Family Photo

Dear A,

I think you'll recognize most of these people, but there are newbies among us.

My youngest son is Daniel (far left).  He's 21 and about to finish up a business degree at George Fox University.  He's SO athletic, and he has already acquired many of the home repairs skills that I'm able to teach.  He works hard at generating genuine friendships with his peers, both in Bend and away at college.

My daughter and her husband are next.  Anna and David co-operate a theater company that is producing The Lightning Thief as a musical this summer.  Anna (and David, in increasing capacity) is deeply involved with founding/forging a new Anglican church here in Bend, and David is starting to take the wheel for our home repairs business (exciting!).

Michael and his sweetheart, Rowan, are in the middle.  These two are going to be graduating from George Fox this year as well, and are fashioning their life trajectory together.  Michael leads the university Fencing/Swords Club and is likely to continue swordplay as his career in mechanical engineering gets going after graduation.

Janet is taking a school year of leave from High Desert ESD so we can move to Vietnam. We're at the beginning of her summer break, so she's just now unpacking from a busy end-of-year push as speech therapist, and we're looking forward to what the summer holds as we prep for the move.

And I'm on the far right (not so much politically, any more...).  As of the Identity True You Intensive two weeks ago, I'm identifying myself as a "Gentle Barleyloaf" and "Guiding Shepherd."  Guiding Shepherd makes sense without too much explanation, but the Barleyloaf thing we'd have to sit and talk over coffee or a campfire to unpack that one.  Or a zoom call.  Want to?

Affection,

Tim

The Beginning of the Lasts

Dear A,

It's still June, and we don't leave the states for three more months (Mid-Sept), but already I'm in the mode of counting lasts.  "This is the last time I'll buy dishwasher pods at Costco" or "I've already worn this coat for the last time--I can pack it away for 18 months"...

Not very exciting as an update.  Thanks for tuning in and linking with us as Janet and I head ourselves into the move to Vietnam.

~Tim

(PS. The TRUE YOU weekend was a success.  One strategy I really appreciated was that they focused on "unearthing" or "discovering" elements of a person's God-given identity.  There was also time, and lots of it, set aside for tuning in to God's gentle voice to hear who He says I am.  But more than that there was the sense that we are archeologists carefully brushing compacted sand away from precious things buried inside.  It was good, healing, forward-facing.  I'd like to offer a weekend like that sometime, as a facilitator!)

Housing Offer/Discussion/Decision

Dear A,

An exciting offer came out of the blue this week.  A friend of a friend contacted us via Facebook (Facebook is a principal means of communicating) and said (I paraphrase) "Hi Tim and Janet, we heard through the expat grapevine that you're coming September-April to Danang.  Is this true?  Because we have an amazing 4 bedroom house next to the university campus complex south of town, and we're going to be stateside from August to May.  We could rent to you and you could have our house for your time here."

The routes in blue go from Vincom shopping center in the north down the coast to the house that they're offering.  Vincom is a little north of central but it's the vicinity of our old house and near so many things we appreciate about the city, including being close and available to our friends

Those 23 minutes becomes longer on hot days when you need to drive slower (yeah, that's a thing. remind me to tell you about motorbiking at speed in extreme heat) or on rainy nights in the dark.  It's never less than 11 hours of dark per day this close to the equator, so there's a fair amount of nighttime driving.

Anyhow, we asked God for wisdom and we asked 40 or so friends (former students, Danang-locals) for their opinions.  Should we take the great house down south or wait and see if another place opens up for us closer in?

The friends weren't completely unanimous, but there was a clear message: "we'll come spend time at your house no matter where you live, but it would be more convenient if you were closer in ..."  and we felt God's peace to be able to tell the Facebook friends that we wanted to pass on their generous offer.

We have contacted a rentals agency, and they think we can get into an apartment or house that will allow us to be hospitable in the ways we want to be.  It's a bit of a tricky thing, finding that "just right" house in Danang.  Most houses and apartments may be lovely inside but just aren't made to accommodate groups of friends coming for game nights and cooking together and whatnot.

https://houserentaldanang.com/houses/son-tra/  --Not all the ones you see on these sites are actually available.  Some of them are always there as bait to get your inquiry.

We're excited.  Increasingly excited.  It feels lovely to be wanted by our Danang friends.  Looking forward to keeping an extra chair at the table for new friends, too.

Love,

T