Good-bye, wonderful house!
Three weeks have passed since our last entry and so much has happened! We are now in Virginia at the training center and will be here until December 14. Let me regress and share with you a little (ok, a lot) about what we have gone through recently to get to this point. We were able to build two crates (about 4 ft. wide by 7 ft. tall by 7 ft. long each) for a total of approximately 400 cubic feet to hold all of our worldly belongings that we wanted to ship to Budapest. Since we can purchase just about anything there, we chose to send things that were sentimental to us (such as things our kids made) or special pieces of furniture (antique radio cabinet that Cile's parents used when they were first married), in addition to our dishes and other kitchen items, linens, some tools and various decorative items.
Darden and Glenn put the crates together.
We had lots of wonderful help during the weeks leading up to packing the crate and even the days after crating! Long-time friends from Calhoun helped us with our mailing list and a general punch list of things that needed to be done around the house. For two weeks, friends from West Cobb Baptist Church and North Cobb Christian School came to help sort items to be sold at our huge garage sale, paint rooms, deliever furniture we sold, repair steps, haul loads to the dump, clean the house and help with packing boxes and the crates. We thank everyone of them for their immeasurable help and pray that one day God will allow us the blessing of returning the favor to them! They were such a tremendous help!
Becky Borders stuffing the radio cabinet.
Chris Borders has the joy of packing our crates!
Our son, Chris and his wife, Kate came down to help us actually load the crates. Chris has learned from the Master Crater, Glenn, through the years and did such a good job that Cile did not feel the need to supervise. (If you know Cile and her pickiness, you know he must have done a great job!) Kate held Cile's hand and kept her focused on doing other things while Glenn, Chris and Bobby Rader actually loaded things into the crates. Because we were shipping by cubic footage rather than weight, the more we could stuff in tiny spaces, the more we could ship!
Not a bit of air space was left!
The Master Forklifter, Buddy McLaughlin
Friend Robin Sosebee got us a forklift for FREE and the man that delivered it cut his delivery fee in half when he found out we were going as missionaries! God is good! Then another friend said he knew how to operate a forklift and came to lift the two crates into the truck for us. God is great! (The rental place had told us that operating a forklift was like driving a tractor. Boy, did he oversimplify things!) Buddy had to take someone else's crate out of this big truck and then put our two crates in, then put the other crate back in because it needed to be delivered at the next stop.
After the crates were on their way, we had a massive garage sale to sell off all our belongings that were not shipped in the crates. It was a very emotional time as we sold or gave away things that had memories attached to them. We could not have gone through this without the support and help of our wonderful Christian friends. They kept us focused, fed us, and lent more hands that we could keep busy!
After the garage sale we finished some painting projects and cleaned the house in anticipation of it being sold. If you know of someone who is looking for a house that is great for parties or fellowships that has been given to God for His use, send them to Cile's Dad who is showing it for us until December!
We loaded up and pulled out of Marietta on Wednesday afternoon and headed to Maryville, Tennessee where we spent a few days with Chris and Kate.
Glenn worked so hard (!) while Cile packed that he needed a break in the mountains of east Tennessee.
When Glenn wasn't sleeping, he was watching TV. Yea, right!
Cile and Chris working on a Sodoku (sp?) puzzle.
Kate and the caulking gun.
While in Tennessee, we spent a day helping Chris and Kate with some projects around their house. Kate and Cile painted doors and Glenn and Chris worked in the basement replacing a water heater and "organizing" Chris's tools. We had a great time with them and hated to leave!
Beautiful scenery on our way to Virginia!
Shenandoah Valley
If we don't retire to the east Tennessee mountains, it just might be to Shenandoah Valley! The leaves were gorgeous!
We arrived at the training center on Monday, Oct. 23, and are now settled in. I will tell you more soon about our living arrangements, schedules and what we're learning, but one surprise that can't wait is that we ran into Chris's teacher when he was a year and 9 months old and we were here the first time before going to the Ivory Coast. Her name is Cyndi Wyatt, but we called her Cinderella! She remembered Chris because he was so special to her!!
Cinderella Wyatt
We promise to write soon. We covet your prayers harder than we've ever coveted them.
