I’m finally getting settled into my new homes and work here in Sioux City and Spencer, Iowa. The first three weeks have been a blur of new faces and places, along with the more familiar - feelings of loneliness and nerve-wracking decision making. But setting my schedule and visiting most of the church members has helped a lot. The people are welcoming here, and I have some friends already.
There are plenty of challenges. I really don’t see how it is even possible to work and live in two places at once. Even pastors who have five churches only live in one place! But God has promised to “work all things together for good.” So, all will be well in the end.
Here are a few pictures to give you a glimpse of my life here in Iowa:
In order to move, after Christmas break at home, we had to sled my belongings down the driveway (because we were snowed in again... or is that still?). Mom and Dad helped me take 11 sled-loads and armloads down the 1/4 mile driveway.
This is the house I stay at while in Sioux City, Iowa. Mrs. Whitcomb is 93 and the house was built for her grandmother! She is mothering me on Monday, Tuesday, and every other weekend while I am in town. Here she is waving goodbye from the door as I left the other morning...
I’ve never been in charge of so many keys in my life! Can you tell which one belongs to Mrs. Whitcomb’s front door? : } (No kidding!)
This is my upstairs bedroom and the bathroom there at Mrs. Whitcomb’s.
In the other town, Spencer, one of the church members has recently remodeled a little house five blocks from Lake Okabogi. He is letting me stay here until the place sells, or until his son gets an internship in the area.
So this is my Wednesday, Thursday and every other weekend house.
It is so nice to have my own space and be able to “set up house”! The furniture was put here by the realtors for showing. Bruce, the home-owner, brought these two fancy bar stools “so you’ll have a place to sit while you eat!” And the rest came in my Little Red Chariot.
How ironic that the shower curtains here are the EXACT shades of green and blue that I used to denote Spencer and Sioux City events on my computer’s calendar! I can’t look at them without thinking of my schedule for the week...
The snow was deeper when I first got here. The air conditioner that you partially see here, outside the patio door, was only a bump in the snow when I first came.
Paddington, my 25 year old teddy bear, is content anywhere. But I did have to remove the air mattress from my room and just sleep on the realtors’ mattress on the floor, because the air mattress was too cold! (doesn’t warm up with body heat like a real mattress)
My purpose here is to help the churches begin an evangelism cycle as well as reach out to their communities. Neither church understood what the Empowered Church program was about, so there will be a lot of educating and side-by-side working. I’m preaching 3-4 times a week too. So any “spare time” has been spent writing sermons. But I hope to somehow keep up the blog, so we can all stay in touch.
I know the spacing on this thing is all discombobulated. But I need to get home and go to bed.
Please keep me in your prayers. (I especially need humility, patience, kindness, unselfish love, and dependence on God’s wisdom and leading)
Love and Sonshine, Toni
