The Sound of Silence

I KNOW - I've been silent for way too long.

I didn't intend for it to be this way.

I just lost interest.

Not in you, my faithful readers but rather in trying to answer questions

that I really haven't had an answer to.

I still don't know all of the answer to all of the questions

but I will tell you what I know (however uncertain it may be!)

We are in Tennessee right now,

about one and a half miles from Kellie and Jasons' house,

in our very own house.

That's right - we bought a house.

NO, we weren't looking to buy one.

It hadn't even crossed our minds.

We were walking one morning when we came across this house

with a small for sale by owner sign.

It was a sad, empty, worst house in the neighborhood kind of house.

I LOVE THAT KIND OF HOUSE!

After about two weeks of talking and praying

we decided to go and look at it.

We saw possibilities.

We waited. And prayed.

Two weeks later we went to see it again

and took along a friend that is familiar with the housing market here.

We made an offer - it was accepted.

A week later we owned a house.

We left for Oregon (for a month) 3 days later still in shock!

Had we really bought a house? And what was God doing?

Where were our plans for Brazil in all of this?

We have had much confirmation that we have heard God in this and yet,

once again,

we are waiting to see all that He has in His heart for this house.

Will we live in it part time or rent it out? We don't know.

It needs cleaning up, painting, updating, etc. but it is livable.

(We are living here and so enjoying it for the time being!)

At this point we are planning on going back to Brazil next month sometime.

We are still on our tourist visa (the last year until it expires) and will use that once again.

We can be there for 6 months during the year.

We then plan to come back here and apply for a new visa -

which one we do not know yet.

We do not feel that God has given us any direction regarding that.

We do know that having moved to Tennessee we are now 2 hours

from the Brazilian Consulate in Atlanta (which was just opened within the last year!)

and we have cut out 1 day of travel between here and Brazil (counting airports and layovers).

We are so enjoying our fellowship here with Calvary Cleveland and, of course,

we love living close to Jason and Kellie.

We do miss the rest of our family in Oregon,

our good friends and our church body there.

We plan to still call Calvary Corvallis our home church.

They are, after all, our sending church.

We find in scripture that God's ways are not our ways.

We do not always understand what we feel He is directing us to do

but we know that we have always found Him faithfully looking out for our spiritual best.

So, once again, you find us waiting.

And, though it is unsettling at times, it is a very good place to be.

And YES, we still feel called to Brazil.