Change

Living in the same city and the same house for the last 23 years, I forgot how difficult change can be.  Especially to someone like me who loves routine, structure, lists, and schedules.  We were so happy when the POD arrived last Thursday and we picked up our uhaul to move all our items from the POD.  We had rented a storage unit because we knew 23 years of stuff from our house would not fit into a tiny two bedroom, one bath apartment.  Although we donated or got rid of a lot of accumulated stuff, there was still too much.  We went from a 1364 sq.ft. to 880 sq.ft. Saturday morning Zachary and I went to the apartment to clean and Gus started working on moving things from the POD to the uhaul.  He was moving along so nicely, he didn't pay attention to his body and about 1:00 he arrived at the apartment and immediately went to the toilet and threw up for about 10 minutes.  He had gotten heat stroke.  The poor guy laid down on the hard floor and fell asleep.  By the time he woke up it was 3:00 and the uhaul was due back at 4:00.  Obviously, we weren't going to make that deadline.  We started unloading and 15 minutes later a huge storm came with strong, gusty winds, lightening, and pounding rain.  We waited out the storm and began unloading again which was about 9:00 and dark outside and no power inside.  Four seminary students in the apartment complex saw us and starting helping us.  In about 20 minutes there were ten students and wives helping us.  It was wonderful!  They were all so much younger than us and were calling us Sir and Ma'am!

The unpacking is going very slowly because every room is filled with stuff and it is difficult to move around and it is a much smaller space than we are use to living in.  Everything is covered with something!  Needless to say this week I have been very homesick and wishing I was back in Newport News in my house (which hasn't sold yet so please continue to pray for us about that).  

Gus started his job and classes on Monday so he has been very busy and very excited this week.  He has two night classes and one class, Hebrew, that is 7:00 a.m. Tuesday-Friday.  So he goes to class those mornings and then rushes to work his job all day.  I think he is amazing!  Beyond the unpacking and cleaning, Zachary and I started his 7th grade school year this week with only three subjects and we'll kick in with all subjects next week.  Zachary has been wonderful.  We got him up and running online as soon as we could so he can play games online with all his old friends.  He helped a mom that lives under us Wednesday by playing ball with her 4 year old daughter so she could have a break - she has an 8 month also.  Yesterday he went to the gym on campus and played basketball with a girl his age that lives in our building.  We had already made contact with a soccer club before we moved so he practiced with them this week and made the team.  So for Zachary, life is good!

We have met all the families that live right around us and what an interesting group.  We have a very young couple, an Asian couple with two children, and a family from Nigeria with 4 daughters.  In talking with the Nigerian family, we learned that they just moved here too.  We assumed that they came to seminary to learn and take back what they learned to their country to share the gospel with people there.  But they came here to share the gospel in America.  They told us that people in their country see American lifestyle and that people here love money and possessions more than they love Jesus and they do not value families and children like they should.  What a sad commentary on our nation and how wonderful that they would care about us enough to leave everything to come here.  

We covet your prayers and would ask that you pray for Gus to have the stamina (we aren't spring chickens you know!) to work, go to class, and do all his homework - he has had two Hebrew quizzes already the first week of classes.  Pray that my homesickness with pass so I can embrace the mission and work God has for us here.  Pray that Zachary will make friends and embrace the new school year.  Pray for us as we begin trying local churches this Sunday that God will lead us to the place He would have us serve and worship.  Pray for our house to sell.

May we be obedient to God's will and His leading.