OFF DAY???

Today was a day when neither Irene nor I had to teach.  But that doesn't mean we had nothing to do.  You see, we leave tomorrow afternoon to drive to George which is about 265 miles away from here (for our international readers that's about 425 kilometers).  The roads outside the big cities in South Africa - even the national highways - are about the equivalent of a 2 lane highway in America.  So, we will start out on a 6 lane divided highway (like a freeway) and in about an hour we will be down to 1 lane in each direction.  It would take about 5-6 hours to get there if we took the most direct road - the "Garden Route."  Tomorrow though we are headed a little different way - through Robertson.  We are going to overnight there and get to George about noon on Friday.  Irene will teach the ladies on Saturday.  Her lessons are "God's Anger Management" and the other is "Strength and Love."  I'll have 2 sessions with the men on:

Topic: Let go of the past 
Phil 3: 10-15 
(2 x 45 minutes – men only)

Past mistakes;
Past pain;
Past failures &
Past disappointments.  While we are focusing on moving beyond the past, it is important to evaluate our past mistakes so that we don’t repeat them again.

Then, on Sunday I've been assigned to preach a lesson on David and Goliath.  I'm not a real fan of "assigned topics" to be honest with you.  But I acquiesce in these type of circumstances because I figure that Rohan Jones is at the congregation monthly and knows what they need better than I.  My struggle is, I don't like allegorizing scripture or drawing parallels which the scriptures don't draw.  I know the Old Testament is written for our learning but I always try to show the NEW Testament verses that teach the principle that I think is being illustrated by the OLD Testament example, not the other way around.

Well, our 3 day streak ended today.  It has rained (often times hard) virtually continually since about noon today.  You see, this is the southern hemisphere so they are going into winter now.  Their May is the equivalent of our November in America.  Of course being right on the coast and at the latitude that Cape Town is at it never "snows" in Cape Town, but it does SLEET from time to time - every decade or so.  People here don't have insulated houses for the most part so the cold and humidity come right into the house.   Here's how Irene and I stay warm in the 1 bedroom "mother-in-law" or "maids" quarters at the Jones' house:

The temperature right now is 59º F (15º C) and it's going down to 54º F (12.2º C) tonight.  So, without this heater that would be the temperature in our room and bungalow.  And the humidity would make it bone-chilling.  BTW - HOW can it be pouring outside and the Relative Humidity only be 82%?  Does that mean there is 18% air between all the rain drops?  Just Wondering!

Irene spent about 7 hours getting one of her lessons ready today.  Since they mainly speak Afrikaans (a variant of Dutch) in George she got her lesson together in English and then went through the lesson and made another one with the verses in Afrikaans - from an online version of the 1983 Afrikaans Bybel.  Rohan is translating her English text that ISN'T scriptures into Afrikaans tonight.

Rohan and I spent about 3 hours today waiting for a computer to come in that I had ordered for the "Know the Truth Radio" program that Rohan is going to begin recording soon in Afrikaans.  For more information on Know the Truth Radio click here.  I had to install Microsoft Office and Kaspersky Internet Security on the system.  Now we have to get a PCIe board for sound.  The board I brought with me is a PCI board, but is not compatible with the PCIe ("e" is for "express) that the mother board has installed on it.  I got done what I could.  Now we have to get the sound board and then get a couple other technical programs installed to interface with the Know the Truth Radio web site to be able to upload in the proper format.  At that point I hand Rohan the keys and it's his and Luis Camacho's problem.

For 3 days in a row now we've had excellent weather and I've gotten to take a walk.  Today I got in a little over 5 miles.  It's been pretty nice.  I got a couple more pictures today.

Tonight I taught at the Athlone Church of Christ.  My Lesson was "Lessons from the Life of Elijah."  Here is the outline:

Elijah – Is only in 8 chapters 1 Kings 17 – 2 Kings 2

            The Nation has divided and gone hard after idols

            Period of Miracles – Establishing the prophetic office as God’s spokesmen

Some lessons we can learn for Elijah's life are.  In each instance I've included New Testament verses which talk about the same principle:

Be bold in the proclamation of the Word of God – 1 Kings 17:1

            Elijah first appears and is introduced as a “Sojourner” – someone passing through – and he boldly approaches the King of Israel, Ahab and tells him “I am going to be controlling the weather!”

            2 Tim 4:2; Eph 6:20

Remember the Lord will provide – 1 Kings 17:2-16

            Elijah goes to the brook Cherith and then to Zarephath at God’s direction where the Lord provides for him

            Matt 6:25-32; Phil 4:10-13

Expect God to Do Great Things – 1 Kings 18:17-40

            Elijah’s challenge to the prophets of Baal

            Eph 3:20-21; 2 Cor 8:1-5

Don’t Let the Circumstances of Life Make You Lose Focus So That You Forget to Trust in God – 1 Kings 19

         He became afraid – 1 Kings 19:3

            He became self-absorbed – 1 Kings 19:4; 10; 14

            Luke 8:13

Remember Your Life Is in God’s Hands to Serve HIS Purpose, as HE Wills It – 2 Kings 1:9-15

            Matt 20:28; Rev 6:9-11

           

Serve God and He WILL Reward You – 2 Kings 2:1-12

            2 Tim 4:6-8

Some South Africa Pics

I thought I'd just post some pictures of South Africa that I've taken since I got here.  The last two days I've taken walks about town.  When I do so I take pictures of flowers for Irene which I usually text to her.  Being in a foreign country the Data Roaming charges are astronomical, so she has to settle for looking at them when I get back from my walk for right now.  I'm virtually certain Irene knows the name to everyone of them.  They aren't trees, so to me they are just pretty.  If you click on the picture it will bring up the original sized picture.

Today Irene and I went to an afternoon tea with Samantha Kriger.  We've known her for thirty years since she was a teenager of *%$((& years old.  Now she's got 2 lovely boys of her own Seth and Noah. The oldest is about to enter Junior High School (the American equivalent).   We went with her to the Rhodes Memorial.  Cecil Rhodes was a British Business man that made his money mining diamonds in South Africa.  Check out his Wikipedia Article HERE

Here's a couple pictures of the view from the memorial

Here's Samantha and Irene:

And Irene and I at the Memorial:

I preached at Eastridge Church of Christ this evening.  The title of the lesson was "God's Solution for Man's Sin"

There's a Reason Why It's Called "Pulling Up Roots"

What's the Difference?:

Moving out of our house in West Lafayette, Indiana in 1995 had been a nightmare.  We had raised our 7 children in it.  So It had a full basement which we had finished to have 3 bedrooms.  So, all together it was an 8 bedroom house.  As an observation on life: Have you ever noticed when children leave home they leave all their stuff behind?  The house was packed to the gills with their stuff plus (how to put this kindly), Irene is a "collector."

**** JOKE 1 ****

What's the difference between an “eccentric person" and a "crazy" person?

THE SIZE OF THEIR BANK ACCOUNT!

**** JOKE 2 ****

What's the difference between a "collector" and a "hoarder"?

SEE THE ANSWER TO JOKE 1

So, Irene and I had moved into this somewhat downsized 3 bedroom home.  I promised her (mainly to “maintain domestic tranquility” is the way James Madison phrased it in the Preamble to the Constitution of the United States of America) that we would never move again. 3824 Pershing Drive, Lafayette, Indiana would be our "Final House" and so we “put down roots” ... again!  Since we didn’t have children living at home with us (initially) the other 2 bedrooms as well as the finished 1/2 basement became areas to “store stuff.”  We had lived in the house for 18 years when we moved into our Trekker in June of 2013.  We had been gone since September, coming back only for Christmas, so there was a L-O-T of stuff that had been “stored.”  We made the decision to go “full-time” in the RV in 2013 and that meant selling the house.  This month of April 2014 was the time we set aside in our schedule to “give it away, throw it away, or carry it away (in the Trekker)."

When we arrived at the house on March 31st, we arranged to have our realtor, Toni Slaughter (through whom we've bought or sold more than 6 houses [mainly rentals] through the years) come to take a look around the house with us to tell us what "upgrades" might be best to make to improve its sale-worthiness and increase its value.

The house looked like a tornado had torn through it.  Before leaving in September we had given away most of our furniture.  The only "problem" with that is it meant that all the clothes that had been in the bureau drawers were taken out and put in piles on the floor.  All the items that had been on desks were put in piles on the floor. 

(One additional problem was that in May of 2013 we were called by our niece that was house sitting for us that there was water coming into the house through a light mounted in then ceiling of the family room. UH OH, this can't be good!  But, we had to wait until we got back home at the end on June after our 2 Sojourns - 1 in Truth or Consequences, NM and the other in Kayenta, AZ on the Navajo Indian Reservation to do anything about it;  That necessitated the roof being replaced; a wall between the master bedroom and family room being torn out;  The ceiling in part of both of those rooms being torn out;  AND (at absolutely NO ADDITIONAL EXPENSE TO US - to destroy them) it had soaked the ceiling in one of the rooms in the basement and about 1 foot up on the drywall in 3 rooms in the basement.  All of that had been torn out and replaced ALONG WITH the carpet in the family room and master bedroom and new drywall was installed and taped and finished out AFTER it was all "Mold Mitigated" to assure there were no future problems.)

So, as I was saying - House - TORNADO - PILES OF STUFF E-V-E-R-Y-W-H-E-R-E - and we have 1 month to get it all packed up; thrown away; given away or put in the Trekker.  We would begin on April 1st (Were we the ones April Fooling ourselves about being able to do this).

That morning in walks our realtor to walk through the domestic carnage.  I tell her it will be ready to list by May 6th.  She did an excellent job of hiding her incredulity!  She said it would be good to replace the appliances; rugs (duh!); Light and Plumbing Fixtures (ours were 1980's dated brass fixtures - "rubbed bronze is the ticket now" we were assured.  PLUS, Wood Laminate Flooring in the Dining Room and granite countertops would be a good ideas.  Fresh paint was a must!  Toni left (rolling her eyes, no doubt).

I now had my list of upgrades to get done.  Irene and I divvied up the work.  I was the trashmeister,  - in charge of clean-up - and general contractor in charge of upgrades.  She would be responsible for figuring out what items fell into which category: pitch it - donate it - give it to someone else - migrate it to the Trekker - pack it for the move to Mission, TX and our home to be completed there in late September - a sort of "Domestic Triage" if you will.  

I ordered a 10 yard rollaway dumpster immediately.  Irene enlisted the services of Kelly Pitzer and my sister, Charlynn Wise to help with the Domestic Triage that would occur.  (We need to say here that without Charlynn and Kelly and Marilyn Malmgren's help with our domestic "extraction" the 1 month deadline to have the house on the market could have N-E-V-E-R been met.  Thanks Ladies!)  

Next, I started calling vendors for flooring, appliances, countertops and fixtures.  Since I had been a general construction contractor in the mid 90's, this wasn't my first rodeo.  I knew the items that would need to be done first to last and the items that would take the longest to accomplish.  I gave the ladies until April 21st to have the house packed and ready for painting.

I called the painter I had used to get a rental painted that we had owned in Frankfort, IN.  His name is Francisco Castenada.  He does an excellent, conscientious job.  If you're in that area and need a painter, I highly recommend him.  Call - 317-506-7794.  Tell him you got his name from Jim Gordon.  He came by that evening to look at the job.  "Mucho Trabajar, Señor. (Much Work, Sir).  He assured me he could start on Monday, April 21st. CHECK - Painter Arranged!

The items that would take the most "lead time" to come in and therefore would need ordered immediately were the flooring and granite countertops.  So I headed to Henry Poor for their "Home Works" decor center for the countertops and to Flooring Express for their Rugs and Wood Laminates.  I made my selections and scheduled the flooring installs (rugs and wood laminate flooring) for installation beginning Tuesday, April 29th and the Countertops to be installed May 1st.  The Appliances were ordered from Lowes would be installed on Friday, the 2nd of May.  The plumber would come to hook up all the new sinks and dishwasher and refrigerator water line on Monday, May 5th.  It would be ready to put on the market Tuesday, May 6th the day before we would leave for South Africa.

The other thing we did was decide to use U-Pack for the move.  Joel and Brenda had used it when they moved from Jackson, MS to Midland, TX and recommended it to us.  They bring out a 26 foot trailer to your house and you pack your stuff in it yourself.  They charge you PER FOOT for the amount of footage you use of the 26 feet.  We were concerned 26' might not be enough.  I arranged for the trailer to be delivered April 18th and for a bunch of guys from church to help us load the truck on Saturday, April 19th.

All attention now turned toward the extraction.  Kelly and Charlynn were responsible for bringing items to Irene for her determination of what their end was - pack it; pitch it; donate it ; give it away or set it aside to take to the Trekker.  After the determination they packed it if that was its lot.  I hauled stuff to goodwill on more than one occasion.  Irene has brought a LOT of clothes to South Africa which (unknown to them) have made a one-way trip here.  Kelly is going to have a MONSTER BIG garage sale (after its all picked over by a certain unnamed lady in the church at Frankfort).  Some things Charlynn took home with her.  There was a TON (probably 3 or 4 actually) of stuff that found its final home inside that 10 yard roll-away dumpster.

The ladies did an excellent job of determining and packing.  I'm extremely proud of Irene.  This couldn't have been easy for her.  There was some slow, melancholy-laden moments as she took the final look at many items.  To my shame - on 2 different occasions I explained to her that she couldn't look at every item and needed to pick up her pace.  I was wrong in doing so.  She and the girls kept plugging and the piles kept shrinking.

Here we were just 1 week into the extraction and I could already start ripping up carpet and padding delivering that also to the 10 sq yd. dumpster screaming "FEED ME! FEED ME!" I could now begin working on exposed subfloor.  (Squeak and creak elimination is now my specialty).  I re-screwed every inch of floor which was under carpet with 2 1/2" deck screws every 6"-8".  We would move all the piles over to one side of a room and I would cut the carpet and pad and haul it to the dumpster and the sorting and packing continued unabated in another room of the house.  The dining room and entryway had to be done first.  They would be having the Laminate Oak Flooring laid on them.

We decided to use the family room as our staging area for the boxes packed for shipping to Mission, TX on our U-Pack trailer.  It began to fill even as the rest of the house began to echo with emptiness.

When Irene wasn't on determination duty, she was manning the shredder.  Man did we have a LOT of papers to shred.  Taxes from the 80s and 90s and early 00s.  Bills and Payments and checks from the same period.  Anything with an account number or social security number had to be shred to assure our identity won't get stolen.  We have a shredder that would make Oliver North proud.  It shred stuff into 1/16 inch square confetti.  There aint no reconstructing stuff that gets put through this baby.  Unfortunately the more you shred the more likely the shredder is to overheat.  Then you just have to wait until it cools down again.  There was a LOT of waiting having to occur.  Kelly and Charlynn just kept chugging and chugging on getting Irene's determinations and packing.

I'll be honest with you.  Toni wasn't the only one that thought it would be an impossible task to dig our way out.  Irene had some real concerns too.  Especially over the first 3 or 4 days.  Then about day 4 she said "I think we can make it."  THAT'S THE SPIRIT, LOVER!  I knew we'd make it even if I had to order a bigger dumpster and be more pro-active in the "pitch or keep" decision-making.  We couldn't put off getting the house to market because our next shot wouldn't be until NOVEMBER because of our sojourning schedule for the year.  May is the best month for selling a house in Lafayette.  We HAD to hit our target date!

By Wednesday, April 16th the girls were on "mop up duty."  Packing and sorting the little things that didn't fall in any category (i.e. - Dishes; Clothes; VBS material, etc).  All the first floor was done and it was time to attack the basement.  The basement wasn't nearly so bad as the upper floor.  Things by and large were in boxes.  SOME, were in the boxes that had been put in when we moved from Chippewa Dr in West Lafayette to Pershing Dr., in Lafayette some 18 years previously!  Now THERE'S A "COLLECTOR" FOR YOU!!!!!! So much of the basement got done in a single day.  Just bringing up boxes and either giving them to Kelly for her garage sale; pitching in the dumpster "en toto" or donating.  There wasn't a lot of "keepers" downstairs.

The 19th of April was "packing day."  Irene (and to a degree me also) was worried whether or not all of our "stuff" was going to fit into a 26 foot trailer.  We had about 8 people from church, my sister Charlynn and son-in-law Steve show up to help.  Tony Rose and Phill Garvin worked the truck.  Phill handled all the "tie-down" work with 300 feet of 1/4" nylon rope.  Phill is a truck driver, so I figured who better to know how things in a truck need to be secured to travel.  Tony ended up being our "spatial engineer."   What I didn't know is that Tony had worked for some length of time at Frito-Lay in Frankfort loading semis.  So he knew how to maximize the utilization of the trailer's space.  It took us less than 2 hours to load everything into the truck AND, thanks to their abilities, we only used 16 feet of the trailer.  That right their saved us over $1000.00 dollars (10 feet @ $105.00/ft.)  

I took pictures of our now EMPTY house and texted them to an amazed realtor.  She couldn't believe what we'd accomplished. "Oh, ye of little faith, how long shall I have to put up with you?" is what my text said.

So, now we were packed and the floor was all super securely tied down to the floor joists and it was time to start painting.  Painting began on the 21st of April.  We had hoped that Francisco could get the job done by Sunday the 27th.  Some workers not being able to show up for 2 days kind of slowed him down.  I wasn't concerned though because I had put a "buffer day" into the schedule - Monday, April 28th.  I had scheduled nothing that day thinking the painting might need the extra time.  I proved to be correct.

The next thing that happened was problematic.  I had specifically told the flooring people that they had to start flooring on Tuesday, April 29th.  I got a call Monday morning while the painters were still painting the basement that they were loading our flooring and would be over to begin shortly. "Uhhhh, you aren't supposed to start until tomorrow!  I have painters in the basement of the house painting right now."  They told me they'd go do another small job they had to do before coming over.

They arrived at about 11:00 and started on the laminate oak flooring in the Dining Room and entryway.  The painters, being in the basement stayed out of their way.  That afternoon the painters finished in the basement and that only left the garage.  We determined they could come back and finish that over the weekend.

Due to having to jerk their schedule around on monday morning, the Carpeting people were kind of slowed down.  Their 2 day job ended up taking almost 4 days.  They also had one guy not show up one day.  GOOD HELP IS HARD TO FIND NOWADAYS!  This means that they were still there when the countertop people came to install our new countertops on Thursday, May 1st.

The countertop installation went flawlessly U-N-T-I-L we realized that they had brought the wrong sinks with them.  They brought white sinks.  I had ordered bisque (beige) sinks.  "UGH! TAKE THEM BACK" I COMMANDED.  "EVERY SINK AND TUB IN THIS HOUSE IS BISQUE COLORED!"  They called to tell their bosses.  They would change them out but it might be a week before they are back in the Lafayette area, I was told.  I told their boss I would be up for 3 bisque colored sinks on Friday afternoon.  "No problem," they said.

On Friday the appliances were installed - new stove, refrigerator, microwave and dishwasher.  They fully installed the microwave and range.  The fridge they got plugged in and in its place.  The dishwasher couldn't be installed because the sink faucets were being changed and the old ones had already been removed.

That only left the painting and plumbing.  Piece of cake, everything is going fine.  The painter showed up Sunday, May 4th and painted the garage.  That was off the checklist.

On Monday, May 5th Schomers plumbing showed up to install the new sinks, plumb in all the new rubbed bronze sink fixtures and install the dishwasher and connect the ice maker line to the refrigerator.

This is where the biggest problem reared its head.  In the 18 years since we had built the house sinks had gotten DEEPER.  2 or 3 inches deeper.  That meant that the drain lines as originally installed were not deep enough for the new sinks.  This was "CHECKMATE" unless we could replumb the waste lines or find undermount sinks that were only 5 inches deep.  Luckily we did - at Lowes.  So the plumbers were off and running again. They finished in 6 hours.

At the same time that the plumbers were there I had employed a woman to give the house a thorough cleansing from basement to ceiling.  The basement had cobwebs that were over 10 years old, I'm sure.  Some of them had 3rd generation great-great-cobwebs down there.  The basement bathroom hadn't been cleaned in years.  She had her work cut out for her in the subterranean realm.  Upstairs with all new carpet, countertops and fresh paint just needed a good vacuuming and wipedown.  She was gone by 4 o'clock.

The house now looked so good we almost didn't want to sell it - then we remembered WINTER, SNOW, FREEZING TEMPERATURES and called our realtor.

WE WERE FINISHED AND READY TO PUT IT ON THE MARKET.  Toni came over with her son Donald and looked around.  We settled on a price - $277,500.00 and signed the contract to offer it for sale.

Here's the listing for it:

3824 Pershing Drive, Lafayette, Indiana

I can say we have been blessed by the Lord.  Since we left on Wednesday, May 7th our house has had an offer that we accepted as of Sunday, May 11th.  All the time, effort, planning and hard work put into the house during the "Lost Month" has paid benefits.  We were offered and accepted an offering for $272,500 - 98.1% of our listing price.  The new owners are getting an EXCELLENT HOME.

There's a Reason Why It's Called "Putting DOWN Roots"

The year was 1970.  The flailing ABC network had to do SOMETHING to try to stay solvent.  In a "stab in the dark" it made the decision to try accept the NFL's offer to telecast a "game of the week" on Monday Evenings.  In the booth were Keith Jackson, Don Meredith and Howard Cosell.  Every week when the game got to that it was obvious one team was going to win, Don Meredith would start singing "Turn out the lights, the party's over" in that Texas twang he had.

It was 1995 when Irene and I moved into our house at 3824 Pershing Drive in Lafayette, Indiana.  It was a single story (with a 1/2 basement) 2350 sq. ft. ranch home designed by .... well, ME and built by Durbin Construction of which I was president.  Ed Durbin, Josh and Joel (our twin sons), Junzo, and 2 others did all of the framing on the house from bottom plates to roof ridge boards.  Once it was "in the dry," Ed and I did all of the finish carpentry on the inside.

The corporation had built the home "on spec" (speculation).  When it didn't sell Irene and I decided to put our house at 310 Chippewa Drive in Lafayette, IN up for sale and whichever sold first, the other would be our home.  Our West Lafayette house had a buyer within the week.  So, we moved into 3824 Pershing Drive.  It was to be our "Final Move."

Since it was a "spec house" we had finished it relatively nicely, but once it became our "FINAL HOUSE" some things needed to be changed.  The first thing I did was finish out the basement.  I put in a large 12 x 18 room which was my Media Room.  2 smaller rooms (one 8x9 and one 9x12) would be used as classrooms for the house church we had meeting in our home - the Ouabache Church of Christ.  There was a 3/4 bath put in and a 10x10 office to complete the build out.  It was fully painted, carpeted and had drywall ceilings that were 7 feet high.

Time moved on and the next thing we decided to do was add a 475 sq. ft. sun room in which we placed our Hot Springs Portable Spa.  The next decision was to take out a home equity loan and use it to redo the exterior.  When we had built it on spec, we decided to put some brick on the front of the home but then we finished the other 3 sides of the home in vinyl siding.  I'm not much of a vinyl siding fan and when 2 or 3 pieces on the west side (the wind usually comes from the west or northwest in Lafayette) had some siding blow off - well, that was the last straw.  I began to look for alternatives to put brick around the rest of the house.  I found that in the years since we'd built the house a new product had been "discovered" - cultured stone.  Here's a picture of what it looks like on a portion of the front of the house:

(The Picture above shows both the original brick on one the 3 outcroppings along the front of the house as well as the cultured stone in one of the alcoves along the front of the house.  The other 3 sides of the house are completely covered with the cultured stone)

At the same time we decided to lay tile in our Sun Room and put a large shower in our master bathroom (we had put a very nice "corner unit" in the home when we built it on spec.

The final "improvement" we made to the home was to purchase the lot directly behind it to assure no one could move in behind our home.  That expanded our "footprint" to a full acre.  We did that in 2005.  We then proceeded to plant about 125 trees in that 1/2 acre lot - about 10 varieties of oak; 5 varieties of maple; some hickory; pecan; blue spruce; norwegian spruce; elms; chestnut; beech; birch; buckeye; sycamore; sassafras; white pine; weeping willows and weeping cedars; bald cedar; tulip poplar (Indiana's state tree); concolor fir - in other words - LOTS OF TREES.  We named the lot "MARDON WOODS" - "MAR" from Irene's maiden name "MARlow" and DON from "GorDON."

Our "final home" was finally complete.  BUT, age takes a toll on houses too.  The carpet, which was nice when installed had taken a 18 year beating and needed replaced;  A few tiles in the kitchen had cracked;  Some squeaks had developed in the sub-floor.

Age took a toll on ... er, ah, well - US too!  Irene has Reynauds phenomena so she's never tolerated the cold well, but she has now developed neuropathy in her feet that make them seem extremely cold once they get cold and now I have become less and less able to bear the cold winters.  We decided that - since we'd become part of Sojourners and only ONE of our SEVEN children still lived in Lafayette we'd full-time in our RV and "Chase the warm weather" - winters visiting the kids in the southern states (Arizona and Mississippi) and summers visiting the kids up north (Lafayette; Toronto, Canada and North Carolina).  So we decided to put our "final home" up for sale.

Next Blog Posting will be "There's a reason why it's called 'Pulling UP Roots"

I preached at the Athlone Church this morning and this evening (Sunday 5/11).  It went well.  It was so great to see so many good acquaintances.

THE LOST MONTH AND ONWARD AND UPWARD

We finished our sojourn in Port Lavaca, TX on 27th of March.  We got back to Indiana on the 30th of March.  What happened next will be referred to here and forever more as "The Lost Month."  It will be the subject of many posts in the future I'm sure as we flesh it out, but what happened in a nutshell is we Packed Up, Cleaned Up and Spruced Up our house in Lafayette, Indiana to prepare it to be put on the market before we left May 7th for our mission trip to South Africa and Namibia.  You can see the listing for our house by clicking on the link below:

3824 Pershing Drive, Lafayette, IN

(Those of you that have been in or seen the house previously will see all the work we put into it to prepare it for sale over the last month).

ON WITH OUR PRESENT POST:

The first time I came to South Africa was in December of 1984.  I came at the invitation of Bill Johnson.  Irene and I had been helping him in his ministry since 1980.  He was one of my teachers at White's Ferry Road School of Biblical Studies (WFRSOBS) in West Monroe, LA when I attended there from September 1975 - July 1977.  He had become a sort of "spiritual father" to me during that time.  When Irene and I got married in September 1980 one of the things we decided to do to expand the borders of the kingdom of God was support Bill in his missions work.  (He had left WFRSOBS in 1977 also to go back into evangelistic work).  He had been invited to participate in the "1984 Cape Bible Workshop" and  asked those that had asked him to speak if they minded if he had me come to teach also.  I fell in love with South Africa and its people particularly its "Colored People."  (Don't blame me for the term.  It is a LEGAL DESCRIPTION in South Africa of those that are neither "white" nor "tribal Africans.").

At the time I first came to South Africa there was still "White Rule" and Apartheid was still the law of the land.  Bill and I had been invited to take part in a bi-yearly "Bible Workshop" that occurred in Cape Town among the "colored" churches.  To make a 30 year story short - I've made over 30 trips back to South Africa over the last 30 years and Irene has come over at least 12-15 times with me.  I've been here for periods as short as 2 weeks and as long at 15 weeks (just ONE time - WAAAYYYY to long to be away from my beloved wife).  I'm sure if you took all the time I've been in South Africa and shoved it into a single block it would be a period of about 3 years total - about 10% of the 30 year period.  I was in South Africa for the 2 most historic events in recent South African history:

1.) The vote that occurred March 17th, 1992.  This was the referendum in which whites in South Africa voted to determine if they would allow the end of Apartheid and the enfranchisement of voting rights for the other races in South Africa.  Since blacks and coloreds in South Africa outnumbered whites 8 or 9 to 1, the whites understood they were voting for an end to their system of enforced-self-rule.  These were tense, politically-charged times.

2.) The vote on 27 April 1994 which was the first vote in which all races were permitted to vote.  This was the vote in which Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress were initially elected into office.  This was a time of jubilation laced with concern about the future of the country.

When I come to South Africa I do a LOT of teaching and preaching at MANY different congregations.  Single sermons or lessons; I've preached revivals; I've taught lectureships and on two different occasions taught in the "Cape School of Preaching."  I taught Jeremiah; Ezekiel; Daniel and Revelation when I taught there.  Many of my life's best friends are from South Africa: Peter Manual in particular.  He is the man that started the congregation of the church in Athlone - the "Athlone Church of Christ" (we are VERY imaginative in our naming of churches).  I've stayed in Peter and his wife, Cathleen's house for months on end.  I've watched their children grow up and marry and have their own children and I've watch those kids grow up too.  Another, family we've gotten to know more deeply over the last 10 or so years is Rohan Jones and his wife Sandra and their girls.

Well, since Irene retired last August we won't have the available funds to come to South Africa any longer.  So, this is our "Swan Song" here most likely.  We cashed in a LOT of frequent flyer miles and came Business/First class.  We are staying with the Jones for the first 2 1/2 week and with the Manuals for the final 2 1/2 weeks.  We are teaching in the Cape Bible School and in Cape Town at at least 5 different churches and then in Namibia in Keetmanshoop and in George, South Africa as well. In many places Irene will have classes for the women and I'll have classes for the men.  I'll preach in one Gospel Meeting (aka "Revival") and have numerous other classes and sermons.  It's a fitting exclamation point on what has been a 30 year mission for Irene and I.  We will miss being able to come here (but not GETTING HERE - that is AT LEAST a 27 hour ordeal that involves up to 4 different flights).

In future posts we will cover various aspects of the "MISSING MONTH" as well as keep you all updated about our teaching/preaching here.  This morning Irene taught "Love and Strength" and I taught about "Sacrificial Leadership."  They were excellent, if somewhat small, classes.  Tomorrow I'm preaching at the Athlone Church of Christ in the morning on "Giving of Our Time" and in the evening on "Saved to Serve the Lord."  These lesson titles were given to me as the topic I'm supposed to cover.  We will see! :-)

Dèjà Vue All Over Again

This is the City.  It was Thursday, March 27th, 2014.  It was a overcast, gray day in this central Texas Gulf of Mexico, many come here to enjoy the beach; other's to enjoy the peaceful relaxation afforded by this town of yesterdays gone by;  Still others to try out the newest seafood restaurant in town Kathy's Too; But some people come here to preach the Gospel, when then do, I take over.  I wear a badge:

It was 10 AM and my partner Irene Gordon and I were working on preparing to our next destination,  Pearland Texas to visit our good friends Dave and Brenda Blair and then on to Camp Bee, in Marshall, Texas.  We'd finished all the paperwork and all of the other Sojourners had already left for their next destination.  Only Larry and Linda Shelton were left.  They'd decided a couple of days R & R were in order before heading to their next Sojourn in Angleton, TX.

As we buttoned up our rig and hooked up our tow, Irene and I had no idea of the Sandy Koufax sized curve-ball about to come our way.  Our ride to Pearland was a simple 4 hour jaunt straight up Texas Highway 35.  Child's play!  It was totally uneventful other than a CEL (Check Engine Light) that beeped a couple of times along the way.  We parked Trekker at the Pearland Church of Christ building and they came to pick us up so we wouldn't have to unhook our tow.

Our visit with the Blairs was terrific - a dinner with one of their sons, his wife and their daughter and then then a couple of games of Arkansas Rummy (also called "Progressive Rummy" by some, I guess).  I got thumped in both of them.  Did I mention, I don't like to play games?

The next morning we headed for Camp Bee 235 miles away.  It would be where we spent our 1st of 4 nights on the road heading back to Indiana to get the house ready for putting on the market.  Drat that CEL light is spuriously chirping every once in a while for about a second at a time.  No big deal, just a minor nuisance.  We are over 2/3 of the way there just 90 miles to go.  Just north of Nacogdoches, TX.  We are heading up and out of downtown when suddenly the Trekker doesn't have any pick-up - It's get up and go done got up and went!  I played it cool with Irene.  She didn't seem to notice so I pressed on.  Going level wasn't a problem and going down hill was great.  It was those up hills that got us down to 35 mph.  Then just north of a "dot on the map town" called Appleby, TX 71 miles from Marshall, TX and Camp Bee the MIL light and CEL light lit up continuously.  THIS CAN'T BE GOOD!

I eased to the side of the road.  I called Tiffin Service and spoke with Ricky in the chassis department.  He asked me to pull the diagnostic codes and walked me through the process.  "The code means your #1 manifold has low compression," Ricky told me.  You'll have to call CoachNet and have them tow you back to Lufkin, TX (35 miles back toward Pearland).  We've done this before.  At least it's only 35 miles this time.

We were told by CoachNet they had a tow truck and it would be there in 1 1/2 hours.  It was actually coming up from Lufkin.  But had another call to finish first.  We waited.  The sunny skies started to cloud over.  We looked at our Weather Channel apps on the phone.  "Hope they get here before the rain."  They did... barely... GET THERE before the rain.  But they didn't get hooked up before the rain.  Rain nothing - God, didn't you tell us you wouldn't wipe us out using water again?  This was a gullet-washer, a deluge, a very intense line of thunderstorms.

1 1/2 hours later we are ready to be towed.  Irene and I are in the Flex driving behind Trekker.  Along the way to the Tow Truck's lot (it was too late to take us to Rush Peterbilt since now its 6:30 at night) we had to dodge trees 4 times that had been blown over and into the roadway by the storm that was still occurring.  It was pretty intense.

Finding a room in a motel was a nightmare - because of the intensity of the storm hundreds had stopped for the night in Lufkin.  There were already 2 conventions in town so there weren't many rooms available anyway, but the storm made so many stop that there were no rooms left in town.  Even in the part of town where the power was knocked out.

We were hungry. There was a Panda Express right next to the Courtyard by Marriott that we had HOPED to stay in (to no avail).  Hungry enough even Panda Express tastes yummy!!!

We had to drive 26 mile back to Nacogdoches to find a room - a SMOKING ROOM (gag, wheeze) - at the Econ-o-Lodge for the night.

The next morning we went directly to Rush Peterbilt to tell them our rig was coming in.  The Service Manager was a believer so we hit it off pretty well.  Soon the tow truck driver arrived with the Trekker.  Irene and I went to Denny's to grab some breakfast and then went to Office Depot to pick up something (I'm old, OK, I forget what it was now).  When we got back to Rush Trucking at about 12:30 the door on the rig was open so I knew some one was taking a look at it.

I went over to talk to him and he had me start the engine.  It was fixed.  The fix was simple.  The hose had been blown off of one end of the EGR (Exhaust Gas Recirculator) that goes through a cleaner, then a chiller and then a turbo that injects it back into manifold #1.  They had fixed it and we were ready to go.

We continued to have problems however:

The Valid air leveling system had a continuous blinking TRAVEL light and chirps incessantly

At some point in each of the last 5 days it has had a message on the LCD screen which says:

ABS COMM ERROR

Then, even AFTER working on it Saturday we still got spurious CEL light which would last at MOST 1 second.  I looked a couple of time but their were no ECM codes BUT Mobileeye went to  "ER 20" after Every CEL light blink.

We stopped to get fuel (so we turned off engine). After that we still had spurious CEL light with no codes BUT the Mobileeye went to  ER 20 and stayed there.

We Stopped at rest stop for lunch.  Upon restart the MIL light was on Amber and continuously and we began getting spurious STOP lights - never longer than one second long.  I pulled codes and got:

Code ECM : SPN 638 FMI 9

We kept driving since there was no falloff in engine performance.

We stopped for the night and I  pulled codes again. It had changed (the other one was gone) to:

ECM SPN 1081 FMI 9

We checked online and saw that these both had an HHP code of 3 (keep driving and get them fixed at the next Preventive Maintenance) so we just kept driving.

We stopped to refuel and upon startup we had no MIL light and no codes after that.

To be honest, I've been in electronics long enough to know that this looks a WHOLE LOT like a ground problem.

While we were driving on Friday it sounded like an aviary in Trekker.  The VALID leveling was chirping because of the TRAVEL light staying on,  The CEL light was chirping everytime it lit up (averaged 1 time every 3 minutes or so) and everytime it lit it reset the MOBILEYE and it would chirp.

The Story you have just read is true, no names have been changed to protect the innocent.

Dum-de-dum, dum-de-dum-de-dum, Dum-de-dum, dum-de-dum-de-dum, Dum-de-dum, dum-de-dum-de-dum

THIS HAS BEEN A 
MARK VII 
PRODUCTION