reede, august 13, 2004
Moving
It's hard to believe it, but we will be moving already! Not out of Tartu (never!) but from our apartment into a house. It all happened rather suddenly, so let me give you the rundown.
Before we moved here, we had heard that there was a house available from a Christian couple who will be teaching in Prague, Czech Republic, for two years. Things didn't work out at the time and our regional commanders found us the apartment, and we were absolutely happy with the arrangements. Then a few days ago we were contacted by the couple who owns the house, saying that they were leaving the country on Monday, and would we be interested in renting the house. We didn't know what to think, but went to see the house. They feel strongly that they would like a Christian family living in the house and would want the house used for ministry. It is a two-bedroom, three-level house which includes an office space with a separate entrance, and a large living-room type area that can seat 15-20 people and has a piano. An office and a meeting room meet two of our short-term needs, and are things we would have had to rent anyway.
Although it sounded too good to be true, we were still unsure if this was the best thing to do. We met with our regional commander about it and his enthusiastic response was, "This is an answer to prayer!" He felt that we can make it work with the budget and it meets many needs that will be beneficial to the Army. We still need to meet with him and the Chief Secretary of Finland & Estonia (his boss) to finalize the arrangements, but the move is 99% sure at this point. It has happened so quickly we have barely had time to catch our breath.
We considered it a privilege to live in the Soviet-style apartment we have now, but realize this Estonian-style house really will make it better for us to do our work. Besides the office and meeting room (which will be great as we start the corps), the house has a roomy kitchen with a dishwasher and normal-size refrigerator (we feel so spoiled), a family room, the two bedrooms, a barn-like garage and shed that will be perfect for storing humanitarian aid for the corps, and a huge yard with a swing set, treehouse, sandbox and childrens' playhouse, along with apple trees and berry bushes. It even has the standard requirement for any Estonian house: a sauna! I'm still adjusting to that idea.
We had just really settled into the apartment, and even unpacked most of the boxes from our shipment, so it will be a bit of uprooting and resettling for the moment. But overall this will be best for our family (just imagine Elizabeth in that big yard) and for our outreach in Tartu.
We won't start moving in until the end of next week because we will be at an Army youth camp all next week. Please keep us in your prayers as we start the process of settling all over again, and also that it will not distract us from the work we were sent here to do.
Because we are going to be at the youth camp and leave for Narva tomorrow, we don't know if we will have access to the Internet. So if we don't post to the blog for a few days, please don't give up on us! We'll post again as soon as we can.
--Tim
Before we moved here, we had heard that there was a house available from a Christian couple who will be teaching in Prague, Czech Republic, for two years. Things didn't work out at the time and our regional commanders found us the apartment, and we were absolutely happy with the arrangements. Then a few days ago we were contacted by the couple who owns the house, saying that they were leaving the country on Monday, and would we be interested in renting the house. We didn't know what to think, but went to see the house. They feel strongly that they would like a Christian family living in the house and would want the house used for ministry. It is a two-bedroom, three-level house which includes an office space with a separate entrance, and a large living-room type area that can seat 15-20 people and has a piano. An office and a meeting room meet two of our short-term needs, and are things we would have had to rent anyway.
Although it sounded too good to be true, we were still unsure if this was the best thing to do. We met with our regional commander about it and his enthusiastic response was, "This is an answer to prayer!" He felt that we can make it work with the budget and it meets many needs that will be beneficial to the Army. We still need to meet with him and the Chief Secretary of Finland & Estonia (his boss) to finalize the arrangements, but the move is 99% sure at this point. It has happened so quickly we have barely had time to catch our breath.
We considered it a privilege to live in the Soviet-style apartment we have now, but realize this Estonian-style house really will make it better for us to do our work. Besides the office and meeting room (which will be great as we start the corps), the house has a roomy kitchen with a dishwasher and normal-size refrigerator (we feel so spoiled), a family room, the two bedrooms, a barn-like garage and shed that will be perfect for storing humanitarian aid for the corps, and a huge yard with a swing set, treehouse, sandbox and childrens' playhouse, along with apple trees and berry bushes. It even has the standard requirement for any Estonian house: a sauna! I'm still adjusting to that idea.
We had just really settled into the apartment, and even unpacked most of the boxes from our shipment, so it will be a bit of uprooting and resettling for the moment. But overall this will be best for our family (just imagine Elizabeth in that big yard) and for our outreach in Tartu.
We won't start moving in until the end of next week because we will be at an Army youth camp all next week. Please keep us in your prayers as we start the process of settling all over again, and also that it will not distract us from the work we were sent here to do.
Because we are going to be at the youth camp and leave for Narva tomorrow, we don't know if we will have access to the Internet. So if we don't post to the blog for a few days, please don't give up on us! We'll post again as soon as we can.
--Tim
