Greetings to all of you in the name of Jesus who is Lord of Lent, but more importantly Lord of Easter. I have two bits of exciting news. First, tomorrow I leave for Phoenix!! The DCE, her baby, the two preschool teachers, and myself are all flying down for a church conference. It will be a great couple of days. It is supposed to be in the low 90's or high 80's the whole time. I am also excited because this will be the first time since graduation that I am seeing most of my classmates, well the ones who will be there anyway. It isn't really ideal time being in the beginning of Lent, but luckily Pastor Ludwig is covering so I can still go.
The other exciting news is that I put an offer on a house and they accepted. YAY! The whole thing was a gift from God really. (I mean every thing in my life is a gift from Him, but this especially!) A guy from church asked me if I was looking for a house. I told him I had been watching the housing market, but wasn't actively seeking anything since my apartment lease isn't up until August. He told me he knew of a house that was just coming for sale. Then as he began to describe it, it hit every item on my checklist for what I wanted but didn't think I would be able to find. And I do mean EVERYTHING. He said it comes with some acres of trees... CHECK. It's an older house that might need some updates.... CHECK. (I wanted a fixer upper to put some sweat equity into.) It's just outside of city limits... CHECK. And it went on for a few more. It does come with some land, 17.5 acres! It is an older house, built in 1950 that needs some updates, but they are all cosmetic. It's a smaller 2 bed, 1 bath house, but has potential and plenty of room behind it to always build on. Everything structural about the house is solid. It has a three car garage, how could I forget to say CHECK to that! And the best part of all, it was under the lower end of my budget. Again, truly a God-given, gift wrapped with a bow on top, thing. So now that they have accepted my offer, we are in the inspection stage. I am not worried about the home inspection, and not really even the well inspection since the lady who was living there was 96 (if any thing, there has to be something good in the water). The only part that worries me a little is the septic inspection. Even if it has to be redone, which is most likely, the sellers agreed to pay for it. It is more the hassle of the lender isn't sure if it has to be done before we can close. However, I am taking it one day at a time, thanking the Good Lord each day along the way, and as of now if everything goes according to plan, we will close on May 5th. Then I will only have one or two months of paying both my mortgage and my apartment rent, but that also gives me more time to move.
I am excited to be a home owner, and my mind hasn't quit thinking of new ideas for projects on the place. However, I am just so grateful that the Lord has brought me to a place where I know will be home for a long time. It is exciting to set down roots, especially after moving so frequently through college, the seminary, vicarage, etc. I know I am truly blessed.
I gave up all T.V., Netflix, Youtube, and the such for Lent. The first couple days I found myself almost going insane without being able to plop in the chair and grab the remote. However, now that I am adjusting, I am finding I have more time to read, to actually get things done around the house that I kept putting off and the like. Amazing how that works. Actually it is kind of sad how much time I waste in front of the TV. This weekend, I started and finished C.S. Lewis's Screwtape Letters. If you have never read it before, I highly suggest it. That man was a genius. It was also very fitting, because I decided to preach on the devil this last weekend with the temptation of Jesus text. I wasn't quite sure how it would go over, or exactly what people would think. But to my surprise, I actually got a lot of reassuring compliments, not only that they thought it was a good sermon, but that they learned something new, or at least thought about it differently than they had before. The Holy Spirit is good! Now I am working on reading the Abolition of Man. I still am not a huge fan of reading, but do have to admit I learn more valuable things from books than from TV shows. Now ask me two weeks after Lent, and most likely I will have caught up on the Netflix shows I have been missing, but maybe I can make a compromise of a few nights of reading, a few nights of TV.
I hope you are having a good Lent season as we all prepare for that most glorious of all holidays, Easter!!!! God bless you all. Amen.
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