Monday, October 26, 2009

Beginnings

One month ago yesterday, Carol and I opened the door of our new apartment to wait for the trucks to arrive carrying the various odds and ends that we had moved from Ohio. To all my friends who have known me over the years, yes, there were lots of books!

We were glad to see the crew from St. Paul's later that afternoon - we ate our lunch from Wendy's that day while sitting in the bathroom (I was sitting on the edge of the bath tub. Carol, well.....)!

We then spent the weekend without cable or internet services. Carol and I went "stir crazy" for 72 hours while we waited for the cable company to arrive on Monday. You would have thought we'd been banished to the high Gobi desert in Mongolia. It just goes to show how much we can get addicted to television and the computer. Thank goodness we two hardware illiterate people finally figured out how to set up all the wires and plugs to get the video player to work. Must Love Dogs became an academy award winner as far as we were concerned! After Monday morning - with the ability to check emails, etc. and watch a football game on TV - life became a bit more common place once again.

We have spent a good bit of time this first month just getting acclimated to our new surroundings. Of course, we have planned for and led worship. We have attended meetings, made visits, met new friends, gone to our first Conference meeting, and other things. We have gotten to know the Lehigh Valley and the countryside (including one unfortunate side trip that almost landed me in New Jersey this past Saturday).

What we have discovered is that St. Paul's UCC, Trexlertown, Emmaus, Allentown, etc. are beginning to feel like home. We continue to unpack at the apartment - it looks less and less like a storage unit and more like a place that people are living in. We continue to set up the offices at the church - we're almost done.

The people at St. Paul's have been warm, gracious, and welcoming to us. And we have discovered once again, that "home is where you hang your hat."

In the course of my 27 years of serving congregations, we have lived in Richmond, Virginia; out in a very rural area near Williamsburg; the city of Charlottesville; just outside South Bend in a small Michigan city; in a small city north of Dayton; and now Emmaus - just six miles down the road from Trexlertown and St. Paul's United Church of Christ. And you know what? The whole area is beginning to feel just like home.

We are happy to be here.