We got the house!!!

After much waiting and praying and praying and waiting...our application for the perfect rental house was accepted! Praise God!
The landlord, Nick, is awesome. He's from Greece and has a great accent! He wants us to bring him some peaches when we move...you can bet we will! It will be fun getting to know him better, as well as the neighbors who live in front and beside us.
I took a bunch of pictures inside so we can remember the layout...I'm getting old!
Yesterday, after turning in our application, we drove out to the IKEA store. Impressive!! They are SO family-friendly, and so affordable. We were there for two hours (which included lunch at their cafe). We will definitely go back.
So we're hangin' at the Super 8 tonight by the airport and we fly back to Denver tomorrow at 8:15 a.m.. Then we'll spend a couple days with Sarah, Rob, and the boy! Yeah!!
God has been showing us His power SO much in the past few weeks. Like we discussed at church last night, we don't believe God has the power He has - or we don't believe He'll really USE it in our lives. Well, our life - especially recently - is living proof of God's power at work in very real ways. Amazing love...
~Sally

Praying we get this house...

After looking at MANY houses and getting totally discouraged we returned to the seminary campus Friday afternoon, defeated. I really thought the first house we looked at by the seminary was going to be "the" house, but it wasn't so hot. So we looked, and looked, and LOOKED all over this city...
Saturday we broke down and called a company that advertised on Craigslist - you pay a fee and they will supply you with a list of properties...so we did it. They gave us some property listings both above and below our budget. One listing was a bit higher than what we wanted to pay, but only four blocks from the seminary so we drove by. We called the owner and he met us...it's perfect. It's a little bigger than what we need, but SO close to school, and a really decent place in a beautiful neighborhood! It's truly more than we could ask or imagine (hmmmm....just like that scripture I memorized from Ephesians)!! Go figure.
We turned in our application today (he had others interested, even willing to pay a higher rent, but apparently they wanted a shorter-term lease and weren't as stable - codeword for "older")! Ha!
The owner's checking our credit tomorrow and will call us tomorrow with an answer. We're still shaking our heads that we came upon this house...
We're going to Chris Brown's church tonight (see www.pghupperroom.com). He told me he's preaching on Eph. 3:14-21, just what I've been meditating on and memorized! Like I told Chris, God's doing some crazy stuff these days!! He is so good to us.
"Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus, throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen."
~Sally

House hunting in Pittsburgh..

Well we made it to Pittsburgh! It was 72 degrees when we landed this afternoon and it's been raining on and off all evening. They say it's been the dryest July on record! Wierd.
We have appointments to look at numerous houses and townhouses tomorrow. It's still wierd just getting used to the city. We drove by one of the houses we're going to see tomorrow. It's a duplex with a tiny yard in front and a front porch. The houses are so close together and the streets are very narrow. I can't even imagine parking our pick-up there, let alone the U-Haul!
I just keep praying that we can find the right place tomorrow so we can spend the rest of the time exploring. We'll see...as long as we find SOME place before we leave!
I've been memorizing scripture with the interns this summer. I've really come to love it! The biggest one I've learned thus far is Eph. 3:16-21, and then this last week I've been working on Col. 3:12-17..."Therefore as God's chosen people holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves in compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience..." The one I'm really holding on to though, is the one that we've carried in our checkbook on a now-tattered index card that reads, "The Lord Himself goes before you and will be with you. He will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid, do not be discouraged." Deut. 31:8
I believe we'll continue to keep that in the checkbook...!
~Sally

I have a really good story to tell...

I have a really good story to tell of God's call, His faithfulness, and His provision...
About 17 years ago our associate pastor who was leaving told me, "You should go to seminary!" At the time I didn't even know what seminary was, and was very young in my faith.
Fast-forward 5-6 years when another person told me, "You should go to seminary, Sally." I tucked it away and went on with life raising kids, going to college on and off, and volunteering at church.
Fast-forward another 5-6 years when I was attending the graduation of one of my youth group kids from seminary and her parents said, "Sally, when are you ever going to go to seminary? You really need to go!"
So that summer I prepared to go back to college to finish the last two years I had to complete. In the spring of 2002 I graduated and was ready for a break from school, knowing I still wanted seminary, but waiting for the right time - for God to "give the word."
I was hired at our church where I've worked for the last seven years, learning more than a person ought to in one sitting, watching my good friend and co-worker leave for seminary, wondering when my time would come.
Then Kim had a heart attack last year (May, 08) and it was Kim who brought up the idea that maybe it was time to consider going...
I corresponded with people both in and just out of seminary and made some plans.
So off we went last fall touring seminaries in Pittsburgh and Atlanta. After "just a little" wrestling with God, we decided Pittsburgh was the place to go. We put our former house (then a rental) on the market, and I applied in November and found out I was accepted the week before Christmas. I applied for federal financial aide (and thankfully, being "poor farmers and all," we qualified for much). We closed on the rental house in January.
In the meantime we started sprucing up the Palisade house to get it ready to sell and put it on the market in early March. Later that month I received a call from the seminary that I had been awarded a merit scholarship for $8000/year, renewable for all three years if I keep my grade point average up!
Our church is also going to be contributing to my seminary costs as well as another grant from a very generous person whom I don't even know...
We had two garage sales and sold all sorts of stuff - including most of our furniture - and here it is July 20, 2009, and we just signed a contract with a very generous offer, and will close on August 12th. (God is SO much bigger than the economy.)
Kim and I are flying to Pittsburgh on Thursday (plans made before we had a contract) to go look for a place to live...and despite the butterflies in my stomach, I know God will have prepared the perfect place for us to live there.
I have been blessed by many people. People who I have loved and have loved me enough to be able to "speak into my life" and help guide and grow me in my walk with Christ and my walk with others. For that I am truly thankful.
I am unsure where God will be leading us next beyond just getting to Pittsburgh, but I have no doubt that He will guide and direct us whenever we need to make a turn or slow down/speed up a bit, and He will bless us and help us be a blessing in the process.
Thank you to all those near and far who have been a part of my (our) journey thus far... I am certain that the best is yet to come!!!

Things are moving along...

Our buyer stopped by again last Friday and told us he's writing up the contract tomorrow and didn't think his offer would be much under our asking price. Yeah! We've booked flights to Pittsburgh for this Thursday to look for a place to live. It's been difficult to search online beyond Craigslist since most property management companies seem to deal mostly in apartments.
We did find a couple houses, though, and one is two blocks from the seminary! I keep hoping that we'll see it and it will be perfect and then we can spend the rest of our time really checking out the Pittsburgh area. We'll see.
I started packing at home this weekend - the easy stuff - books. The real fun will be basement and kitchen stuff. I'm going to have to decide when my last day of work will be, too. I'm tempted to end sometime that first week in August so that I have more time to deal with the house. Our buyer said he was aiming to close on August 12th.
I started packing up my office last week...it's so hard to do any work! My head keeps swimming with all that needs to be done that it seems to paralyze me. Ugh... Another reason for ending things at work earlier rather than later.
In the midst of all this thought I got a call this morning telling me of a terrible tragedy - a young girl, daughter/niece/grandchild of good friends, who was killed in a car accident on the way to her uncle's wedding. It invades my thoughts and makes my own concerns and worries seem so small... I can't even imagine the grief.. So my prayers have changed from being so self-centered to more of this family going through this horrible time.
It makes me yearn even more to go see our grandson Rilo and hold him tight. So hug your people today a little longer than usual...tell them you love them...and thank God for the gift that they are.

Reality starting to sink in...

Ok, so......the reality of moving is starting to sink in. Last Thursday I had to say goodbye to the first person, Barb, who I've worked with on and off at the church since 1992! I was nervous! But it was so sweet because over the years we have had our times of conflict, disagreement, and just being in totally different places - theologically and otherwise.
But the beautiful thing is that God was also a part of our relationship, and He did a huge work in both of us over the years. So it was pretty cool to be able to really hug her and love her and acknowledge those not-so-fun times and see how God took them and grew us both.
Much of our furniture is gone. We have no dining room table or chairs, our end tables and coffee tables as well as my gramma's antique desk and shelf and Kim's mom's china hutch are all gone. The china still sits on the dining room floor waiting to be packed.
It's very surreal. I keep trying to imagine where we'll live in Pittsburgh, what kind of house we'll be able to get, and of course it's all just a blurr.
The guy buying the house came over today and met with the electrician to get an estimate on upgrading the house. Then he came over later in the day to show his parents the house - since they'll be the ones living in it. His mom loved it immediately, and his dad liked it but was asking all the pertinent questions like - "Have you seen mold in the basement?"
The guy is aiming to close on the house even before August 15th - which is encouraging and overwhelming all at once. While that IS what we want, the idea that we have LESS than a month to pack up, go to PA and find a house, and get everything out is really mind-boggling! I just need to remember to take one day at a time!
We picked our first peaches on Friday, the Early Red Havens. They are juicy and delicious, even better than previous years. We picked 30 boxes on Friday, 70 on Saturday, and then Ellen and Bob picked another 75 today -- and there will be more in a few more days. The peach madness has begun! But we'll have a bit of a break before the next varieties are ready (although the ERH's were a week or so early!)
So that's about it. It's getting harder and harder to stay busy at work, and I've started gathering boxes to pack all my books and stuff there as well.
Tom has asked me to contribute for about 5 minutes on the sermon August 2nd. It will be our final Sunday of our series on prayer, so I'll give a short overview of my experience with prayer over the last year or so going thru all the various forms of prayer -- wrestling, asking, lamenting, and celebrating -- somehow I'm thinking that won't be too difficult!
Just this evening Kim acknowledged that he found himself after church on Sunday outside going to his car instead of visiting with people after church. He didn't want to start saying goodbye yet. But he realizes that he's going to have to make the time because he won't ever get to everyone in one shot....and we won't even talk about our kids or grandson yet.
God's drawing me to His word though. I've been memorizing scripture and I'm going to continue because He's reminding me over and over again about His love, His provision, His plan for me (us), and His presence...and that He only wants His best for us. So I'm clinging to that with all I have in me...knowing that it will be enough.
~Sally

Just Getting Started...

So I always thought it would be a cool thing to somehow document our story as we leave the Grand Valley to start our seminary adventure in Pittsburgh. God has already done SO much! So this is the beginning, we'll see where it takes us!!