This last weekend, before Labor Day, we had to move our trailer 25 feet across the church parking lot.  This was not something we were looking forward to doing, but it needed to be done in order to improve our method for emptying our black tank—the sewage.  We needed to get closer to the dump site. 

There is a lot involved in moving our home.  First, we have to pack away everything that might fall and break: pictures off the walls, knick knacks off the shelves.  Also, we have to move things and make the proper furniture arrangements in order to put in our slide outs; we have two slide outs:  one in the living room and one in our bedroom.  The hardest part was probably the fact that we had to vacate the trailer for a couple of hours while it was relocated.  Good thing we have the church nursery right next door.  Judah and I went there and he got in his regular afternoon nap.

As it turned out, our move across the parking lot did not improve our sewage situation.  The problem had more to do with a broken pump rather than an issue of location, although moving closer to the dump site will help us out in the long run.  Since our pump was broken, Andy had to empty the sewage tank the good old fashioned way: buckets!  Can we all say, YUCK!  Poor Andy!  We have ordered another sewage pump and it should get here in another couple of weeks.  Until then, we are trying to use the church’s bathroom as much as we can in order for Andy to avoid having to empty the tank by hand again. 

This last week Andy and I have gotten the chance to join in on some of the activities that the church has going on.  Since we typically only travel on the weekends, we are usually home during the week, thus allowing us to participate more with the church activities.  I had the opportunity to go to a MOPS (Mothers Of Pre-Schoolers) group.  This is a Christian-based group for moms of children who are younger than the second grade.  I decided to go and check it out.  It was tons of fun!  I found myself wishing that I would be in town to participate in the whole year of meetings!  I’ll be able to go to four meetings while I’m here in town. 

Last night Andy and I went to our first small group meeting at a couple’s house from the church.  We were joined by three other couples, and together we all discussed last week’s sermon and some questions that we were given beforehand.  It was a good opportunity for us to get to know other people in the church and discuss how God has used His Word and the pastor’s sermon in our lives.  This group plans to meet for 10 weeks this fall and we will be here for 6 of those meetings.  We are looking forward to this experience.  It’s nice for us to actually be in one place for long enough to participate in groups like these.

God is continuing to bless our efforts out here.  We currently have 76% of our support now.  We have been having really great meetings.  We have 7 more meetings and then we will head home for Iowa.  We have a couple of meetings once we get home and then we will slow down for the holidays.