Smoker's Come to Town

Grandma and Grandpa Smoker from Wayne, PA came for a short visit this week. The four of us went out to dinner at Olive Garden on Tuesday night (I am currently hooked on their bread dipping sauce). Then the next day we showed them the church where Paul works and where we attend and they were greeted by the entire staff. They got the grand tour of Paul's office and the sanctuary. Then we took them to downtown Greenville. They were amazed at how beautiful the down town area was. It was a beautiful warm day and there was even lots of flowers in bloom (I still can't believe that its February!). We had a great time of fellowship with them and we love them so much! What a blessing it is to have Grandparents.

Growing Up

Sonja and I have really been enjoying our new house immensely. And its provided some incredible opportunities for fellowship and reaching out. We've both been thinking a lot about our need to be speaking about Jesus and the gospel with people around us, both to believers in fellowship and to lost people in love. God is good, and he's been answering our prayers.

Sunday night after church, we had to make a quick run by the grocery store for some essentials, and two Mormon elders approached us about coming to talk with us about the new "prophet", Joseph Smith, and his teachings. Sonja and I kinda smiled at each other, and quickly set up a time (Tuesday at 6:30) for them to come and talk with us about their prophet.

Since then, we've been excitedly (but a little nervously) awaiting the opportunity to sit down and discuss with them the teachings of their prophet and the teachings of our prophet, Jesus. God, however, had other plans.

Monday, Sonja and I had set up a burn pile in the back yard (who knew owning a house came with added benefits like an endless supply of leaves?), which we thoroughly enjoyed feeding our endless supply of leaves. Tuesday, at lunch, I came home to reignite the leafpile so Sonja could free our barren backyard from its enslavement to decaying, grass-killing leaves. After reigniting the leaves, the job of feeding the pile was quickly taken over by our neighbor and co-churchmember, Travis Simpson (otherwise known as "the verizon guy"). Travis and Jennifer Simpson, who live 4 doors down from us, are awesome, and have reached out to us and served us in many ways. Travis tended to the leaf pile for the rest of the afternoon while I was working and Sonja and I were running errands.

When we returned, we found a well stoked fire, as well as Travis and a random guy named Derek, warming themselves by the fire, discussing life, Scripture, and the difference between those who just think and those who act.

Travis had to go back home, but he introduced us to Derek, who he had just met, and Sonja and I jumped into fire tending and conversation and soon got to know Derek, who "randomly" happened to be going through our neighborhood selling magazine subscriptions. When he saw our fire, he was cold (yes, with wind, it is quite cold here), so he decided to warm up by the fire.

In God's providence, we got to hang out with Derek all evening, pray for him, play Halo 3 with him, feed him dinner, and ask him all kinds of questions about his soul. We got to talk about the fact that despite his half-hearted plea's of agnosticism, he truly does have an undeniable sense of God's existence and claim on him (yeah for Calvin's Institutes and all the people in the Institutes' discussion group- God used you to prep us for hanging with Derek), as well as about his life and his story (yeah Ryan Donnell, you prepped me for this with the Men's breakfast discussion). Though we said goodbye to Derek last night, we were able offer him real friendship backed up with tangeable love in the form of a solid meal, concerns about his future in this world and the next, and give him a bible and our contact information. The Mormons never showed up, (surprisingly), but God instead reserved our evening to have great conversation with Derek and to grow us in learning to talk with people about his Son and his plan to reconcile the world to himself.

God is good, and as you think of it, thank God for his sovereignty in random leaf piles, fires, neighbors, and magazine sales, and pray for Derek, that God would use his word and our conversation to bring transformation and resurrection to this man whom God loves. Pray also for us, that we would grow in boldness and pursuation. We are both weak here, but we desperatly need to grow.

Closer to Finally

Well, Sonja and I got news this past Tuesday that the arbitrator decided the lawsuit in our favor! So, what that means for us is that we don't have to buy a second house (which we would have had trouble paying for), that we get our $1000 deposit from the house back (yahoo!), and that we finally get a bill for our lawyer fees (doh!).

All in all, its very good news, and once again we are learning to trust God for his future provision.

Finally. But not that finally of a Finally.

Finally. After what seems like an eternity (though in reality only about 3.5 months) Sonja and I moved into our house in Ashley Oaks. It is beautiful. Sonja has done a fantastic job of picking out paints, hardwood floors and carpets, as well as light fixtures, sinks, door handles and about a million other decisions requiring someone with both a tasteful classic vision and a grasp of tight budgeting. She’s done both very well.

Glen and Helen Sarratt have spent every spare moment working with us (or without us) for the last two weeks, helping us install toilets, dryer vents, tile our laundry room, and along with the rest of the church family here in Greenville who have served in the last 4 months of cleaning, renovation, and encouragement, teaching Sonja and I the meaning of love, perseverance, and the concrete nature of a servant’s heart. We have both caught a vision for love that is expressed in action.

This past thursday, following a Saturday workday at our house where 20+ people from church came to get our house into a “move-in-able” condition, Sonja and I stayed our first night in our newly renovated (but incomplete) house! It is wonderful. It is beautiful. It is home. It is a mess!

We’ll put up some more pictures soon, as its worth seeing.

Another Finally, though one not so happy: our joy at moving into our house was tamed by our arbitration hearing, which finally happened yesterday. It went Ok, but we won’t get a ruling until the first full week in January. It was one of the longest days of my life. We spent 9 hours in a room with an arbitrator, a lawyer for us, a lawyer against us, and multiple witnesses on both sides who testified about all sorts of things.

It was very frustrating. We felt like it didn’t go as bad as it could have gone, but it also didn’t go as good as we had hope it would go. God was good though, I can honestly say we didn’t lie. And we didn’t conveniently “forget” many things like the other side did. So please keep us in your prayers. The arbitrator, who i am convinced will rule honestly, has a lot on his plate, and a lot that he must consider in order determine as to who is legally correct.

All in all, the moral of the story though is this:

1) Don't believe anything anyone tells you verbally. Get it all in writing. Clear writing. Don't just modify the contract in your own words with the basic but clear meaning you intend. Have a lawyer write it, because otherwise they can dispute basic meaning of words like "all acceptable inspections".
2) "I don't remember" is a very convenient line when you are on the witness stand. Keystone's agent said it over and over with regards to any verbal promises they made us about the condition of the house.  Remember, "I don't remember" is always the right thing to say. Remember, you don't remember.
3) Don't sign anything a lawyer hasn't gone over. A licensed real estate agent isn't enough. Get a lawyer every time. Despite the fact that both you and your real estate agent (who was wonderful, thank you Pat!) are clear about what something means, you're clearly wrong. You don't understand. Only a lawyer does. So don't sign anything. 

4) Just don't sign anything. Ever. No, not even then. Just don't. You really don't know what your are signing.
5) (and this one is serious) We are not in control. Things happen, over which we have no control. God teaches us stuff we couldn’t learn in any other way. Knowing and believing that he loves us, that his purposes are higher than our present happiness is true theology which is far easier to mentally agree with than it is to believe in your heart. Regardless of whether you believe it though, it is true. 

Though going through this legal proceeding was a big Finally, we still await the Finally of the arbiter’s judgment which will tell us whether we owe a lot of money, whether we are going to be purchasing a second house :), or whether we will be free of any further obligations to the court.  What incredible power. 

Its reminded me that we all live awaiting a Final judgment when like us in that court case, we will all be called to account for what we’ve done, said, and even the attitude in which we did these things. It was a sobering and scary thing to have to swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God. If it was scary to do it here where the final judgment only concerns a monetary amount (though large by our standards), how much more frightening will the day of judgment be, when we will stand before God and his Judge, Jesus Christ, as to how we have made use of our time, resources, thoughts, words, actions, even our feelings.

You can’t help but plead for mercy.
Please pray for us. Also please pray for the lady who was the primary Keystone representative (who was suing us). Despite the fact that she was out to get us, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for her, as she has three young children, she was recently divorced, and i wouldn’t trade my life for hers (even if we get nailed with a judgment which drives us to bankruptcy) for anything in the whole world. Sonja and i have been so blessed. We love each other. We have been saved by grace. We are being transformed. And we are promised that we will be brought safely into Christ’s kingdom.

Anyway, its been emotionally draining, so i don’t really want to write any more now. We’ll put up more in a few days along with some pics of the newly inhabited house. Praise God for bringing us this far. 

Our Floors Are Lookin Good

It's Amazing What Paint Can Do

It has been a busy and exciting couple of days. For weeks I have been looking at paint swatches and going to fabric stores and tearing out pages in magazines trying to figure out what my style is and what colors I wanted to paint my walls. This is my first house so I had never done anything like this before. Paul would say 'no pressure, just pick out colors you like and if we don't like them we can change them later.' But we were hiring people to come and paint all the rooms in the house, so I wanted to make sure I picked good colors out the first time so that I wouldn't have to re-paint the rooms that I just paid people to do. I had decided on most of my colors when Paul called me at 3:30pm on Tuesday and said 'Pedro is coming at 4pm so we can tell him what colors we want in each room. They are starting tomorrow at 8am.' I ran to the store and bought the paint I knew I wanted figuring, at least that will give them a head start. I was thinking it would take a couple of days...but these guys are so fast!

Wednesday morning I went to the house to see if they had started painting and they were still sanding the walls and ceilings. I figured I had at least another day to decide the rest of the paint colors. Two hours later a lady from our church called me. She had helped me pick out colors and had even arranged a visit to her neighbors house to see her paint choices so I could get some ideas. When she called, she said she had stopped by my house to see what they had done and she loved the colors I had picked. I couldn't believe that they had any rooms done in just two hours. I raced over to the house to see and sure enough they were done three rooms already and were asking me where the rest of the paint was for the rest of the rooms. So Paul and I went to Ace Hardware which is right down the road, to buy the rest of the paint. Because of my indecision on paint colors we were there for sometime. I apologized to the guy helping us and somehow we got into a conversation about how he was doing. Turns out his girlfriend had just broken up with him and he was pretty bummed about it. Paul asked him if he had talked to God about it and launched us into this great conversation. He asked us how he could talk to God and how to hear God. I was so excited. Ministry opportunities are everywhere. God used my inability to choose paint colors quickly to build a relationship with the paint guy and now he wants to hang out with us and 'get right with God'. His name is Kenneth and you can pray for him. Paul and I plan to visit him on Saturday at Ace Hardware and get his number so we can hang out.

By the end of Wednesday they had painted the entire house perfectly! It was done so well and I am so excited. They even repainted a room for me after they had completed the whole thing because I hated the color once it was on the wall. Pedro and his crew did a great job and I couldn't be happier.

Today the flooring guy is working on putting the hardwood floors in the upstairs and then next week will do the downstairs. We haven't picked out carpet yet for the bedrooms but we are quickly on our way to being able to move in. It's amazing how quickly it went from being a nasty house to a beautiful house that I am excited to live in. It's amazing what paint can do.

The End is Near!

 After what seems like an eternity (though in reality its only been a little over 2 months), it looks like moving in to our freshly renovated house in Ashley Oaks could be a near reality. Though have been slow to chronicle our progress, we have gotten quite a lot done over the last few weeks. 

 We have finished putting in new sub-flooring throughout the dining room, living room, and den, then removed the particle board from most of upstairs, and finally replaced a few weak spots on the second floor which could have made for a rapid decent through the first floor ceiling. We have removed the fixtures from the downstairs bathroom. We tore out some cabinets in the kitchen. We had recessed lighting installed in the kitchen (as well as two recessed lights in the den for the built-in bookshelves).  Sonja removed all the linoleum from the kitchen (three nasty layers of toilsome labor). Paul removed the appliances (refrigerator, dishwasher, and range) from the kitchen to the garage. Sonja taped all the windows up with plastic in order to prepare for priming the trim. Camille, as well as some other church youth groupers came over and helped do various small but crucial prep items to help us get the house ready for painting. Sonja and I also purchased a washer and dryer in great condition for $225.

  Last week, we had someone sand down all the ceilings, mud and sand all the walls, spray a coat of primer over all the molding, cabinets, and trim, and paint all our newly smoothed ceilings a beautiful coat of white. The house is beginning to look and smell amazing. Its no longer reeks of cat, dog, and smoke, but of paint and drywall dust, which is quite wonderful. Sonja has been working hard, coordinating colors, and trying to decide what fabrics and paint colors will be used to decorate the windows and walls of our home-to-be. 

Today, Sonja worked in nailing down paint colors for all the rooms, and I unloaded 1.5 tons (3000 lbs) of hardwood flooring into our house! Woohoo! Glad that is done. 

If all goes well, in about two weeks, our house will be ready to move in. We are so ready and so excited. Thanks to all who have helped, encouraged, and prayed. The end is near. A new beginning is hopefully right around the corner. We'll have more pictures up soon.