Saturday, January 24, 2009

Rollin’ in to Sac-town

There is an old saying:

You never know what you have until it is gone.


I suggest an alternative to this sagely piece of wisdom:

You never know what you have until you move.


It was simultaneously daunting and humbling to pack up for our move to Sacramento. The sheer volume of physical blessings the Lord has lavished on us is amazing – especially when you are carefully wrapping each piece and trying to fit it into a box. The whole affair took about a week of pecking away at things here and there, with a final serious push of about two days. We were served so richly by several people from our Bible study, including Mike “the Tetris master” Cowhick, without whose expert truck-packing-prowess we wouldn’t have been able to fit everything.


We were also completely shocked when a good friend from Sacramento, Andrei, showed up on our doorstep to help us move. He had started driving down at 3am to help us load the truck, and didn’t get back home until 3am the following morning – only to come back and help us unload the truck! As we move from one family of believers to another, we cannot help but be overwhelmed by the love being expressed from both.


DSCF0324Beautiful, isn’t it? I felt like a real trucker cruising up I-5 in this 17’ box truck with our car in tow. I particularly felt like a trucker, however, while refueling it! Praise the Lord for the recent drop in gas prices, or else we would have bankrupted ourselves on the journey up.


DSCF0325Once we arrived, I took it upon myself to lift the car off the dolly as you can see in the picture. I kept thinking there must be an easier way to get the car back on the ground, but such is life. Izumi kept trying to say something about extending the ramps and backing the car down, but I couldn’t understand her – guys are much better at this sort of thing anyway.


DSCF0323To properly christen our new home I decided to lose something special the night we moved in. Since I was feeling particularly inspired – I chose to lose the house key. Being that we were given no spare key, and that the property management company had no spare either, our door was necessarily left unlocked for the first few days.


I mentioned this fact to a few friends at church on Sunday. When we returned home later that afternoon, we were greatly surprised to find that someone had illegally entered our apartment and…left a humongous pile of Macaroni and Cheese (the pinnacle of culinary evolution) on our counter. It was one of those defining experiences in life. My heart still warms every time I think of it. Needless to say, we are already feeling at home here and rejoice in God’s goodness to us.


P.S. I have since purchased and installed a formidable deadbolt – so don’t get any ideas…

Walking in a winter wonderland...

After much silence, it is time to begin updating this blog again. With seminary now behind me, I would like to use this blog to keep friends and family updated on what the Lord is doing in and through us as we begin this new adventure of ministry.

First, however, a brief update about the Christmas season. After languishing under the eternal blue skies and balmy temperatures of the Los Angeles area, it was a refreshing change to visit Marysville, Washington again for Christmas. More snow fell this year than has fallen since 1861!

Izumi and I greatly enjoyed relaxing (recuperating...) after a long home stretch finishing seminary, and enjoyed being with family again.