A friend of mine recently posed this question in an e-mail.
"What free time?" I thought. "I don't even get around to doing all I want to do, let alone being bored."
Now that we've unpacked all the boxes and put stuff away - which only took a week or two - what are we doing? Sightseeing? Loafing? Hardly.
On a typical day I spend the morning behind my computer, wrestling with financial matters or working on a translation, whereas Dwight works around the house. You'd think in a condo there is no outside work. Wrong!! It's a free-standing condo, i. e. it is a house. Though we don't have to paint it or mow the grass - there's not much of it anyway - there seems to be enough outdoor work to keep Dwight busy the rest of the summer. He's busy planting, pruning, washing windows, scrubbing the patio, and a hundred other projects.
After lunch it's more of the same, except we may go swimming at the Condo Association pool - after all, we pay the fees - or we go shopping. Of course we eat out occasionally, but so far we've only gone to Asheville once, and that to apply for driver's licence there on the rumor that it wouldn't take so long - a rumor that turned out false.
Sometimes we are involved in getting to know the neighbors in the condo association. This can be informal, just stopping and chatting, or even visiting with a neighbor. Everybody is very friendly and remembers us by our address - "Oh, you live in Susannah Pierce's house!" - even though she moved out in 2007. And , of course, we are the newcomers. Then there are the more formal meetings. Next week there are two business meetings, one Arts and Crafts Fair I signed up for to display some cross-stitch at, and a Ladies Tea. Yesterday we went to our first ever Bingo night and won $7 between the two of us. I feel like a real Senior Citizen now!
Summers are lovely by and large. It doesn't get humid too often, which means it is cool at night - in the fifties - and warm during the day (eighties). We don't even turn on the AC unless it's really humid. All the rooms have ceiling fans, which is usually enough. I don't even close the windows, because there is a large overhang, and the sun doesn't shine inside.
On other days it starts out sunny, but then thunderstorms move through in the afternoon.
Well, dinner is cooking, so've got to run.
Friday, August 7, 2009
Monday, August 3, 2009
Who messed up the road?
One of the biggest differences between Iowa and NC are the roads. In Iowa they are straight (usually), in NC, at least in these parts, they are always crooked, even if there doesn't seem to be a need for it. It must have something to do with a crazy-quilt pattern of property lines arising from the old English property laws.
I mentioned before that people always seem to drive faster than Iowans on those roads - an average of 10 miles per hour. Add to that the constant curves and frequent ups and downs, and it's enough to make you queasy. In addition, the highways are very narrow and have no shoulders at all.
Even in the city, Hendersonville has mostly what I would call rural roads - curvy roads with long stretches of no houses. A road may start somewhere, go north a mile, then fork. If you continue straight, you get lost. Any given road may have any number of unexpected turns, name changes, and what have you. Many intersections have no signs at all.
Add to that the total darkness after the sun sets. You'd think they'd heard of streetlights, but they are nonexistent for the most part. Even the exits from the Interstates are dark. So are the tunnels in the mountains, which is scary when you just drove in sunlight. And of course all those curvy roads with the confusing missing street signs and turns are pitch dark. No wonder that sales of GPS units are booming. It shouldn't really be necessary for a town of 12,000 - but this North Carolina, not Iowa!
I mentioned before that people always seem to drive faster than Iowans on those roads - an average of 10 miles per hour. Add to that the constant curves and frequent ups and downs, and it's enough to make you queasy. In addition, the highways are very narrow and have no shoulders at all.
Even in the city, Hendersonville has mostly what I would call rural roads - curvy roads with long stretches of no houses. A road may start somewhere, go north a mile, then fork. If you continue straight, you get lost. Any given road may have any number of unexpected turns, name changes, and what have you. Many intersections have no signs at all.
Add to that the total darkness after the sun sets. You'd think they'd heard of streetlights, but they are nonexistent for the most part. Even the exits from the Interstates are dark. So are the tunnels in the mountains, which is scary when you just drove in sunlight. And of course all those curvy roads with the confusing missing street signs and turns are pitch dark. No wonder that sales of GPS units are booming. It shouldn't really be necessary for a town of 12,000 - but this North Carolina, not Iowa!
Saturday, August 1, 2009
So what's my church situation?
A number of you are probably wondering about my church situation - down here, not in Iowa City (that's a whole other topic on which I won't comment).
With this being the Bible belt, there are tons of Baptist churches around. You kind of lose the overview - is it 65 or 85? What's the difference between Ebenezer Baptist down the road and Iglesia Baptista next door? The big Baptist church is, of course, First Baptist Church in downtown Hendersonville right off Church street. It has about 1170 members. That's a tenth of the town, figuring that Hendersonville has about 12,000 people. It is THE church to attend and features many programs. Sunday mornings there are three services, one being contemporary, and two periods of Sunday School meetings. Dwight and I attended the contemporary meeting, which was quite tame. Nobody raised their hands, everybody was very proper in their attire.
I liked the minister, who is still quite young. My next-door neighbor, a senior citizen, refers to him as a "boy." But overall I came away with two impressions - one, that women play almost no role in ministry.All the ushers, the communion servers, the deacons who serve in emergencies are male. I couldn't see myself doing anything beyond baking cookies, which is not my particular gift. The other impression I got was that every sermon was essentially ending with the topic of being born again. While this is extremely important, it's only the beginning of our journey with God, and I didn't get the impression that I would be able to grow much beyond that if I stayed.
The following Sunday we went to the Family Christian Center, a pentecostal holiness church. It hadn't been easy to locate a charismatic church to begin with, so I was looking forward to it. Again, Dwight came with me. This was a very small church in a poor part of town. Dwight in particular didn't feel that he had anything in common with the lower-class people, but we did join the pastor and a few other people for lunch afterwards at a "soul-food" restaurant.
The third Sunday we tried another small charismatic church which we both liked. It's called His People Community Church, and the pastor, Emile Wolfaardt, is from South Africa. Put succinctly, I liked both the worship and the preaching - which you can check out on the website, www.hispeople.ws. But there's something more to the church, the people, and the pastor. Call it authenticity, grace, the love of Christ, the anointing of God - some of the things Emile says get under my skin in a good way! Although I have really been burnt in the past in a small church, I'm cautiously wanting to move ahead, at least for now. This church seems different somehow. Yesterday Emile (he rejects any title for himself, saying he's just like us) spent two hours getting to know Dwight and me a little better, and he showed great, genuine interest in Dwight's scholarly work and even discussed church history with him. It reminded me of Paul saying, "To the Jews I became like a Jew... that by all means I might win some".
So that's where I'm at. I'm excited about God leading me to Hendersonville at such a time as this (particularly with the difficulties at my Iowa church). I sense an anticipation in my spirit that I may grow in different ways than I have been able before. By the way, the church believes in the spiritual gifts though they would be the first to admit that they don't always function because of blockages on our part (like sin or unbelief). Women ministering are ok as well. Their vision is very close to mine, though it's not always easy to implement a vision.
So that's where I'll be headed tomorrow - back to "His People".
With this being the Bible belt, there are tons of Baptist churches around. You kind of lose the overview - is it 65 or 85? What's the difference between Ebenezer Baptist down the road and Iglesia Baptista next door? The big Baptist church is, of course, First Baptist Church in downtown Hendersonville right off Church street. It has about 1170 members. That's a tenth of the town, figuring that Hendersonville has about 12,000 people. It is THE church to attend and features many programs. Sunday mornings there are three services, one being contemporary, and two periods of Sunday School meetings. Dwight and I attended the contemporary meeting, which was quite tame. Nobody raised their hands, everybody was very proper in their attire.
I liked the minister, who is still quite young. My next-door neighbor, a senior citizen, refers to him as a "boy." But overall I came away with two impressions - one, that women play almost no role in ministry.All the ushers, the communion servers, the deacons who serve in emergencies are male. I couldn't see myself doing anything beyond baking cookies, which is not my particular gift. The other impression I got was that every sermon was essentially ending with the topic of being born again. While this is extremely important, it's only the beginning of our journey with God, and I didn't get the impression that I would be able to grow much beyond that if I stayed.
The following Sunday we went to the Family Christian Center, a pentecostal holiness church. It hadn't been easy to locate a charismatic church to begin with, so I was looking forward to it. Again, Dwight came with me. This was a very small church in a poor part of town. Dwight in particular didn't feel that he had anything in common with the lower-class people, but we did join the pastor and a few other people for lunch afterwards at a "soul-food" restaurant.
The third Sunday we tried another small charismatic church which we both liked. It's called His People Community Church, and the pastor, Emile Wolfaardt, is from South Africa. Put succinctly, I liked both the worship and the preaching - which you can check out on the website, www.hispeople.ws. But there's something more to the church, the people, and the pastor. Call it authenticity, grace, the love of Christ, the anointing of God - some of the things Emile says get under my skin in a good way! Although I have really been burnt in the past in a small church, I'm cautiously wanting to move ahead, at least for now. This church seems different somehow. Yesterday Emile (he rejects any title for himself, saying he's just like us) spent two hours getting to know Dwight and me a little better, and he showed great, genuine interest in Dwight's scholarly work and even discussed church history with him. It reminded me of Paul saying, "To the Jews I became like a Jew... that by all means I might win some".
So that's where I'm at. I'm excited about God leading me to Hendersonville at such a time as this (particularly with the difficulties at my Iowa church). I sense an anticipation in my spirit that I may grow in different ways than I have been able before. By the way, the church believes in the spiritual gifts though they would be the first to admit that they don't always function because of blockages on our part (like sin or unbelief). Women ministering are ok as well. Their vision is very close to mine, though it's not always easy to implement a vision.
So that's where I'll be headed tomorrow - back to "His People".
Monday, July 27, 2009
The fifth dimension struck - again
Have you ever wondered what happens to all those single socks that get lost in your washer? Well, according to a hilarious spoof I saw on TV years ago, they go to the "land of lost socks," a kind of warehouse of socks.
Now there are more things than socks that mysteriously disappear. You've probably experienced it yourself - no matter how hard you look or how irrational it seems, the thing simply has vanished.
That's where the fifth dimension comes in. I have this hypothesis that there is this fifth dimensions full of strange beings. Every once in a while the fifth dimension opens up and breaks into our space-time continuum and grabs something silly like a sock, a key, or a book. Reversely, but much less often, every once in a great while it opens up and drops the item back into your realm, just when you despaired of ever seeing it again. (Now my more spiritual friends would probably say it's the second heavens, not the fifth dimenension - let the reader understand - but what demons would do with all those socks is beyond me.)
Never does this fifth dimension have a greater field day than when you move. In a previous move I lost a perfectly good pair of shorts and a lovely T-shirt, though the shirt reappeared after three years (just to confuse me, as I said). This time it's more random. There is the mystery of the vanished toe-nail clipper. Never mind that we keep all our nail scissors and clippers in a special box, which was tightly wrapped with rubber bands and then packed in a larger box. Upon unpacking it all the nail scissors were there - except for the toe-nail clipper, the most expensive of the bunch. (At least we know now that these alien beings not only have a foot fetish, judging from all the socks they steal, but real thick, ugly toenails as well. I'm not sure I want to see them in my shorts after all.)
It wasn't a single box that was missing, but little things from different boxes - a small whisk, a Christian book by Rick Joyner ("The Torch"), a banner proclaiming "Jesus is Lord." Well, He is still Lord, even if it's gone.
The strangest thing though is about what the fifth dimension has been releasing this time around. You'll never guess it, but box after box contained socks, until I filled three drawers with them where I had had only one. I am convinced I have more socks now than ever! I guess it's time for laundry!
Now there are more things than socks that mysteriously disappear. You've probably experienced it yourself - no matter how hard you look or how irrational it seems, the thing simply has vanished.
That's where the fifth dimension comes in. I have this hypothesis that there is this fifth dimensions full of strange beings. Every once in a while the fifth dimension opens up and breaks into our space-time continuum and grabs something silly like a sock, a key, or a book. Reversely, but much less often, every once in a great while it opens up and drops the item back into your realm, just when you despaired of ever seeing it again. (Now my more spiritual friends would probably say it's the second heavens, not the fifth dimenension - let the reader understand - but what demons would do with all those socks is beyond me.)
Never does this fifth dimension have a greater field day than when you move. In a previous move I lost a perfectly good pair of shorts and a lovely T-shirt, though the shirt reappeared after three years (just to confuse me, as I said). This time it's more random. There is the mystery of the vanished toe-nail clipper. Never mind that we keep all our nail scissors and clippers in a special box, which was tightly wrapped with rubber bands and then packed in a larger box. Upon unpacking it all the nail scissors were there - except for the toe-nail clipper, the most expensive of the bunch. (At least we know now that these alien beings not only have a foot fetish, judging from all the socks they steal, but real thick, ugly toenails as well. I'm not sure I want to see them in my shorts after all.)
It wasn't a single box that was missing, but little things from different boxes - a small whisk, a Christian book by Rick Joyner ("The Torch"), a banner proclaiming "Jesus is Lord." Well, He is still Lord, even if it's gone.
The strangest thing though is about what the fifth dimension has been releasing this time around. You'll never guess it, but box after box contained socks, until I filled three drawers with them where I had had only one. I am convinced I have more socks now than ever! I guess it's time for laundry!
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Finally - a word from North Carolina!
My apologies to all who may have been wondering what happened to me since I left town at the beginning of July. The main reason you haven't been hearing anything was that I didn't get internet access until yesterday. The local phone company - which shall remain nameless - had lost my order that I had placed three weeks in advance, and so I had to start all over again.
So where to begin? The trip down here was uneventful, except for getting alternatively stuck in traffic and lost on the back roads of Indiana for a whole day. Then we had to camp out in a motel in Hendersonville for almost a week while we were waiting for our furniture to arrive. It came on July 14. Not having any distractions through the computer or TV, we have unpacked everything and are already pretty well settled in, as far as the furniture is concerned. Of course, there are the odd things that seem to be missing - just this morning I'm wondering whether a box of my books has been lost.
Our house is in a gated community where everyone pretty much knows each other, especially right in our neighborhood. There are directories, for example, that list all the residents by street addresses, which is very handy. Most of the people in our neighborhood are retired and older than we are, though there are some young families in rental housing nearby. We all share certain amenities, most notably a heated outdoor swimming pool, clubhouse, and walking trails. It sure is nice to go swimming after a day working on the house - it's like mixing work with vacation. We take out the trash as we drive by a giant dumpster near the exit, and retrieve our mail as we come into the compound - either by car, or else a ten-minute walk from the house. There are social activities, committees, etc. and we are planning to get involved in order to really get to know our neighbors. Altogether, there are about 300 units, so it's pretty sizeable.
Hendersonville is a "little, big city" of 12,000, but with surrounding communities the county has about 100,000 people. We are living close to the interstate and the "strip" with grocery stores, restaurants, Walmart, Lowes and Homedepot, etc. A five minute drive to the other side, and we are in the next little town, where a Mexican family runs a large fruit and vegetable stand open 7 days a week. Our favorite place to shop for fresh produce at bargain prices.
One thing is the traffic, which I find a bit intimidating. People drive faster, more aggressively. Speed limits are higher, too. No wonder that insurance rates for the same coverage are about 50% higher! Next week we are planning to apply for our NC drivers licences, for which we have to pass a test and provide about 5 forms of IDs - I'm not kidding!
The weather has been nice ever since we moved in - at first it was rainy, but now the sun is shining almost every day and the humidity tends to be low. This makes it seem more like a vacation spot. It's kind of a weird feeling, moving to a place where people go to vacation and planning on staying - and working - here. I'll get used to it, I'm sure.
Dwight and I have been going to church twice - first to First Baptist, which is "the" church (membership 1200), then to Family Christian Center, a Pentecostal Holiness Church. I/we are going to try another one this Sunday. There are tons of Baptist churches, but very few charismatic churches - most seem to bristle when I ask them whether they are charismatic.
Well, that's all for now.
So where to begin? The trip down here was uneventful, except for getting alternatively stuck in traffic and lost on the back roads of Indiana for a whole day. Then we had to camp out in a motel in Hendersonville for almost a week while we were waiting for our furniture to arrive. It came on July 14. Not having any distractions through the computer or TV, we have unpacked everything and are already pretty well settled in, as far as the furniture is concerned. Of course, there are the odd things that seem to be missing - just this morning I'm wondering whether a box of my books has been lost.
Our house is in a gated community where everyone pretty much knows each other, especially right in our neighborhood. There are directories, for example, that list all the residents by street addresses, which is very handy. Most of the people in our neighborhood are retired and older than we are, though there are some young families in rental housing nearby. We all share certain amenities, most notably a heated outdoor swimming pool, clubhouse, and walking trails. It sure is nice to go swimming after a day working on the house - it's like mixing work with vacation. We take out the trash as we drive by a giant dumpster near the exit, and retrieve our mail as we come into the compound - either by car, or else a ten-minute walk from the house. There are social activities, committees, etc. and we are planning to get involved in order to really get to know our neighbors. Altogether, there are about 300 units, so it's pretty sizeable.
Hendersonville is a "little, big city" of 12,000, but with surrounding communities the county has about 100,000 people. We are living close to the interstate and the "strip" with grocery stores, restaurants, Walmart, Lowes and Homedepot, etc. A five minute drive to the other side, and we are in the next little town, where a Mexican family runs a large fruit and vegetable stand open 7 days a week. Our favorite place to shop for fresh produce at bargain prices.
One thing is the traffic, which I find a bit intimidating. People drive faster, more aggressively. Speed limits are higher, too. No wonder that insurance rates for the same coverage are about 50% higher! Next week we are planning to apply for our NC drivers licences, for which we have to pass a test and provide about 5 forms of IDs - I'm not kidding!
The weather has been nice ever since we moved in - at first it was rainy, but now the sun is shining almost every day and the humidity tends to be low. This makes it seem more like a vacation spot. It's kind of a weird feeling, moving to a place where people go to vacation and planning on staying - and working - here. I'll get used to it, I'm sure.
Dwight and I have been going to church twice - first to First Baptist, which is "the" church (membership 1200), then to Family Christian Center, a Pentecostal Holiness Church. I/we are going to try another one this Sunday. There are tons of Baptist churches, but very few charismatic churches - most seem to bristle when I ask them whether they are charismatic.
Well, that's all for now.
Friday, July 3, 2009
It's (almost) time!
The moving date has been moved ahead to Sunday, much to my dismay. I don't like missing church - I believe Sunday is the day of the Lord, and a day of rest. But in the moving business they are working seven days a week, especially in the summer, I guess.
Packing-wise we are doing o.k.. Since I surrendered everything into the hand of the Lord, this may well be His design . Perhaps He knows better than I that saying good-bye after 19 years in the congregation would have been really hard. When I joined that church, I said to the Lord that I wanted to put down roots and not move until He clearly moved me out of it. Now He has done it, and it's a Sunday earlier than I thought, and I'm quietly slipping out, having said all my good-byes earlier.
Still, it's hard - especially not knowing what's waiting at the other end, church-wise. I wonder whether this is what Abraham felt like when he left Ur to go to the land the Lord was going to show him?
Packing-wise we are doing o.k.. Since I surrendered everything into the hand of the Lord, this may well be His design . Perhaps He knows better than I that saying good-bye after 19 years in the congregation would have been really hard. When I joined that church, I said to the Lord that I wanted to put down roots and not move until He clearly moved me out of it. Now He has done it, and it's a Sunday earlier than I thought, and I'm quietly slipping out, having said all my good-byes earlier.
Still, it's hard - especially not knowing what's waiting at the other end, church-wise. I wonder whether this is what Abraham felt like when he left Ur to go to the land the Lord was going to show him?
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Countdown to moving
The countdown is on - 4 days until the movers come, 5 days until we pull out of here. We got a call today from our moving coordinator down in Asheville, a sweet lady named Patricia, reminding us that we are scheduled to move next week. As if we could forget!
The TV is being dismantled, the guy from the satellite company is coming tomorrow to take the dish off the roof. How will we survive without TV? Next will be the computer and access to the Internet, though we are taking a laptop. Our only connection to the news will be the radio, just like in the good/bad old days...
We were already told that the earliest the furniture will arrive is the 11th, which is the date I prayed for 2 months ago. We shall see. We assembled quite a list of chores we can take care of while waiting, from starting to study for our driver's licence test to getting insurance on our new place to buying cleaning supplies and food for our home, since we're leaving all this behind.
Countdown - 4 days to go!
The TV is being dismantled, the guy from the satellite company is coming tomorrow to take the dish off the roof. How will we survive without TV? Next will be the computer and access to the Internet, though we are taking a laptop. Our only connection to the news will be the radio, just like in the good/bad old days...
We were already told that the earliest the furniture will arrive is the 11th, which is the date I prayed for 2 months ago. We shall see. We assembled quite a list of chores we can take care of while waiting, from starting to study for our driver's licence test to getting insurance on our new place to buying cleaning supplies and food for our home, since we're leaving all this behind.
Countdown - 4 days to go!
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