Trip to Fort Smith

We had a great weekend trip to Fort Smith! We headed out Friday afternoon at about 1, with a first stop in Searcy to have dinner with my cousin Jordan. We would have loved to have my cousin Sarah there as well, but she's on Harding's track team, and they were at a meet in Oklahoma. From there we headed south to Stuttgart for the night, staying at Lisa's Aunt Ann's house with her brother Chris (Ann is out of town... are people trying to avoid us?). Saturday morning, which was stunningly beautiful, we got up to head for Fort Smith at a nice leisurely pace. On a whim, we stopped at Toltec Mounds State Park to walk around 1,000-year-old Indian mounds and feed some turtles.

Upon arriving in Fort Smith, we visited the Fort Smith History Museum, which was really well done. Next door to it is the Fort Smith National Historic Site. For those who don't know, Fort Smith was the center of administration for the Indian Territories (now known as Oklahoma) in the days of the Wild West. If you've seen either version of True Grit, that story starts out in Fort Smith.

We were very blessed to be able to have dinner with Shawn Moore from Spokane, WA on Saturday evening. Shawn spend two years in Athens, Greece, where he got to know Hristo and Vania very well. He is the preacher for the Northside Church of Christ, which supports the Arnaudovs and their work. He shared with us his story, and we shared ours with him. It is amazing how God works in the lives of His people!

We stayed Saturday night with Jerry and Meg Canfield, who graciously opened their home to us. Sunday morning, I taught the adult auditorium class at the Westark Church of Christ (with some MC-ing by Chris Benjamin). It was wonderful to see familiar faces again from our summer trip to Sofia! I was blessed to be given the opportunity to preside at the Lord's Table for Westark, as well.

After an amazing lunch at El Rodeo (I've never had molcajete before - fantastic!) with the Benjamin family and Shawn Moore, we headed back on the road. It was a great trip, and we're very thankful the Lord brought us safely through our journey of just over 1,000 miles.

The battleground of our lives

We feel like a bit of a battleground lately, in that Satan has been attacking, and God has been blessing (though sometimes that blessing hurts a little, too). First, some of the blessings: Lisa (for those of you who aren't her Facebook friend) will have a second phone interview on Thursday for a fantastic position in North Carolina. This job would be a substantial raise for Lisa, and would allow us to remain in Nashville; the downside is that she would have to travel a lot, but we can deal with that.

Then an attack - I am covered quite ridiculously in poison ivy, mosquito bites, and chiggers, and I don't think it all came from the campout last week. When I say ridiculously, I mean poison ivy on my leg, the back of my neck, my forehead, my nose, my chin through my beard, and my eyelids. I never went into the woods, so I don't know where I could have picked it up. It's a fairly minor thing in the grand scheme, but quite annoying. Within the last month, Avery's been sick, Elise has been sick, and I've been almost sick. And Lisa is dealing with a horribly dysfunctional workplace that led her to look for other work in the first place - but that, as I've said, may be a hidden blessing.

Probably the most difficult "blessing" is our remaining cat, Kira. Kira has been with us for almost 15 years now, our first baby. Since we have made the decision to go to Bulgaria, we had wondered what we would do with the cats, and her in particular. We had found a person to take Keiko, but we knew that Kira would never adjust; It's too expensive to take her with us to Bulgaria, and even if we did the flight would probably kill her. We're taking our call to mission seriously, and we can't tell God "Sorry, but we can't go do the work you've put before us - we have a cat." The horrible blessing is that we may be putting Kira down this week. She has not been right since we put Keiko to sleep; she hardly eats, and I have not seen her drink water in weeks (which makes me wonder seriously how she's still alive now). She has balance issues, and staggers often. There have been other disturbing behaviors which I won't go into (you might have just eaten...) that tell us it's time.

Strangely, I am more at peace on this. I am sad, to be sure, but perhaps losing Keiko prepared me somewhat to lose Kira as well. This will be a pet-less house, which makes it easier for us to prepare it to sell. I've learned through life that transitions are tough, but God leads us through them to brighter futures.

Update - October 3rd, 2012

Technology is awesome! I had another phone chat with Vania today. I called to see how Hristo is doing, and I was glad to hear that he is doing well. Apparently (if I understood correctly), they are not going to do surgery on his other eye until next month. I was glad to hear also that the communion cups I had sent a couple of weeks ago arrived there yesterday; apparently the Vazrazhdane Church of Christ had run out of cups, and the only store in Bulgaria that carries them ran out and had no idea when any more would come in. The things we take for granted in the States...

We've got a busy month ahead of us. This weekend we'll be heading to Stuttgart, AR to hook up with Lisa's family. Next weekend, I'll be in the second of three class meetings of a course I'm auditing at Lipscomb on "Counseling for Church Leaders" (and yes, that can be taken pretty much any way you look at it). The weekend after that we're really looking forward to being in Fort Smith to visit with our West Ark family; I'll be co-teaching class with Chris Benjamin, and officiating at Table. The final weekend in October will be a Cub and Family campout and Elise's birthday, and the following weekend the third of the Counseling class... I'm pretty busy for an unemployed guy.

Some of the job searching has been put on hold as Lisa looks for a new job. We're trying to find her something that is here in Nashville, or at least would allow her to work from here and travel to sites occasionally. There's a particular job she's looking at now that we think would be absolutely fantastic (and would indeed allow us to stay in Nashville). We ask, as always, for your prayers that God will continue to lay the path in front of us that He desires. We still want very much to be in Sofia next year, but only God can make that happen. In the meantime, we continue to prepare as best we can with language lessons (had one tonight; I think I have conjugations in the present tense down... I think).

We are so thankful for your prayers and thoughts. It has been a rough year in a lot of ways, but also a year full of surprises and blessings. God is so good to us!