Friday, September 30, 2011
What a week! We THOROUGHLY enjoyed this past (final) Sunday at our church here in Longview, WA. Guests were present from each of the six churches we have pastored! What a day! My hat is off to all the wonderful people of Longview Nazarene. They pulled out all the stops to provide a terrific last Sunday in formal ministry.
Today is Friday. On Wednesday a group of people gathered at our (rental) home to load the 40' container. Son, Josh, and Regan Coordes worked the inside of the container and John Hannah, Mitch Hull, Ron Worthington, Vincente, Charley Parham, Bill Hessler and Nate Grossman worked together to move our household belongings from the garage that faces the alley around to the street at the front of the house. What a great crew and what a successful part of the adventure. Jamie, Dawn, Kari and Colleen were very helpful throughout the process! Thanks, everyone!
We had planned to load the container in the alley, but some low overhead lines prevented this part of our plan. No problem. We used dolley's and moved everything around front. What a great crew!
At the moment we are at the Comfort Inn here in Longview. On Sunday, we will head for Portland to be ready to leave for family reunion in Branson, MO, on Monday. SO looking forward to time with the five Smith kids and their spouses!
Following our time in Missouri and Iowa we return to Longview for a few days before leaving for Costa Rica on October 16th.
Wrapping this up. I do want you all to know that Colleen has been having some heart trouble. Atrial fibrilation. The cardiologist is working from the assumption that medication can solve the problem. So far, the progress has been slow. Your prayers are appreciated. Colleen is wearing a heart monitor until later this afternoon. Hopefully, we will discover solutions, certainly before we leave on the 16th!
That's all for now. Looking forward to posting pics and videos as we go along.
Much Love,
Wes
Friday, September 30, 2011
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Living In The...Last Days! Smiling!
As you can imagine, we are busy! We had lots of stuff packed in boxes and felt good about the packing and about the lists we had made. Costa Rica requires that we give them a manifest, of sorts, so they can tax us on all the goods we bring into the country. A problem we recognized as we began our final week of preparation was that some of the boxes were collapsing from the weight of the other boxes on top of them.
Well, for packing purposes we ran across plastic bins/containers/tubs at Lowes and Home Depot. These containers are larger than most of the boxes we were using. They stack much more efficiently and, we believe, they will be much more stable in making the journey. One other thing...they are much more expensive. We paid around a dollar for most of the boxes. These plastic tubs cost around $14.00 each! Ouch! But, I do believe the investment in quality will help the load arrive more safely and more intact.
We had a wonderful weekend in McMinnville this past weekend. Merlin and Marty Bowman hosted a party for us on Saturday evening. What a wonderful gathering. Merlin has been my fishing buddy for lots of years and the two of them have been great friends and fellow servants of Jesus Christ! The gathering was potluck. What a spread! What a feast! But, the best part was the sharing of friendship and memories. Merlin brought out a couple video recordings of choir concerts. What a kick. One of the videos was from 1989. The other from 1990. Great memories!
Sunday in McMinnville, was their 100th Anniversary as a church. My good friend and college classmate was the keynote speaker. Pastor Jerry Moen also made a wonderful presentation. Though it rained on us, we had a great time.
Will write more later. Need to get the dog to the groomer.
Much Love To You All,
Wes
Well, for packing purposes we ran across plastic bins/containers/tubs at Lowes and Home Depot. These containers are larger than most of the boxes we were using. They stack much more efficiently and, we believe, they will be much more stable in making the journey. One other thing...they are much more expensive. We paid around a dollar for most of the boxes. These plastic tubs cost around $14.00 each! Ouch! But, I do believe the investment in quality will help the load arrive more safely and more intact.
We had a wonderful weekend in McMinnville this past weekend. Merlin and Marty Bowman hosted a party for us on Saturday evening. What a wonderful gathering. Merlin has been my fishing buddy for lots of years and the two of them have been great friends and fellow servants of Jesus Christ! The gathering was potluck. What a spread! What a feast! But, the best part was the sharing of friendship and memories. Merlin brought out a couple video recordings of choir concerts. What a kick. One of the videos was from 1989. The other from 1990. Great memories!
Sunday in McMinnville, was their 100th Anniversary as a church. My good friend and college classmate was the keynote speaker. Pastor Jerry Moen also made a wonderful presentation. Though it rained on us, we had a great time.
Will write more later. Need to get the dog to the groomer.
Much Love To You All,
Wes
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Home Stretch
Okay, my first words on a blog...ever! Here I am at the end of a fabulous adventure and getting ready to start a new one! A funny feeling to be sure! My life has been all about pastoral ministry for the past 41 years or so. What a change!
My last Sunday in formal pastoral ministry will be Sept. 25th, 2011. We have served here in Longview, WA, for the past 6+ years and are wrapping it up. It looks like we will have representatives present from five of the six churches I have pastored. In fact, if things go as I hope, we will have a lady present in this final service who was present in my very first service (as a Sr. Pastor) in Marysville, CA, 1973! Isn't that something!
Following the final service, we will be bringing the moving experience down the home stretch. A forty foot moving container will be delivered to our home on Sept. 28th. I'm told that we have 3 hours to load it! Should be fun, especially for me...had a double hernia surgery on Wednesday, August 24th!
On October 3rd we leave for a family reunion back in Branson, MO. We will enjoy time with them there for a few days and then move that celebration up to Moravia, IA, for a few days and then back to Longview on October 10th. Then, drum roll please, on October 16th we move the show to Costa Rica! Whoever would have thunk it!!!
The transition to CR has been in process for about 18 months. It's too long a story to tell, but Josh ran across some information about CR when he was looking at some time share material. That resulted in a family trip to CR and more specifically to Osa Mountain Village. To make the story a whole lot shorter, we purchased an acre in that village. Then last January Josh and I spent 2 weeks in the area.
Our intent at this point is to develop that acre by building and marketing at least 3 homes while at the same time adventuring and doing whatever I need to do to connect with the Christian community in the area. The Church of the Nazarene currently has no work/church in that area, so you can know that I'm motivated to change that! We'll see what happens.
As a retired guy, with lots of energy, I hope to post lots of information on the web regarding my adventures. A few weeks ago I purchased a Nikon 5100 camera that allows stills, of course, but also up to 20 minutes of video. We'll see what happens!
That's enough for now.
Much Love,
Wes
My last Sunday in formal pastoral ministry will be Sept. 25th, 2011. We have served here in Longview, WA, for the past 6+ years and are wrapping it up. It looks like we will have representatives present from five of the six churches I have pastored. In fact, if things go as I hope, we will have a lady present in this final service who was present in my very first service (as a Sr. Pastor) in Marysville, CA, 1973! Isn't that something!
Following the final service, we will be bringing the moving experience down the home stretch. A forty foot moving container will be delivered to our home on Sept. 28th. I'm told that we have 3 hours to load it! Should be fun, especially for me...had a double hernia surgery on Wednesday, August 24th!
On October 3rd we leave for a family reunion back in Branson, MO. We will enjoy time with them there for a few days and then move that celebration up to Moravia, IA, for a few days and then back to Longview on October 10th. Then, drum roll please, on October 16th we move the show to Costa Rica! Whoever would have thunk it!!!
The transition to CR has been in process for about 18 months. It's too long a story to tell, but Josh ran across some information about CR when he was looking at some time share material. That resulted in a family trip to CR and more specifically to Osa Mountain Village. To make the story a whole lot shorter, we purchased an acre in that village. Then last January Josh and I spent 2 weeks in the area.
Our intent at this point is to develop that acre by building and marketing at least 3 homes while at the same time adventuring and doing whatever I need to do to connect with the Christian community in the area. The Church of the Nazarene currently has no work/church in that area, so you can know that I'm motivated to change that! We'll see what happens.
As a retired guy, with lots of energy, I hope to post lots of information on the web regarding my adventures. A few weeks ago I purchased a Nikon 5100 camera that allows stills, of course, but also up to 20 minutes of video. We'll see what happens!
That's enough for now.
Much Love,
Wes
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