The Gift of Encouragement

First, my apologies for the lack of photos . . . frankly, the scenery here sans MelodyJoy and the rest of the family just isn't that attractive right now. Consider yourself lucky that I'm not coating this blog with self-portraits.

A couple weeks ago, I had lunch with an old friend, Jeff Berggren from Huntington University, and a new friend, John Paff, who also works there and whose kids attend Blackhawk Christian School. They told me about one of their colleagues, Lance Clark, who lives just a few doors down from our new place and whose kids also are at Blackhawk.

Tonight, I stopped by the house to check on the backyard's dimensions and decided to drop in on Lance and his wife, Mary. When someone opens the door to a stranger and before you can say a thing, the first words from his mouth are, "Hi, I'm Lance!" two possible thoughts go through your mind . . .

• Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore.
• This guy's pretty friendly.

Okay, a third thought is "Gee, I hope this guy isn't psycho." And a fourth: "If this guy's so nice, maybe I can con him into shoveling my driveway."

Anyway, both Lance and Mary gave me such a warm welcome and spoke so positively about the school, the church, the neighborhood that I left feeling incredibly encouraged. It was great to get a taste of what may await us as we settle into our new home and neighborhood and I hope we'll have many more opportunities to spend time with them and their daughters.