Rhythm of Life

So, we're settled in -- as settled as we can expect to be in this season of transition.

I take the older kids to school every morning but Wednesdays, when Granddad gets to do the honors.  They ride the bus home from Sunnyvale Elementary and are dropped off at the front of the long, gravel driveway.   Chance the dog runs to greet them, and Julia does as well whenever she's outside.  The donkeys occasionally bray a welcome (or demand a feeding) as the kids walk up the drive.  After snacks, when the weather is nice, everyone dashes outdoors to play fetch with Chance or explore the back pasture or ride the zip line or hunt for eggs or get too close to the pond or snuggle their new pet bunnies (Snowflake, Monty, and Sniffles) ....

Later in the day I pick up the walkie-talkie (that's how we stayed connected on a 10 acre spread) and call, "Bald Leader to Blue 9, Gold 6, and Pink 3, time to come in!"  "Copy that Bald Leader!"  The kids tumble in the doors to homework, dinner, baths, and sundry evening activities.  They are loving life here, although definitely missing friends back in PA and feeling some concern about having to move again in the near future.  Jesse and Georgia really like their school, and Lucy enjoys pre-school twice a week plus a Wednesday "Grandmommy Day."  Julia simply loves life (and exhausts us).  She's crawling on tables, emptying drawers into the trash, toddling out doors when we're not looking, eating packets of silicon, and making her presence known through a loud loquacity that leaves us either laughing or angry, depending on the timing.

We graciously have been given free office space at a neighbor's place of business (ID Plates).  It's a warm community of workers, and they've welcomed us right in.  Several days a week I sit in a cubicle making phone calls and sending emails to current and potential partners, working on budgets and letters, hanging out on Facebook, and handling other issues.  Leslie continues keeping the home front happening, and several times a week we work together at the house or take the younger two girls out to breakfast.

My parents are living in their garage apartment.  Formally it was called "The Cowboy Quarters," but we've begun to refer to their space as "Mouse House" and ours as "Big House."  (As an aside -- we have way too many means of communication in the house.  There are four different cell phones with four different numbers, a land line, four walkie-talkies, three computers, and an intercom system.)  This living arrangement is going wonderfully well!  Mom and Dad/Grandmommy and Granddaddy have become a natural part of our lives (and we a part of theirs), with their comings and goings adding an enjoyable rhythm to the weeks.

In most ways we're living the good life.  (We'll leave the story of the odoriferous rotting rat corpse for another day.)  God's over-abundant faithfulness is evident on a daily basis, and the occasional overwhelm our Partner Development and Uganda to-do list is itself overwhelmed by the provision of our Father.

A Mother's Love

Leslie overheard 3 year old Lucy singing the following ditty:

I like my mom
She's cherry cherry
When she's happy
She loves me
When she's wrong
She loves me
When she's mad
She loves me
And all the time
She loves me

Moving Day

This map of Africa was the last item left in our house in Ambridge just before my Dad and left a week ago.  It's fitting, I think, that the final thing I removed from our walls is a representation of what has become the focal point of our lives.  We came to Ambridge not knowing that we would leave for Africa.

It was 8 1/2 years ago when my Dad and I drove a Uhaul from Austin to TX to Ambridge, PA, a Uhaul loaded up by our Austin community, and would be unloaded by what would become our Trinity community.

And now it many ways it ends as it began.  My Dad drove up from Texas to be with me as our Ambridge community loaded up our Uhaul trailer (much smaller this time since we're not not carrying as much to Texas and Uganda).  The community that came was actually a good representation of our life in Ambridge.  It was a mix of people from the Trinity community from across the years, from the Church of the Savior (our home church in Ambridge), and even folks we hardly knew at all through friendships in Young Life.

Joe Afflerbach and Alex Ielase deserve particular mention.  They were there from start to finish, organizing and packing our remaining worldly goods into a surprisingly small space in both the Uhaul storage space and the trailer.

It was a more difficult several days of packing than what I had anticipated.  I had just returned from a wonderful time with my wife's sister's family in Northern Virginia for Christmas, sending Leslie and the girls on ahead to TX via a plane flight, and leaving Jesse with his cousins in VA until the final packing was done.  I thought Sunday I would be done with the packing on Sunday, piddle around Monday and Tuesday, and be on the road by Tuesday morning.  Both my wife and Dad thought that was unrealistic -- and they were right!

There was a LOT of work to be done in the three days I had left to myself, and it would have been impossible without my dad's presence and the guys and one gal who showed up to help on Tuesday.  But let it not be forgotten or ignored that my three days of hard packing only happened because of three months of hard packing by my wife!

 

Packing for us was uniquely challenging since we had to consider what we would put into storage for three years, what did we want to bring with us to TX for easy access during our time of transition, and what would be packed to be ready to be sent to Uganda.  It's hard to choose -- and as we choose, it's hard to decide what we truly need and want for the next season of life, and to let go of the rest.  Leslie did most of this hard work.

Through that mysterious mix of God's grace and hard work, we did indeed get packed up.  Dad and I then had the anticlimatic moment of being unable to back the trailer out of our unfairly steep driveway.  Yet once again, as I mentioned in the previous blog post, we encountered God's provision.  Dad said we needed someone with a four-wheel-drive vehicle, and I knew of no one.  We decided to call it quits for the night, and instead make the hard decision of where we would dine for my final night in Ambridge -- the well known, memory-laden but not quite as tasty Rook's in Ambridge, or the newer but more delectable Sharp Edge in Sewickley?

I chose the latter because of thirst for Beglian beer, but found it much too crowded and the wait too long due to hoards gathered for the Pens' game.  As we turned to leave, there sat the Rev. Canon John Macdonald, Trinity professor of mission and director of the Stanway Institute, having dinner and a drink with his wife.  Through them we discovered their daughter Perry had the very vehicle we needed.  (We did end up spending our final evening at Rook's, Black & Tan in hand Pittsburgh style -- Guinness and Yuengling.  And had the wonderful surprise of bumping into the Grossman's!)

So the next morning I left early to pick up Jesse from VA, while Dad worked with Perry and her brother and, after a series of setbacks, finally got the trailer out and on the road.  We met just south of Morgantown, West Virginia, and made the three day trek to Texas.  Three Hines men on the road -- Granddad, Dad, and Jesse -- and it was such fun to watch the joy of Jesse as he hung out with the two of us, switching between Granddad's pickup and the family minivan, talking about everything from the challenges of changing schools to the inconsistencies between the Star Wars movies, books, and comics.

As we made our long drive through gray days of mist and rain that couldn't quite veil the beauty of the countryside, Leslie began to set up our transitional home at my parents' place in Texas with the help of my mom.

We were happy to reunite in Texas, and to begin this new season of focusing not on how to make a new home in Sunnyvale, but on how to transition well into life as missionaries, both in this final season of preparation and in the coming season of moving to Uganda.

One final thought about moving:  It is upheaval.  Everything is heaved, and everything is up, unsettled.  This applies not only to the boxes themselves, but also to the emotions that are...if not in turmoil, at least in upheaval.  Saying goodbyes, letting go, and not being able to settle down fully since we are not yet at home.  My parents' home is a wonderful place to be, but it is their home, not ours.  Our home is waiting for us in Kabale, and we're ready to be home.  But our thoughts, hearts, things, spirits are in transition, and not yet at home.  So we're learning what it means for our home to be in Christ, as a family.

So we've put the map of Africa on the wall by the door of my parents' house in Texas, where we see it coming and going, calling us homeward.

Farewell Ambridge

It's hard to say goodbye.  How do you leave behind eight-and-a-half years and move on to something else?  Ambridge, Trinity, Church of the Savior, Pittsburgh, southwest Pennsylvania -- this is where our family grew into its current fullness, where we have known community and loneliness, great joy and deep depression, unity and fragmentation, intimacy and separation, bright beauty and clinging gray.

Of course, we don't leave Ambridge behind, not really.  Our years here, the relationships, my studies, the geography and weather, our experiences as individuals, as a couple, as a family -- all these have and will continue to shape who we are.  And, after all, it is what our kids know as home.  When I say "home," I still have hazy Texas images wafting through my head.  When my kids say "home," they have clear pictures of ragged Merchant Street dressed up in Christmas lights and shining with its own beauty, of the noisy, fun, and frustrating friendships of school, of sledding down our steep driveway and crashing into the fence, of long drives into Pittsburgh and feeling excited to see the skyline and cross the bridges, of various parks and restaurants and streets and kids...and our house here in Ambridge.  Our kids, for now, aren't Texans, they're Li'l Bridgers.

I won't spend the time right now to reflect deeply on our time in Ambridge.  There is too much there, and I'm too tired.  All that this time has meant and will continue to mean will unfold in the years to come.  We've had good closure, but I think it's a mistake simply to turn the page and say this chapter of our life is over.  Our Ambridge years won't fade into a barely remembered past.  They are a part of who we are, and will continue to shape who we become.

One significant theme I must mention:  God's provision.  As bleary-eyed as I am this morning, this much I see clearly.  Our Father has provided for us again and again and again and again.  He has filled in  gaps in our parenting, he has closed crevices in our marriage, he has given money when least expected, he has provided friends, teachers, pastors and counselors, he has comforted and restored us, he has brought us into places of authentic delight and simple joy.  Always what we have needed, he has provided.  Often what we have most desired, he has given.  Many times what we did not know we needed or desired he gave anyway.

About thirty minutes after I post this blog, I will take one last drive down Merchant Street, hang a right at 8th Street, take a left on Ohio River Blvd., and head out of Ambridge.  Texas is the next significant stop, then on to Uganda.  Nothing will turn out quite like we've envisioned it; nothing ever does.  These past eight-and-a-half years certainly didn't.  One thing I know, however, and of two things I am certain:  that God -- Father, Jesus, Holy Spirit -- loves us, and that he will provide.

Feeling the love in South Carolina

"I could get used to living this way!"  After saying this, Jesse flopped back onto his bed in our temporary home -- a beach house on Folly Beach, "The Edge of America."

What a way to live indeed!  After a full, warm welcome from the Gaillard family of six at the Charleston Airport, and a quick stop at Chick-Fil-A (paid for by that same family), we drove about 30 minutes to the above mentioned beach house.

Out front, the Atlantic Ocean.

Out back, beautiful marshland.

Inside, a grandkids' paradise of age-appropriate toys, hard wood floors, pool table, comfy beds, fire place, and a refrigerator and counter full of food provided by a hospitality committee from Church of the Good Shepherd.  A day did not go by without spontaneous praises being shouted out -- and we're not normally a family who does that.  God's goodness and love was so abundantly evident to us in his creation and in the hospitality and care of his people, our South Carolina family.

Needless to say, the trip turned out to be a wonderful time for our family.  Lots of walks on the beach, games of pool, playing in the ocean on cold, windy days (who cares? we're at the beach!), a few fun restaurants (Jesse discovered a love for crab legs), play dates with new friends, and a visit to historic Charleston.

 

  

 

Even better, my (Travis') mom joined us to help with the kids, which not only made it easier to make the several meetings we had scheduled, but gave Leslie and me more time together as a couple than we've had in months!

 

 

Our Partner Development time went well also.  In addition to preaching at two churches and meeting with their folks, we connected with groups and individuals from other communities within the diocese.  There is for us a growing sense of connectedness with the people in the Diocese of South Carolina.  There is a growing heart, interest, and commitment to East Africa there, and the vision God has given us of raising up a generation of Ugandans to reach the world for Christ interweaves with so much of what he is already doing in South Carolina.

There were also several moments of encouragement.  People visiting for the first time the churches where we were preaching deciding to partner with us, reconnections with old seminary friends, unexpected generosity from our host parishes (Good Shepherd and Saint John's Parish), genuine excitement in the welcome given by new friends....

One exciting development in particular.  We're asking the churches that support us to connect us with an individual, family, or small group who will act as our liaison to that community, and through them we'll weave together the communities of that church, our family, and the people of Kabale.  We've begun this with Trinity Beaver in PA with a wonderful woman named Ruth.  In South Carolina, another woman of great graciousness and care named Kits from Good Shepherd is taking on that role.  Already in getting to know these women there is a greater of sense of actually being a part of these communities, and we see the potential for the relationship to grow and deepen.  We look forward to more!

There is much more I could write about this visit, but I'm supposed to be packing boxes as we prepare to move to Texas in just a few days.  More will come after this move!

Until then, catch a glimpse of the glory and gratefulness we experienced in South Carolina with this short clip: