Let the Blogging Begin!

Ok, so I started this blog a couple of months ago, and nothing too exciting has really happened until now.  Tim got a new job as the Associate Minister at Hillside Christian Church in Reinholds, Pennsylvania.  This is a step of faith for us and the church because they only have about 120-ish members, and financially it will be a stretch for them.  Therefore, we are going in faith that God will bless this ministry, grow the church and allow them to comfortably support us.  I will need to find a full-time job with benefits because the church cannot provide health insurance for us at this time.


The physical address of the church building is Reinholds, which is a very small town, which is next to a slightly bigger small town called Sinking Spring, which is where we are going to be looking for a place to live.  Sinking Spring is about 20 minutes from Reading, which is a decent size place that has all the necessities: Walmart, Chili's, Kohl's, Chick-Fil-A, etc.  :-)


Tim and I have quite a hectic schedule from now until we leave:
We fly out late tonight (actually early tomorrow morning) to go visit the congregation, look for places to live, and Tim is going to preach on Sunday and they will vote us in.  Saturday night they are having a time for the youth group to put Tim on the spot and ask him questions, and we're going to just hang out and play games and get to know them.  We come back to Anchorage on Monday afternoon, the moving truck comes Tuesday and we are loading up all our belongings, and the company is driving off with our stuff on Wednesday morning.  Our last day here is November 28th, with Tim preaching that day, then we leave early on the morning of the 29th.  So yes, that means we will be without our bed, dishes, appliances (besides the fridge) for 4 days.  (And then at least a week once we get to Pennsylvania because the moving company takes a while to get there).


So on the 29th, Tim, Evil Cat Max, and I will load up and make our way down the Alaska highway.  (Maybe another road trip video opportunity??? ;-P)  Nicole and Jerry were kind enough to offer to drive Tim's car for us, so they are flying up this weekend to get his car and drive it back down.  We've already made hotel reservations along the way because we used our reward points from our credit card to get them all for free.  Hopefully we can stay on schedule and won't run into any bad weather...the roads are supposed to be clear and plowed but who knows if we'll have snow storms or anything that could hinder our travel.  We're going to be driving really long days in order to get where we want to be on time.  We're taking a couple of side trips on our way to Pennsylvania.  First we're going to Texas to visit my family for a few days.  Jason and Melody are coming up to Carrollton the weekend we're there, so that will be a lot of fun.  It will be the first time the four of us will be together as married couples! :-)
After a few days in Texas, we're heading up to Tennessee to visit John and Melissa and baby Rachel, who we haven't had the chance to meet yet, so that will be fun too!


We are sad to leave the people here in Anchorage because we've made some good friends, and will miss everyone, but we are excited that God has called us to this church, and think it will be a good place to settle in for a while.


I don't know how much internet access and time I'll have on our trip, but I will try to update this blog as much as I can while we're driving.


On a totally unrelated note, for our young adult small group that we've been hosting, we are about to finish a book called Crazy Love by Francis Chan.  I HIGHLY recommend it!  It is very convicting, challenging, and inspiring!  You should read it!