Crown King

After John and I visited the barely-a-speck-on-the-map town of Cleator Arizona (see last post) we continued up the mountain with our caravan of family members.

About an hour more of driving up the mountain we reached our destination: Crown King. Crown King is a "ghost town," inhabited by miners in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Today about 100/150 people live there, running the restaurant, general store, and "bar" (aka brothel- more on that in a minute).

Our first stop was the restaurant for some lunch.
Notice the trees up here; the landscape changed from dusty desert to fields of golden grass and finally to forests the higher up we got! Fascinating.
We were the only guests in the restaurant when we arrived. The building, as you can see, was constructed with a collection of wood siding and tin sheets. Inside the owner kindly advised us to mind our step as we passed over the old crooked wooden floors. Our table and chairs were old but solidly constructed and the decor was a eclectic mix of former mining tools and machines along with some more delicate items like the stained glass installation pictured below.

After a quick stop at the general store we wandered down the dirt road to take a look at the bar.

During lunch we had read about the town's history and saw that this bar was originally a brothel. As it turns out, it seems to still be operational! Much to John's Aunt Barb's dismay. Earlier in the year she and her husband had checked out the local "hotel" to see about spending the night in Crown King as a get-a-way, but after seeing the dingy 4 guest room and ONE bath accommodations, they had decided against it. Good thing because when we saw the "brothel" sign above the bar door and watched a woman in hot pink shorts call out flirtatiously to an older long-haired gentleman "Are you gonna come and see me tonight honey?" as he drove away on his four-wheeler (complete with "DIVORCED" license plate) we got the picture real fast. Poor Aunt Barb exclaimed, "Well now I'm REALLY embarrassed!"
Between Cleator and Crown King our trip up that Arizona mountain was quite an experience! We saw some gorgeous sights, heard some hilarious stories and came back with a few of our own. I think what I was impressed on me the most was how fine the tension is between human strength and frailty. Driving up and down those dusty roads on the side of a mountain was hard enough in our SUV and pickup truck, but imagining those first settlers making the journey on foot and with horses and wagons is just incredible. The strength of those first families who came to mine just blows me away. And on the other hand, looking down the side of that mountain I thought about how fragile my life is. One wrong jerk of the wheel and everyone in our car would have lost their lives. I'm sure many of those early miners lost friends and family members before even reaching Crown King. Poisonous snakes and wild animals about in that area; I wonder how many met their end on that desert mountain.

A precarious journey to life and wealth or to hardship and death.
Mines of gold and copper once abundant, now empty.
One town of thousands now left to few.
"The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away;
may the name of the LORD be praised.” (Job 1:21)

Cleator Arizona

10 steps to get a girl from Ontario to Cleator, Arizona

1. Grow up in Ontario
2. Decide to attend a Bible College
3. Decide to attend a Bible College in Michigan
4. Fall in love with John at said Bible College
5. Get married
6. Move to Michigan with husband
7. Have my in-laws move to Arizona
8. Visit in-laws in Arizona
9. Take a day trip up a mountain to Crown King, Arizona
10. Stop in at a very small town bar on the way: Cleator, Arizona.

Hokey Pete. I once visited Dordt College in Sioux Center, Iowa and in thought that was remote. Turns out "remote" is a very relative term.

On Friday morning John and I get up early with my father-in-law and head out of Fountain Hills where my in-laws live. So far my first Arizona experience has been sipping sun tea and enjoying gorgeous mountain views.



If those mountains are this gorgeous from here, I could just imagine what they'd be like close up. So off we go. About an hour into the trip we meet up with John's Aunt Barb and Uncle Vern as well as my FIL's cousin Tom.

Barb, Vern, Tom and my FIL had all been on this trip before. Their eyes sparkled with sly anticipation as we journeyed on. Our final destination was Crown King, a small mining town in the Bradshaw Mountains (elevation 5,771 feet).

Driving through the mountains was incredible, gorgeous, breath-taking. Any cliche expression you can find to describe a mountain view: they were it.

There were more than a few times when our SUV got a little too close to the edge of the mountain road for my comfort. Guard rails were few and far between and it was a long.way.down to the bottom. *gulp*

So I clenched the seat and closed my eyes while my stomach dropped and before I knew it my FIL was pulling into a... well, "town" might not be the right word. A "place" that looked like this:


Welcome to Cleator, Arizona. Population: 11. And where 11 will gather, there also shall be a bar.

Now I can't decide what was more entertaining. The decor:

Or the locals, who apparently loved visitors like us and had an abundance of stories to tell. Like this guy behind John:
Who lived up there in the truck in the right of this photo for FOUR YEARS before moving into a tin cabin about 500 yards behind the bar:

At first I wondered who'd want to live way out here, so far from all our modern conveniences. But then you see these views:


and it makes sense. Well, almost. ;)

A few more photos of the old (no longer used) Cleator General Store:




Next post: we're going to Crown King!

Second home, first house

"Home, the spot on earth supremely blessed,
a dearer, sweeter spot than all the rest."
~Robert Montgomery

John and I are in the process of buying our first house! We never thought we'd be able to buy at this point in our lives, but God has been very generous to us and provided more than we could have imagined. Our first home together was our sweet little one bedroom apartment in the upstairs of a very old house. Old houses come with their share of problems (crumbly plaster, leaky windows, attics inhabited by mice, bats, or- in our case- squirrels), but you really can't beat an old home in terms of character.

So when we set out to hunt for our first house together, that's what we wanted: character.

Okay that's not all we were looking for (first time buyers- we want it all, right?). Our wish list went a little something like this:

First, we choose our neighbourhood. Being in ministry, we wanted to be very intentional about our location. We wanted to be in our church's "parish area" and close to the public school where we're involved in a mentoring program. We also really, really wanted to have a front porch. Friends of ours from seminary inspired us by having a big front porch and a wooden sign that reads:

How great is that? And it works too. People sit on their porch. So we thought, if you really want to be known in your neighbourhood, a front porch is the way to go.

So we were looking for an old house with that wonderful and intangible quality of character and a big front porch.

We wanted 3+ beds and 1.5+ baths, a backyard, and a garage would be really super nice too. All pretty doable, right?

Well as it turns out, when you're looking for an old house it helps to be handy and have some serious DIY skills. Which we do not. The handiest thing we've ever done together was in 2008 when we mounted a wine glass rack under our kitchen cabinets.


And even then it took us a good 20 minutes to figure out the drill bits.

Alright so now we want an old house, character, back yard, garage, very specific location, front porch, 3 bed, 1.5+ bath, needs minimal work.

Thankfully our dear friend and realtor Paul was beyond patient as we searched. As it turned out, there were exactly two houses which fit our criteria. When I saw the first one, I fell in love. It was perfect. Beyond perfect. The house God had planned for us all along.

Except it sold without us.

Then there was much weeping. Followed by rallying. Covered in prayer. Nothing like loosing your dream house to make you realize that you are not in control of your life. What's that verse again? "In their hearts humans plan their course, but the LORD establishes their steps" (Pr 16:9). Oh. Right.

We continued on. When I saw the second house for the first time I went back and forth between, "Okay I think like this one!" and "No this isn't the one." Not exactly an amazing first impression.

So back home we went, more praying, more feeling like we were never going to find a house. We were destined to hate our first home together. To settle for something we didn't even want. Heaven forbid! Just when you think you're maturing, the inner whiner comes out.

But Paul graciously encouraged us. "I think the second house was a good one. Let's go back and see it again." Alright. We'll look. Just to see.

And see we did. On second inspection, we realized this was just the house for us. 110 years old, front porch, back yard, garage, right neighbourhood, loads of character, and great condition.

If you've read this far you deserve some pictures! If you've skipped my long story, there's no way for me to know, so here are the pictures anyway. :)

Our first house! Lord willing, we will close on April 15.

Come sit on our porch!

Living Room where we anticipate many cozy visits with friends!
We also anticipate ripping out that carpet to reveal wood floors underneath.
Front door goes into a small mud room and the to the porch.
Second door goes into a bedroom that we'll use as another living space.


Dining room with a built in (character!)
Living room to the right and kitchen to the left.


Pocket door! Perfect for shutting out loved ones.
Just kidding, but we'll see if we ever use this.
Gorgeous to look at at least!

Here's that character we were after!

Kitchen. Hello brown! Can't wait to get some paint on those cabinets.

Stairs off of the dining room.


Upstairs hallway.


Upstairs bedroom- they all look pretty similar.

And the bathrooms are pretty plain-jane so I'll wait to show you the "after" shots of those.

So that's the story of buying our first home. Three weeks until closing and 4 weeks until we move in. We hope and pray this house will be a hub for our ministry and a warm, welcoming space for all our friends and loved ones.

The sacred and the ordinary

I am no spiritual giant.

Which is why I take great comfort in knowing that though I plan the course of my life, the LORD determines my steps (Proverbs 16:9). This blog is intended to be a story, a story of my very ordinary life and how (I hope) it interacts with God's sacred plan. At least, as far as I can tell from here.

The title "Fields and Fine Linen" pulls two images from Proverbs 31, an allegory in which wisdom is portrayed as a noble wife. I want wisdom. I believe that we see the sacred blessing the ordinary when we see wisdom. Yes, sometimes God breaks into our world in extraordinary and miraculous ways, but most ordinarily God guides his children through wisdom.

So this is my story, my ordinary life punctuated by whispers and prayers for great wisdom, for steadfast convictions and for that blessed, blessed assurance that my life is held by the sacred and will be used for the blessing of others.