Saying goodbye to my family in the Bay Area, we headed back to Living Waters. We had enjoyed our long vacation, which was a change of pace from our lifestyle at the ranch. So much had happened during those few weeks. Especially, revisiting San Francisco, which turned out to be a special day for our little family.
It reminded us of the days we had spent there, when we first came to California. We were totally into our hippie life, and hoping to starting afresh after a difficult year living together in Berlin. Thomas had brought his instruments with him. He had dreams of being a musician, in the scene of San Francisco, the way he had experienced it, growing up in Berlin. He was also looking forward to finding new friends in the drug scene to “turn on” with.
Walking through Golden Gate Park with Naomi that day, it really hit us, we were completely different people. God had saved us out of the darkness, given us a new purpose in life. Our hearts were filled with thankfulness, realizing that God himself had set us on a new path, to teach us His ways. We didn’t know what the next steps would be along that path, but we had confidence that the Lord would guide us.
On the drive home towards Garberville, we talked about the subjects that had come up with my parents. Now they knew, that we might go to Germany, sometime in the future. And Thomas said, he felt sorry for dad that he had to turn down his offer to work for him. Since we had been somewhat integrated into their Methodist church group, it could have given dad the impression that we might want to stay and get involved. But for both of us, that was the farthest thing from our minds.
Its true, that our circumstances were changing, we would be leaving the Living Waters Ranch. One of the leaders who used to live there, had moved with his family, a few months before that to Eureka. He was already making arrangements for Thomas and I, to live in one of the communal houses. We would only be a couple of hours farther away from my parents, but we could still visit them, after our baby was born.
Turning off at Garberville, we had another half hour drive before we arrived at the ranch. When Thomas pulled into the dirt road of the Big House, we knew we were going into, the final countdown, of our last couple of weeks living in that cosy cabin.
