Being Answered by a Loving Father

I love thinking of God being near me during the day. I usually give him the credit when I enjoy a cool breeze or see a beautiful sight. I don't usually expect him to answer my prayers immediately.

Lately, it seems it has been his pleasure to surprise us with some very promptly answered prayers. We have felt his nearness really clearly through this, and I'd love to share the stories with you.

On the way out here, I accidentally left my purse in a fast-food restaurant. We were about 90miles down the road when I realized it. I started furiously praying that God would protect my purse, since it had everything in it. When Jonathan called them, they had it, perfectly intact, because a lady had turned it in to them. We did have to drive back to get it, but what a blessing to have all my credit cards and driver's license safe!

Then, we had arranged for our internet service to start the first night we got here, but it didn't. I started praying while Jonathan called the company. They told him it wouldn't be until the next day or two. Later that night, we were having dinner with some folks, and Jonathan got a call from a technician. The man was calling us on his private cell phone to let us know that he had set up our internet because he happened to be in our area with some extra time. When does that happen?

Shortly after we arrived, we realized that we had only 20 minutes left on our phone for the next week and a half. We were trying to figure out what we could do to make it, especially with all the utility calls we needed to make in the next couple days. Jonathan called T-mobile to see if we could buy some extra minutes for this month. I started praying. After hearing Jonathan's explanation, the customer service representative put an extra 150 minutes on each of our phones, for free!

The Lord is near!

On our way to....

Having a Home

I've been baking and cooking up a storm to get some things frozen before classes start. Pulling whole wheat bread out of the oven yesterday made me realize we really are staying here. Until then, it just felt good to be baking again after all these weeks without a routine. I guess life is kind of sweet and sad at the same time for us these days. Maybe I should make some sweet and sour chicken to commemorate the feelings!

Now about the kitchen...every home has it's little quirks! When we first moved in, I wondered what idiot architect would put a set of doors on a kitchen. I mean who would want to have to open and close a door to the kitchen? Now I know.

Our little kitchen is either very well insulated or has no ventilation. Yesterday I made lasagna and a huge pot of chicken curry. Even with our air conditioning on, the oven and stove were soon heating our whole house. So I closed the doors. Of course then it was about a hundred degrees in the kitchen, but thank goodness I didn't have to stay in there the whole time. Every time I had to check on something, I would just take a deep cool breath before walking into the blaze of heat, and then escape back into the house as soon as I could. This little kitchen quality should come in handy in the winter!


Being Poor

We registered for our classes Monday. In order to register, we had to pay all our tuition up front. As we walked back to our car after writing the tuition check, Jonathan commented, " We are now officially on our way to being poor!" It was really kind of exciting!

Here's the run down on our course load for this Semester. I am taking a class called Educational Foundations. It covers basic assumptions and theories of Christian Education and is the prerequisite class for all the other classes in my Masters of Educational Ministry (MAEM). Jonathan and I are both taking Covenant Theology and Spiritual and Ministry Formations together. In addition Jonathan is taking Beginning Greek and the intro to preaching class, called Preparation and Delivery.

Yesterday we went to Sam's Club to get stocked up on things around the house. It feels a little uncomfortable to be spending all this money, especially as I don't have a job yet. I must admit I'm a little stressed about it. I'm advertising my desire to teach piano lessons in all the Christian and private schools around here, which is a staggering number. So far no bites, but it has only been two days.

Today I interviewed and was signed up as a substitute teacher in an private elementary school. I'm hoping this will be a good income source during school hours if I can sign up in a few more schools.

Please join me in praying that the Lord would put the right piano students in my path, or guide me into what else he would have me be doing to provide the other income we need to be here.


Getting Humble

As part of orientation, Jonathan and I had to take a bible content exam. It's purpose it to allow stellar students to test out of 6 credits of Bible overview classes. Jonathan, lucky MDiv student that he is, get's until his last year to pass the test, with as many tries as he wants. I only got one shot.

I went into the test fairly confident and a little nervous because of all the warnings we heard from everyone about how hard the test was. (Apparently 80% of the students fail it their first try) But I thought, "I've had Bible classes from kindergarten through my senior year of college, surely I must know something about the Bible by now!" And I do! I know 32.3 % ! Let's just say I will be enjoying those 6 extra credits of remedial Bible content before I graduate. Until then, please refer elsewhere for your six-point outlines of Isaiah!

Our New Home in St. Louis

Welcome to Oxford Hills, our new home. We live with the fern at the top right balcony, except we usually go in the other side of the building, because the entrance there is one storey higher.

Here is our front door, number 7.

Living Room seen from the front door. The balcony door is behind the rocking chair. It wraps around the chimney.

The view from our balcony is great!

Dining Room as seen from the Living Room.

Dining Room as seen from the hallway. The kitchen doorway is immediately left, out of the picture. Please appreciate the miraculous appearance of the piano!

Kitchen...its not really as dark a place as it looks in this picture!

Jonathan using the kitchen...making syrup for our waffles!

Beyond the Dining Room is a long hallway.

First door on your left is the guest bath.

Across from the guest bath is our office. We set it up with our desks back to back. Hopefully we won't distract each other too much when we are studying!

Beyond the office and guest bath is our Bedroom.

It has two huge closets, a bath room and enough space for our dresser, a love seat and our big bookshelf besides. yikes! so much space!

Here's Jonathan setting up our bed.

Our Bathroom

This weird and scary friend greeted us in bed our first night. Sadly, the reception was not quite what he hoped for. He has now passed on.

All in all we really love our place here. Although it still feels weird to driving our own cars through the streets of St. Louis, having our own furniture and dishes here makes it feel a lot like home already. We do really like our new apartment.
The weather has been really nice, actually--very humid, but cool. We had some fun thunderstorms yesterday...I love thunderstorms and lightning, always have. Jonathan and I sat down and had a pot of tea while the rain poured down. I put my orchids outside, and they are happier than they have been in a long time, with all this humidity.
Tonight we are attending Covenant's President's Reception. Jonathan is going to wear a full suit for the first time in my experience. We think a bunch of adults dressing up like this is kind of silly, like a grown-up pretend tea party. I've been told that our feelings on the subject are distinctly 'Northwest' and will change over time with more exposure to the Midwest. We will just have to see about that!

Piano Moving in Missouri

Sorry folks, there are no pictures of the actual movers in this story. You will have to use your imaginations instead! As you read, you will understand why the camera was the furthest thing from my mind...

On Tuesday, the piano movers were late for our 3:30 appointment. When I called them at 4:00, the owner said, "Oh I've been waiting for you to call! I lost your address and your phone number." That made me a little nervous. Since they had another job at 6:00, we agreed they would come for our piano at 9:00 that night. Then one of their men couldn't meet them, so they had to pick him up and eventually got to our place at about 9:50 pm.

The owner of the operation was an older matchstick-shaped man who had broght along three burly helpers. Jonathan went out to watch them unload my piano from the container while I watched from the second storey hall window.

It was quite the surreal scene. It was completely dark, so they parked their truck with the headlights shining into our container. By this stark light it soon become apparent that only one of the three had ever moved a piano before. The others were just and only muscle.

Our piano emerged into the humid Missouri air on a wheeled dolly and hung for a perilous moment above the ramp while the skinny silhouette shouted out what I think was supposed to be instructions. At any rate they included the prophetic repetition of this phrase: "the piano will come down on you." Then my piano charged like a mad bull down the ramp. The men shouted and scrabbled to get out of it's way, straining to stop its careening path off the ramp. Near the bottom it wobbled precipitously, and I saw Jonathan take a step forward, as if to catch it. In that suspended moment, I imagined my piano on it's back on the pavement, with Jonathan's pulpy remains underneath. All I could do was whisper "Lord Jesus" though the window screen. I think the angels must have done a little pushing. Our piano righted itself at the bottom of the ramp, while the men wheezed out squeaky exclamations of accompaniment.

At this point I removed myself, and my adrenaline, to the back bedroom of our apartment and called my friend Judy to distract myself. Apparently, I should have saved that call for later, as it was all just beginning.

An hour later, I was drawn out from my retreat by the sound of Jonathan’s socket wrench in the hallway. He was taking off all the metal banisters in the stairway.

With new visions of the piano and all three large men landing in a mangled heap at the bottom of the stairs, I retreated once again to my back bedroom. I fixedly tried to think of other things while I felt the piano thud it’s way up the stairs. At random intervals I’d hear urgent shouts, and I'd think “there it goes.” But instead, the piano appeared like a sudden miracle in our dining room, looking like it had always been there, right where I imagined it!

All in all, the move took about 3 hours.
I am now in absolute denial of ever needing to move it again--ever!

Driving to St. Louis

Thanks so much for praying for us friends! We are doing great. We had a good drive out from Seattle. Saying goodbye to our house was hard...

We were also driving in two seperate cars...so here's the gallery of pictures Jonathan took of us "together". I do think my silver Honda Accord and his silver Toyota Tacoma looked like a cute couple, driving accross the US on a date.

The landscape changes were so dramatic, we didn't need much else to keep us awake!

Also, I had all my house plants in the back seat to keep me company. They didn't really say much until we started hitting some rough pavemnet in Wyoming. Then they made a shushing noise with their leaves everytime we hit a bump. It was pretty silly to see my ficus leaves waving back at me in my rear-view mirror.

We finally got a shot of our tired faces in an Applebees just inside of St. Louis. It sure tasted good to have real food again after all the fast-food and PB&J!