What's Another Change?

In this episode of The Vagabond's Venture, we discover that it's not as easy as you might think to blend a family of four (soon to be five) into a big house of one. We tried, and for the purpose of allowing us to get out here to Missouri - it was successful. And we are eternally grateful to our hostess who has been more than generous to us. But we have found that living together can cause some undue stress (for both her and us). So we have decided to eliminate the problem before the situation gets to be a problem.

Today Rose and I applied for a 3 bedroom apartment closer to the seminary. This move will greatly increase our monthly expenses, but I am hopeful that with my interview yesterday that enough work will come in to allow us to meet these expenses. So after all the unpacking of boxes, it is now time again to begin repacking and trying to figure out how we will get the other necessary items currently housed in West Virginia (like our sofa, dining room table, and the kids' beds) out here. This is definitely not the way we drew the plans up while we were still in PA; however, I do not think that our timing was a mistake. The timing of my coming onto the staff of the church here as worship director was perfect. I believe the Lord had a plan for us to get out here, and start working there before we could find a more appropriate and permanent place for us to live. The timing of our move allowed Rose to apply for and get a job. No the mistake was not in the timing - our "mistake" (if you can really call it that) was thinking that we could stay here in The Promised Land for three years.

The apartment complex we are moving to is nice. It has a clubhouse with an indoor and two outdoor pools. It also has a workout facility and a little "cyber cafe". There is a playground on the far side of the complex for the kids to play at. And the location puts us only about 5-7 minutes from the seminary. We've heard good things about the school district as well.

Needless to say, the Vagabond family will covet your prayers ever the more now as we take another step in faith. Rose and I have a peace about this decision and we believe that things will work out as they should. The Venture is not easy, but the final rewards are out of this world!

On a bright note, I've lost over 10 pounds in the 3 weeks we've been out here. Some of the loss is from stress, but most is from the fact that I'm not snacking like I used to, and I'm eating more sensible portions at meal times. I even make use of my weights and bench every now and again. The most important thing is that I feel better with the weight coming off.

Job Interview Today

I had my first "non-church" job interview today with a temp agency. I spent an hour or more taking on-line skills examinations ... everything from typing to data entry to MS Word and Excel. As it turns out I can type 51 words per minute with more than 90% accuracy - they tell me that's very good, at least well above their average. Not surprisingly I did well on the Word and Excel portions of the test. At the end of the interview, I was told that I was definitely "placeable." Once I start a job there, I will be eligible for health benefits, so that's a good thing - not sure what it will cost, but anything they have has to be less than COBRA - we'll have to see if Rose is "cover-able" or not.

Thanks everyone for your prayers and notes of encouragement - they are greatly appreciated. Hopefully today's activities will get the phone ringing!

Genetics

It's interesting to watch genetics at work. For a long time I have noticed that Thomas inherited my sense of competition and the ever burning desire to win at everything. It has sometimes been a challenge, but he is learning how to lose and still be a good sport about it.

But what has really surprised me is how much Jayna is like me. She is not nearly as competitive as Thomas, but she definitely has my knack for memorization. It cracks me up when I'll hear her say something that is completely beyond her years, and when I ask where she heard it - it turns out that she is quoting a movie. It may have been a movie she has seen several times, or only once. She just has the ability to remember what she hears. Today it went one step further. This morning the four of us gathered to play a Winnie the Pooh memory game ... you know where you have a bunch of cards with pictures and you try to find two that match. Let me say at the outset that the version we play has about 80 cards (40 matches), so this is not an easy test of the memory skills. While we were playing Jayna was eating a grilled cheese sandwich, and it appeared that she wasn't paying much attention - even though this was the game she chose. She would often turn over the same card first and then try to find its match. Then all of a sudden in the middle of the game, she started making match after match. She was finding matches that Rose and I could not have made at the time. Rose and I just looked at each other in amazement, we knew she could remember lines from songs, movies and television shows, but now she was really showing an aptitude for visual memory as well.

I can remember as a kid memorizing Bible verses for Sunday School. Each month there would be a different verse or sometime a whole chapter to memorize, and would handle each one without much trouble. I would go to play rehearsals with dad and sit with Lelia Calvario (the prompter) and memorize the entire play just from listening to them rehearse. There was no effort to it at all, it was just something I could do. Now Jayna is doing just as easily. Fascinating!

The Vagabond's Venture

Welcome to The Vagabond's Venture. This will be my attempt to chronicle the Bitler family's journey through our time at Covenant Seminary and possibly beyond. The title is a play on John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress. I just recently began reading that book and so far I highly recommend it.


So far our Venture in Missouri/The Promised Land has lasted two weeks. Here are some random thoughts and observations about our Progress/Venture:

1. Knowing that something is going to be hard and actually experiencing the difficulty are two extremely different things.



2. The armor of God contains no covering for your back ... so turning to run is a foolish idea, but remains a temptation nonetheless.



3. There is simply no substitute for supportive family and friends. All the money in the world could not match their value.



4. My kids are very resilient and adaptive ... much more so than I would have ever been.



5. It's easy to forget the faithfulness of God in the past when facing major stress in the present. I guess that's why Jesus included a section on money and worry in the sermon on the mount!



6. Churches everywhere go through problems.



7. Health insurance (or the lack thereof) can become a major burdern ... especially when you have a baby on the way.


8. I need to start connecting with friends in the St. Louis area ... procrastinating in this area is not good.


9. Past experiences are designed to help you in the future.



10. God is good all the time - even when it doesn't feel like it!

Past Praises:

1. We arrived safely in Missouri ... a special thanks to Bill Pudder for driving the U-Haul for us!
2. Rose was hired part-time to work at Walmart.
3. I was hired by Emmanuel Presbyterian Church to serve as the Worship Director there.
4. We had a great time meeting folks from the neighborhood at a block party last Saturday.

Upcoming events (a.k.a. things that need prayer):

1. I have an interview with a temp agency on Thursday.
2. We need to decide on a health insurance plan.
3. I need to register and pay for my summer classes before June 5.