If you are a United Methodist Pastor, you start to find is that the one thing constant is change. No, not that most of our United Methodist Church people love and embrace change (most of us humans don't, for the record - this isn't by any means a slam on the UMC), but it's inevitable as an itinerant UM pastor (and for the congregations we serve) that change is gonna come.
Back in February I got the news that I would be moving. Four months is a long time to transition, especially when the chance to make the transition is severely lacking (long story, and this is not the place to go into it), but the end of June finally came and it was time to move.
Herlihy Moving Co came in on Wednesday and took very good care of us. They were extremely hard-working and very professional - it was the best move we've experienced yet. We had more stuff than they thought we would, yet they got it all packed into the truck.
Thursday was move-in day in Wellston. Did I mention that it was 100* out on move-in day? The house heated up fast. There were several people from the church who came out to help move us in - they seemed to expect to be moving boxes but were instead put to work helping us move out of the boxes. Our dear friends Steve and Rita from Millersport came down (they brought our instruments so they didn't end up in the moving truck under all the furniture) and spent the entire day with us; Steve painted the closets for us while Rita spearheaded the "get the kitchen in order" project.
Food was provided, and the kids found friends to play with. In fact, the boys were at the neighbors' house all day playing with their kids! That night I ended up sleeping in the boys' room, because there's a window air conditioner in there (lucky!!).
Friday came and so did more heat. And then, while we were out for dinner (we hadn't yet bought any groceries), a huge storm came through (70+ mph straight-line winds) and knocked out power to, oh, pretty much all of Ohio. Including us. So our second night in Wellston was without electricity. As was our third. And it was still around 100* every day and very humid.
Sunday morning was my first service at Wellston Hope, and we still had no electricity. That's OK; in New Knoxville, I got three years of practice preaching in a church with no air conditioning! Service went pretty well - the lower attendance actually was helpful to me in trying to learn names. It'll still be a while until I know them all and even longer until I know who is related to whom.
Sunday evening's excitement came in the form of a fire. A landmark business caught fire as the power came back on, and it was a doozy. Pretty much the whole town came out, as well as 12 fire departments. Unfortunately the building was a total loss. According to the paper, however, it was insured. It always stinks when a local business suffers like that.
That was enough excitement for me. To top it off, we lost electricity again on Tuesday for about 24 hours, and parts of town still aren't back on the grid.
Welcome to Wellston!
Showing posts with label moving. Show all posts
Showing posts with label moving. Show all posts
Friday, July 06, 2012
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Let's Get a Deal... or... God is Really in Charge
A couple of years ago, Tara and I went on a wonderful pastor's retreat in Holmes County, Ohio (home of a huge Amish community). On one of our day trips through Amish country, after coming to the conclusion that though Amish furniture is highly superior, we could not realistically afford it, we stumbled upon a wonderful furniture store with really decent prices.
We didn't have the money right at that time to buy anything, but we decided we'd be back. As we moved, we came to the conclusion that we wouldn't have space for our huge office desk (especially since I won't be keeping a designated home office), and since Pastor Dennis (my replacement at NK) didn't have one, we asked him if he'd like ours. Thus we didn't move that heavy beast of a desk, but we still needed something to put our computer(s) on (instead of Tara's craft tables)! We were also looking for two bookshelves, not wanting to (but willing to) settle for the el-cheap-o pressboard kind we already have.
Thus the whole GPS fiasco of last week, where we returned without having found the store or purchasing any furniture.
Now we figured that we knew where the store had to be, so we went back on Monday, only to come to the conclusion (after an entire day of driving, getting lost, and having the only positive being that we did find the P. Graham Dunn store and that we did buy two pieces of artwork at a greatly reduced price from their sale area) that this store is Brigadoon.
When we returned home, Tara decided to check out craig's list for furniture. That very day, someone in Westerville had listed two desks, two bookshelves, and a filing cabinet, all for $400. Can you say "deal"??? So we planned to get the furniture on Wednesday.
Wednesday morning, Tara reserved a rental truck so we could pick the furniture up.
Wednesday afternoon was when things started to get interesting.
After I'd come home from work, a family from church stopped by because while they were at a Christian bookstore, their eight-year-old daughter found an angel ornament with Tara's name on it, and she just had to buy it for Tara. We told them what we were doing later, and the mom said, "My husband has a truck that you could use."
Not only was it a truck, but it had an extended cab so we all could go (and not take two cars).
When we got there, we found the furniture was in excellent shape (the only thing wrong with them is that there are some scratches on the top of the desks, but that's my fault for forgetting to put a blanket between items when I loaded the truck). The couple is moving to Phoenix and selling off many of their (very nice) home furnishings. He even helped us carry the (heavy) stuff out to the truck and load it on. It all fit exactly in the truck.
We got it loaded and headed back for Millersport. Just as we arrived home, two women from church, out walking togther, passed by. They asked, "Do you want some help unloading that?" Shortly we were joined by five teenagers, all eager and willing to help us move. One of them even apologized that they were out of town when we moved in.
When they finished, they were debating whether they would go play basketball or just go for ice cream. They even refused my offer to give them some ice-cream money (I was holding money out at them and they waved it away).
The furniture was exactly what we wanted, and for a fraction of the cost.
Isn't God good?
A couple of years ago, Tara and I went on a wonderful pastor's retreat in Holmes County, Ohio (home of a huge Amish community). On one of our day trips through Amish country, after coming to the conclusion that though Amish furniture is highly superior, we could not realistically afford it, we stumbled upon a wonderful furniture store with really decent prices.
We didn't have the money right at that time to buy anything, but we decided we'd be back. As we moved, we came to the conclusion that we wouldn't have space for our huge office desk (especially since I won't be keeping a designated home office), and since Pastor Dennis (my replacement at NK) didn't have one, we asked him if he'd like ours. Thus we didn't move that heavy beast of a desk, but we still needed something to put our computer(s) on (instead of Tara's craft tables)! We were also looking for two bookshelves, not wanting to (but willing to) settle for the el-cheap-o pressboard kind we already have.
Thus the whole GPS fiasco of last week, where we returned without having found the store or purchasing any furniture.
Now we figured that we knew where the store had to be, so we went back on Monday, only to come to the conclusion (after an entire day of driving, getting lost, and having the only positive being that we did find the P. Graham Dunn store and that we did buy two pieces of artwork at a greatly reduced price from their sale area) that this store is Brigadoon.
When we returned home, Tara decided to check out craig's list for furniture. That very day, someone in Westerville had listed two desks, two bookshelves, and a filing cabinet, all for $400. Can you say "deal"??? So we planned to get the furniture on Wednesday.
Wednesday morning, Tara reserved a rental truck so we could pick the furniture up.
Wednesday afternoon was when things started to get interesting.
After I'd come home from work, a family from church stopped by because while they were at a Christian bookstore, their eight-year-old daughter found an angel ornament with Tara's name on it, and she just had to buy it for Tara. We told them what we were doing later, and the mom said, "My husband has a truck that you could use."
Not only was it a truck, but it had an extended cab so we all could go (and not take two cars).
When we got there, we found the furniture was in excellent shape (the only thing wrong with them is that there are some scratches on the top of the desks, but that's my fault for forgetting to put a blanket between items when I loaded the truck). The couple is moving to Phoenix and selling off many of their (very nice) home furnishings. He even helped us carry the (heavy) stuff out to the truck and load it on. It all fit exactly in the truck.
We got it loaded and headed back for Millersport. Just as we arrived home, two women from church, out walking togther, passed by. They asked, "Do you want some help unloading that?" Shortly we were joined by five teenagers, all eager and willing to help us move. One of them even apologized that they were out of town when we moved in.
When they finished, they were debating whether they would go play basketball or just go for ice cream. They even refused my offer to give them some ice-cream money (I was holding money out at them and they waved it away).
The furniture was exactly what we wanted, and for a fraction of the cost.
Isn't God good?
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
Last night the church Trustees met and the main topic of discussion was the parsonage. The result of the discussion is that this is what is going to happen:
1. The "addition" is going to come off. This contains the dining area (that lists severely) and the sunroom (that is not heated or cooled and is thus unusable most of the year). This process will also include moving the air conditioner unit that sits right by the addition
2. The foundation will be fixed (so it doesn't sink anymore).
3. A new addition (not to be confused with New Edition) will be built where the old addition used to be. This addition will be slightly larger and will include the following: on the first floor (off the kitchen), it will have a 1/2 bathroom, a pantry, and a new eating area. We will get new floor covering for this area and the kitchen (hopefully something that will show a little less of the mess that certain male members of the family make on the floor every meal). Upstairs will be a new full bathroom, laundry room, and walk-in closet.
3. The current bathroom (upstairs) will be remodeled and incorporated into a master suite.
All this work is set to begin next week and to be done by Labor Day...
1. The "addition" is going to come off. This contains the dining area (that lists severely) and the sunroom (that is not heated or cooled and is thus unusable most of the year). This process will also include moving the air conditioner unit that sits right by the addition
2. The foundation will be fixed (so it doesn't sink anymore).
3. A new addition (not to be confused with New Edition) will be built where the old addition used to be. This addition will be slightly larger and will include the following: on the first floor (off the kitchen), it will have a 1/2 bathroom, a pantry, and a new eating area. We will get new floor covering for this area and the kitchen (hopefully something that will show a little less of the mess that certain male members of the family make on the floor every meal). Upstairs will be a new full bathroom, laundry room, and walk-in closet.
3. The current bathroom (upstairs) will be remodeled and incorporated into a master suite.
All this work is set to begin next week and to be done by Labor Day...
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
More on the Move
(huh huh huh, I said "more on") I found a little peace and quiet amongst the piles of books in my office and now it's time to blog.
On Monday, we picked up the U-Haul, and bright and early on Tuesday morning, Jeffrey and Riese (two boys from the confirmation class) showed up to help us move. Shortly thereafter, the soccer team and Coach Luthmann came. Now, as a clarification, the "receiving" church gets to pay moving bills; before you attack my new church for "doing it on the cheap" this was our choice. We have had professional movers move us twice, and both times things got broken and both moves were very expensive. When Coach Luthmann offered the help of the soccer team to load the truck, we decided that would be the way we'd go. They did it without charge (though the MUMC made a donation to the soccer program, and, quite honestly, it was one of the more lucrative fundraisers for the time they spent at work).
The soccer team did excellent and fast work (and had a lot of time to goof around, too - this was aided by the case of Mountain Dew I bought them for fuel). Then it was time to hit the road.
Jonathan rode with me in the truck, and Andrew rode with Tara in the car (along with all our musical instruments and our TV).
When we arrived at Millersport, we were greeted by lots of people; they were just finishing some work in the parsonage kitchen (installing all new cabinets and a new range). Then the hoardes started showing up! The Millersport football team came to help us move in!
I met a ton of people, and I hope to remember some names.
It's hard to believe that this all happened a week ago! Since then, we've had several visitors stop by, we've gone to Lancaster several times (including for a great picnic in Rising Park - where I spent a lot of time last year with the boys while Tara was playing at the Lancaster Festival), and I ran a 5K race in Lancaster (time: 21:31). I'll post sometime with results and pictures, but they didn't have results posted yet and didn't give out any age-group prizes, so I'm not sure where I ranked.
We also went to Thornville's safety day, where we saw firetrucks, police cars, a helicopter, and two very excited little boys. Again, pictures are forthcoming. It's tough not having internet access at home yet.
We went to church on Sunday and met more people. I'm looking forward to certain aspects; others are a little daunting!
I've been running all around town, which is fun. It's nice running around the lake, and I've even found some hilly areas to run in.
That's about it for now...
(huh huh huh, I said "more on") I found a little peace and quiet amongst the piles of books in my office and now it's time to blog.
On Monday, we picked up the U-Haul, and bright and early on Tuesday morning, Jeffrey and Riese (two boys from the confirmation class) showed up to help us move. Shortly thereafter, the soccer team and Coach Luthmann came. Now, as a clarification, the "receiving" church gets to pay moving bills; before you attack my new church for "doing it on the cheap" this was our choice. We have had professional movers move us twice, and both times things got broken and both moves were very expensive. When Coach Luthmann offered the help of the soccer team to load the truck, we decided that would be the way we'd go. They did it without charge (though the MUMC made a donation to the soccer program, and, quite honestly, it was one of the more lucrative fundraisers for the time they spent at work).
The soccer team did excellent and fast work (and had a lot of time to goof around, too - this was aided by the case of Mountain Dew I bought them for fuel). Then it was time to hit the road.
Jonathan rode with me in the truck, and Andrew rode with Tara in the car (along with all our musical instruments and our TV).
When we arrived at Millersport, we were greeted by lots of people; they were just finishing some work in the parsonage kitchen (installing all new cabinets and a new range). Then the hoardes started showing up! The Millersport football team came to help us move in!
I met a ton of people, and I hope to remember some names.
It's hard to believe that this all happened a week ago! Since then, we've had several visitors stop by, we've gone to Lancaster several times (including for a great picnic in Rising Park - where I spent a lot of time last year with the boys while Tara was playing at the Lancaster Festival), and I ran a 5K race in Lancaster (time: 21:31). I'll post sometime with results and pictures, but they didn't have results posted yet and didn't give out any age-group prizes, so I'm not sure where I ranked.
We also went to Thornville's safety day, where we saw firetrucks, police cars, a helicopter, and two very excited little boys. Again, pictures are forthcoming. It's tough not having internet access at home yet.
We went to church on Sunday and met more people. I'm looking forward to certain aspects; others are a little daunting!
I've been running all around town, which is fun. It's nice running around the lake, and I've even found some hilly areas to run in.
That's about it for now...
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