At the time, Heather and I were without children, we had been fortunate in the sale of our home, and my management at TASC was encouraging me to take all the time I needed before showing up for my first day. But I was eager to “get started” and “make my mark”; I only took off enough time to drive across country. In retrospect, I wish I would have considered my managers’ advice more seriously.
Since we were not able to delay the closing of our house nor could we rent back afterwards, there is a month between the day we settled on our house and the start of summer Hebrew next Monday. It would have been tempting to turn that month into a long vacation, but Confirmation Sunday was scheduled for almost two weeks after the settlement. I wanted to complete the year with my confirmands and needed to make arrangements to stay in the area for another couple of weeks anyway; so I figured I might as well be gainfully employed during that time, too.
(As an aside for those of you reading this because you are considering the ministry and seminary: I also needed my family to remain covered under insurance during the period between the settlement of our house and the start of summer Hebrew. Resigning early to take a month-long vacation would have created some “coverage problems” that would have been expensive to rectify!)
As I already noted in an earlier post, Heather, David John and Emily were staying with Heather’s parents, Tom and Sarah, in Noblesville from the time we moved out of our Virginia home. At the end of my last work day with TASC, I packed up my car and returned to Indiana to reunite with my family. We stayed there with Mom and Dad Clark for a few days, enjoying David’s second birthday celebration, joining West Noblesville Community Church for worship and a Memorial Day sail! (Unfortunately, I do not have many pictures from our stay in Noblesville available at the time of this posting. I will try to update this posting later.)
We left the following Tuesday for Rogersville, MO, where my parents now live. Just as the stay in Noblesville was pleasant, this visit has been nice as well. Most of the pictures below are from our activities while here. We have visited the zoo in Springfield, played lots of backyard baseball, ran through sprinklers to beat the heat, joined in worship with the congregation of Redeemer Lutheran Church in Springfield, enjoyed a perfect night of minor league baseball as the Springfield Cardinals defeated the Corpus Christi Hooks, and taken tractor rides with “pa-paw”.
On Thursday, we are going to return to the St. Louis area, where we will again impose on the hospitality of “Hotel Miller” for a few more nights. (Thanks again, Jeff, Julie and Jaime!) We had originally planned for Heather and the kids to simply drop me off at the seminary and continue back to Noblesville, since our apartment will probably not be available until early- to mid- July. However, the admissions staff at the seminary has organized a “welcome summer language students and their families” party on Sunday night, and we are eager for the whole family to participate. Class will start Monday morning, which is when Heather and the kids will actually return to Noblesville.
Our Lord blesses His creation with all things “for the support and needs of the body”. We have so much to be thankful for! Like Luther in the Small Catechism, we also include “good friends, good neighbors and the like” when we thank God for providing “daily bread”. Our Christian brothers and sisters are providing us with food, shelter, and fellowship during our period of transition. To each of them: thank you very much!
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