We've Moved

After a lot of hard work, we are in our new house and enjoying a yard after five years of apartment dwelling. The children are all getting plenty of exercise and sunshine, and we have all put in quite a few hours picking cherries. There are also apricot trees, pomegranate, peach, fig, apple, and mulberry trees, plus a grape vine. Believe it or not, this is not a huge yard! The trees are all planted in close together, so it looks like a mini forest. It isn't exactly how an American would choose to landscape, but it's nice and shady.

Hannah Grace celebrated her third birthday in our new house, but we're still working on a good internet connection, so I can't post any pictures just yet.

Various Updates

We're settled (mostly) into our new apartment and have been very satisfied with our new situation. Our neighbors are a thousand times friendlier and the children have enjoyed playing on the playground in front of the apartment building.

The only thing that is a little bit of an inconvenience for now is that our email server doesn't work in this building. For the time being, we're back to dial-up service, which means that getting on line is difficult and posting pictures will be impossible.

Over the past couple of weeks we have seen some truly amazing things happen. Several weeks ago I had mentioned a new friend, Emerald. Last week, she and her fiance both prayed to receive Christ! Tomorrow they will be attending house church with us, and Monday night they will be having dinner with us and discussing baptism and ongoing individual discipleship. Please pray for this young couple: pray that they will have a tremendous influence in their families and circle of friends. Andy has already faced harrassment from some acquaintances, although his family has not expressed any major opposition.

Also, we had asked that you pray for Allen and his mother. She came through her surgery and is still recovering. However, there has been no word from the doctors about a diagnosis yet.

This morning Randy made the early morning trip to the airport to drop off our last group of volunteers for this summer. We had a small group from the Washington, DC/Virginia area come and help out at Compass. Because we were in the middle of a move, we didn't have the opportunity to spend as much time with these volunteers as we normally do, but it appears that they had a positive impact on the students at Compass.

Also, regarding Compass, we are at a bureaucratic snag with the paperwork. Please pray that this can be worked out quickly.

Thanks for all of your prayers for us. It makes a tremendous difference, more than you can ever imagine.

Housing Update

We are in the middle of packing up our things and moving to a temporary location. In some ways this is a big disappointment--moving is never fun and the prospect of moving twice is even less fun.

Our temporary home will still be quite a distance from Compass, our new business. However, it is closer to public transportation so the children and I should be able to get out some. The apartment building also has a large playground and is close to several good, inexpensive Turkish restaurants. Since we are moving in as our coworkers move out, they were able to introduce us to several neighbors. Our coworkers have never had complaints from neighbors when they invite guests, so that is another huge benefit for us--especially since Kevin's birthday is coming up soon. I was really dreading having the neighbors come up and yell at us for having a birthday party.

Please pray that we will settle in quickly and easily, and that we will recognize God's guidance in looking for a permanent home.

Plumbing Woes

As many of you know, Randy is in the US this week attending a Global Impact Conference. Any time that he's away, we pray that there will be no major problems with our apartment. In the past, we have been blessed with uneventful days. This trip has proven to be an exception. God has chosen to bless us with a trial.

Tuesday evening the drain in our bathroom floor began gurgling up raw sewage. I grabbed the plunger and went to work, praying the whole time that nothing would leak into our neighbors' home. At first, my efforts only resulted in more sewage churning up the drain--about an inch and a half deep. After another 30 or 40 minutes of plunging the water began to drain back down. Breathing a huge sigh of relief, I mopped up and hopped in the shower. You cannot even begin to imagine how nasty I felt!

Wednesday morning the sewage returned. This time the plunger had no effect and after having a good cry I had to call in a plumber. He worked all afternoon Wednesday and even had to take the bathtub apart (not as big a job as it sounds, since it isn't sealed to the floor the way US tubs are). He's back again today to put the bathtub back together and to repair the kitchen sink, which also started leaking at the same time as the bathroom drain clogged up.

Of course, those major things bring little complications. Nobody has bathed since Tuesday; the dishes have stacked up; the dirty clothes have multiplied.

Still, I don't want to have the attitude that God hasn't answered our prayers. Although we do pray for things to go smoothly when Randy travels, we also pray to be more like Christ. We can look at a bathroom full of raw sewage as a blessing (after it's mopped up and we've showered) that will teach patience and humility. It's a blessing to be reminded that life isn't about being comfortable.

Go ahead and pray that the rest of this week will be quiet and uneventful, but pray also that any problems and trials that come along will accomplish God's purpose in our lives.

House Hunting

We are making plans to move to another house in June. For quite a few different reasons, the apartment we're currently living in is no longer the best choice for us. Here's what we're praying for. If we were to find all of these things in one place, it will definitely be a miracle.

1. A good, strategic location. I'm planning on teaching once a week in our new outreach project, and since I don't drive, we need to be reasonably close to that. We would also like to be near some of our teammates.

2. Three bedrooms. Preferably with doors.

3. An area where the children can play.

4. First floor. One of the reasons we're moving is that every time we have anybody in our home the downstairs neighbors complain about the noise. Since hospitality is an important part of our ministry, this gets to be a problem.

5. Price. This is where it gets especially tricky. There are a lot of new apartment buildings being built downtown near our new center, but they are exceptionally expensive.

6. Little or no furnishings. One of the things that drive many of us crazy here is that unfurnished apartments are hard to find. Not only do landlords leave their furniture in rental housing, they leave their dishes, pots and pans, books, important papers, and even clothes. That leaves us trying to figure out where to store our own belongings.