A Season of Change...

If you haven't heard yet....
Were Moving! Yep, that's right...moving. Through a sequence of events in our ministry, the Lord has led us to a new city. Our friends Dave and Carrie Russell have been praying about launching a region in Washington DC for years now. As of this summer, the prayers began to take shape! In May, Dave, Carrie, and their 3 little ones will be moving to Washington DC to begin building laborers in our nations capital!

So...what does this have to do with us? Well, we will be taking Dave and Carrie's place as the area directors over Elon University, UNC-Greensboro, and Wingate! Though our excitement to move to the Triad region (Greensboro!) is great...we are beginning to feel the loss of many things the Lord has uniquely blessed us with in this season. We love living in Wingate. Our days are spent walking around campus mingling with students and often, having them over to our house (which is in walking distance). Clint is the chaplain of the Wingate football team, I am helping coach the cheerleaders for the 3rd year. Many of our students have become family to us. This is where we started our life together as a married couple. Our first home is here, our first baby was born here. Memories in this sleepy little town abound for us. We will deeply miss this place. This will be a season that we will look back on our whole lives. I am sure of this.

To ease our pain...there are a few things we WILL NOT miss about Wingate....

1) The Chicken Plant- There are days where the stench of the Tyson plant (which is actually in MONROE) is unbearable. In pregnancy, you have a heightened sense of smell. The summer heat coupled with this reality kept me inside, not even daring to check the mail some days in the summer of 08! This smell is not constant (praise the Lord), or predictable. There are just some days were exercise outside isn't an option if you'd like to not throw up.

2) Highway 74- If you live in Wingate, you are giving me AMEN's. There is one way in and out of Wingate. Highway 74. We hate 74. Though we are thankful to have a road to get in and out of here...we wish there was at least one detour to take. But there isn't. There is always traffic on 74. There is the morning commute traffic, lunch rush traffic, 3-6 o'clock traffic.... If you want to miss the traffic, you must travel at 3 am. We've done it. We will NOT miss 74.

3) Random power outages- A few weeks ago, we had a play-date with our friends Kelly and Luke. For such an occasion, I splurged and bought pork ribs to cook in our crockpot. At 3:30, I put them in to simmer for hours...at 4:00, the power went out. It stayed out until 9:30 that night. The ribs were ruined and so we walked to McDonalds...where the power was also out. This is not unusual. Within the past week we have had more than 10 outages! Most of them in the same day. It is a mystery why this happens. But we certainly will not miss it.

4) Water Quality- On more than one occasion, people have defined our water's smell as "like dirt". Nice. This is especially true after it rains. We get an annual water quality report which, in a nice way, states that our water is not entirely safe to drink. We have a water filter and apologize to guests that have to brush their teeth with water that smells like mud.

5) Fire Ants- Union County is known to have especially bad fire ants. When they bite, they HURT, a lot! We have found them in Eden's bed this week...and it makes me want to set fire to every ant hill I see. We have to be very careful when we play in the yard...only on blankets. They frequently take over the entire town...and get worse when it rains. We will NOT miss them.

Though these few things drive us crazy from time to time, we will still deeply miss the people, the campus and the memories we have made here! We love you dear, tiny, sleepy little Wingate!