Warehouse with Bedrooms

I tell people that it took Martha three weeks to snag me (i.e., stalk, bag and mount me above the mantle) and two years to move me from Mississippi to Florida. I say a lot of silly things sometimes.

Nevertheless, Martha and I have moved from Winona, Mississippi to Ocala, Florida. I’ve learned not to go window shopping with Martha unless I’m willing to lug something to the car and later drag it into the house. Now I’ve learned also that just looking at some houses equates to a purchase of a new home. To my surprise, we looked at 10 houses on December 5, put an offer in on one of them the next day and closed on the house on December 31. That night, we slept on a mattress on the floor, but we lodged in our new domicile the very first night we and the loan company shared ownership of 8295 SW 56^th Terrace, Ocala, FL 34476.

 

New Year’s Day, our two-year anniversary, we started back to Mississippi from Florida so we could pack and move our household. For two years, we had been hauling some of her belongings from Florida to Mississippi, and now we were carrying it all back—plus much, much more. Her son Bobby arrived in Winona with his tractor-trailer, and we, with the help of others, loaded everything from the bulkhead to the back doors of that 53-foot trailer. Still, we left a shed full of things and more things in the office to be retrieved at a later time. This, despite pulling a utility trailer and cramming the van as full as possible, too.

We constructed a 16-foot long ramp from 2×12’s and 2×4’s to accommodate hoisting things to the five-foot high truck bed. We mused that atop two furniture dollies, we essentially had a 16-foot long skate board that we could ride down the sloped driveway to the road—and possibly beyond!

Several brethren from two congregations in Florida helped us unload the tractor-trailer. Literally, our new home became a warehouse with bedrooms. Boxes and furniture filled the rooms and the garage wall-to-wall. It has been slow trying to unbox everything, and the job will not be complete until after we return in early March from our mission trip to Guyana, South America.

Martha and I are continuing our association with other team members of World Evangelism, though we have moved to Florida. The main difference is that we will not be making a daily presence at the Winona office and warehouse. I will continue to edit The Voice of Truth International and Gospel Gazette Online, and we will continue to visit stateside churches, as well as continue overseas mission trips to Asia and South America. January 30, we depart for Guyana; after traversing that nation with workshops, seminars, Gospel meetings, classes for children and classes for women, Martha and I expect to return to the USA on March 4. We solicit your prayers and invite you to participate with us financially; monetary gifts can be sent on our behalf to our overseeing congregation, the Siwell Road Church of Christ, 4075 South Siwell Road, Jackson, MS 39212.