices to plummet and we found a comfortable condo
in our price range. While in Holland we
also changed our driver’s licenses, car plates and our legal address so we now
became legal residents of Michigan. We
hoped this would satisfy the Canadian authorities.
We decided to drive east to
Syracuse, New York, where our son, Glenn, lived with his family. We planned to stay with them for a short time
and then try to re-enter Canada.
I had a routine eye exam in
Alexandria Bay, NY the second week in April.
So we packed up our things at Glenn’s house, stuffed Bonnie in the car
and decided we would try to get back to our lake house.
Praying all the way to the
US/Canadian border we approached the border station nervously. The crossing guard took our passports,
checked us out on the computer, and then, to our joy and amazement, waved us
through. There was no notice on his
computer that we had done anything illegally, no notice of possible
imprisonment, no unusual questions, just a routine entrance. We couldn’t believe it! Just a few months before we had been severely
questioned and detained at the border and wondered if we were ever going to get
back into Canada. Now here we were
passing through the border with no questions asked!
We praised the Lord and sang our
thanks. Both of us realized that God had
let this “border problem” happen so we would buy the condo in Michigan. God knew it was time to get a condo and He
orchestrated the events so we would do what He knew was necessary.
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