6/30/2008

Well, we had a fantastic week of packing and saying many goodbye’s before we set out to NYC in our fully packed Uhaul today. We have been (and still are) a part of such a loving, sweet, giving, compassionate, passion-filled community of believers at Bridgeway Church and I guess the ‘bad’ part of our move is having to say goodbye to so many dear friends. “Thank you” to all of you who dropped by this past week to help us pack and for those that came by yesterday to help load in the Uhaul. I have to say a special “thanks!!!” to “Load Master Seargent, Aaron Long” who planted himself in that stuffy, warm Uhaul for about 90 minutes and packed each and every box and furniture item. Also thank you Randy Stroud for your work on loading and your help with the couches last week.

We left OKC shortly after lunch today and pulled off in Joplin, MO for some ice cream shakes at ‘Steak and Shake.’ Yum! As we were making our way back to the highway, I (Andy) managed to cut a corner a little too tightly and I nicked the back tire well enough to give it a good 3-inch gash. So, we are now patiently waiting for the tire to be repaired as we sit in a nearby Panera Bread. Fun! It’s already quite an adventure and we’re only about 3 hours out of OKC.

Seriously though, we are fine with the delay. Shortly before the incident we decided to change our pace of travel and slow it down a bit, so this works in to that plan just fine. At this point, we have yet to find and secure an apartment in NYC. I just returned from there a couple days ago when I went to look at an apartment that we thought might work. The pictures of the apartment online were decent, but when I saw it in person I realized it was a bit too dark, dingy, and dirty to work for us. I then spent the better part of the day trapsing up and down 104th Street through 107th between Amsterdam and West End Avenues peering in just about every door I could to get a phone number of the building’s superintendent or management company. I must have called around 30 numbers by the end of it. I’ve had a couple ‘bites’ since then, but nothing permanent yet. Please pray with us that God will reserve the apartment he has for us and leads us to it in His timing. We are going in faith knowing that He has called us to love Him and love people in NYC, so surely he will provide the apartment for us as well.

Well, the tire is just about ready, so that’s all for now. Next stop: St. Louis for the night. We love you all sooo much. Even if we don’t know you, I’m sure we would love you as we got to know you. :)

Peace, Grace, and Blessings,

Andy (and Jessica)