Of houses and suitcases

Ralph and I had a fun in Pennsylvania last week looking for a house. We saw 22 houses in 3 days--including some real eye sores. Our realtor was despairing that we'd find a place, but then I found this one on line and it turned out to be just what the doctor ordered and more: there's even a room for a painting studio and a workshop out back for Ralph to do woodworking. We made an offer on it and just found out it was accepted. We hope to close Nov 4th and move in the next day. You're all welcome for a visit.

Our house here in Duncanville sold by accident before I even had the job offer. Friends came for dinner with the great news they were moving to Duncanville, looking forward to living in the same town. I said we might not be here, but we might have a house for sale. They loved our house and so we're passing it on to good hands.

Following God's call isn't always easy, but I love it when things work out like this!

Between now and the moving date, I'm off to parts unknown.

1. Pohang, South Korea: Our SIL-related school in Korea, ARILAC, trains Asians for Bible translation and language development (www.arilac.org ). It is adding a Scripture Engagement Course to their program, and I'll be teaching it the first time through, along with Dr. JeSoon, who will teach it in the future and adapt it to the Asian context. I happened to graduate from Fuller with JeSoon. Small world sometimes.
2. Bangladesh: Our colleagues are holding a workshop with local church leaders from hill tribes near Chittagong to help them engage with Scripture more. Some have Scripture in their languages, some not yet. They have to use the Bangla Scriptures for now. I'll be helping to lead this event along with SIL folks who know the national language and local cultures.
3. Capetown, S. Africa: Over 4000 Christian leaders from around the world for Lausanne III to synergize on the issue of world evangelization (http://www.lausanne.org/). The name Lausanne comes from the first conference held in Switzerland in 1974, organized by Billy Graham and others. It's a huge honor to be able to participate in this once-in-a-lifetime (or possibly twice) event. I'll be staging a mini-drama at one of the sessions but otherwise can just enjoy the event.

Thanks for your prayers. Ralph will be nailing down all the details of house transactions, while I'll be living out of a 20 kilo suitcase.