Our new town

We are half-way through the first semester/a quarter of the way through our first year living in this small town in rural America.  I have lived in rural towns most of my life, and so far this is the best town I've ever lived in. So much good is here.  Not perfect, no.  But so many good things.

When we looked over this town, we liked the second hand store, Pass It Along, that was situated downtown. The owner was very friendly.  Indeed, I have still to meet an unfriendly person here!  We were saddened when the second hand store closed within weeks of our moving into town, but since then a wonderful salon has opened in its place and next door they are remodeling the unused store to house the new Pass It Along, which will be run by the same woman!  The original store closed in order to make room for the salon as it was opened by the previous owner's daughter.

Our new hometown also has three sit-down restaurants, if you count the country club outside of town, a small carry-out ice-cream, gyros, burgers and pizza place, and one gas station that sells fried chicken everyone loves one day a week, and has another ice cream counter :).  We have a Ford dealership, a t-shirt shop, another gas station, two insurance companies, two banks, a couple of realtors, a grain elevator (right in the middle of downtown - but it seems to be closed), two clinics (now that our hospital opened mine), several churches, and at least 3 larger manufacturing businesses that offer jobs to the community.  One of these businesses is Avanti's.  It makes Gino's frozen pizza and sells lots of specialty cheeses and some meats.  It has a neat little store that sells us the cheeses and such locally and also provides a place to get unique gifts as well.

Up until now we have not had a grocery store here.  No Walmart, Dollar General or any place like that.  I've heard that Dollar General is going to open a store here, but in my 4 months here I haven't seen as much as a ground-breaking event.  Beginning early next month, however, we are going to get a grocery store!  The owners have their own farm and have been working on opening a butcher shop to offer their organic high-end meat, but for the past 1-2 months have felt the Lord leading them to go further and also make it a grocery store!  They will offer organic and regular produce as well!  I am so happy to hear this, and you can believe that we will shop there!

Our little hamlet does not have a pharmacy.  I've thought that would be a problem, but one pharmacy in a larger town 30 miles away is offering delivery of prescriptions for $3 by one of it's employees who lives in our town! She also said that she would deliver for free if you were willing to come to her house to pick it up! You can't even drive to that town and back for $3!  I'm hoping that this will get people patronaging our local clinics when they know that they won't have to drive to town to get their meds afterwards.

Have you ever read the series of books by Frank Peretti starting with This Present Darkness?  Sometimes I feel like I am in that little town of that first book.  I see God working here.  I love the new church we are attending, and I see everyday miracles happening in the lives of people who attend there.  About a month ago a six year old child lost control of a motor scooter he was trying to ride and went right into the path of a huge semi-trailer that subsequently ran over him.  The testimony of this child and his recovery is so amazing and shows God's hand in it in every area.  He is recovering and every day we read miracles about the new things he is able to do.  The community and towns around our little town have stepped up and raised so much money for this family that it is unbelievable.  The "Prayers for Caleb" Facebook page that daily tells his recovery story is liked by over 25,000 people everyday!  So many people are praying for that little boy and his family.  My son shares a class with his sister at school.  The school has also taken part in several fundraisers for the family.

More about our church:  our church has a worship band and two pastors.  The head pastor speaks straight from the Bible and digs out the message in prayer each week, probably spending a huge portion of that time on his knees.  He is very active in the pulpit and quite entertaining.  The more I've been to this church and heard the sermons and sat in the group afterwards that discusses the sermon with the head pastor and elders, the more I have come to love this church.  These people are genuine and seem to share the same values that my husband and I hold.  It isn't uncommon that I just feel God there - in the sermon and in this after-class especially.  I haven't been reading my Bible pretty much since I moved to this state from Alaska 3 years ago.  Bible study become a burden to me.  I still have a close relationship with God and pray and depend on Him dearly, but I was burned out on the Bible.  I don't know the whats or whys of how it happened, but I found the Bible so troubling and confusing and made me feel separate from other believers.  Lately, though, as I go to church at our new church, I am feeling drawn to read my Bible again.  I want that sweet communion that I used to have when the Lord would speak to me from His Word on a daily basis directly about my life.  Not just the do's and don'ts, but just the tender whisperings that He is there and sees me and has everything in control.  My 3rd daughter has started going to junior high youth group at our new church and loves it.  My son also has a midweek program called Kool Kids after school that he attends there.

This summer our new town put on two town-wide celebrations.  One is celebrated around the 4th of July for several days, and one is held in the fall.  I was surprised by how many people take part in these celebrations.  It takes a village committed to having a wonderful place to live to pull these things off, and you can see that in these celebrations.  I didn't get to take part in much of the fall celebration because I was tied to a booth promoting our new clinic and the hospital I work for.  My kids had a great time.  There was live music, vendor booths, jump houses, face painting, free cider and donuts, pumpkin painting and lots of frolicking.  Next year I hope to do something more mobile so I can take part in more and also I would like to tour the fire station (which I forgot to tell you earlier that our town also has.

One down side to our town right now is a thorn in everyone's flesh.  We have a large building downtown that has been neglected by out of town owners and has sat empty for some time.  Now there are bricks falling down from the building to the sidewalk below and the area has had to be fenced off.  The village leadership is working on coming up with a solution that won't cost the town too much money, but I haven't heard what will happen yet.  In spite of this eyesore, the downtown area is being renovated and building by building new businesses are taking up space.  I keep thinking that my husband and kids should open a bakery/coffee shop, but my husband isn't convinced yet :) .