Just thought we'd give a quick update. Sunday afternoon, after attending a supporting church in Indianapolis, we hit the road back to Ohio to spend 36 hours of doing laundry and packing. This morning we left early and drove down to Union Mills, North Carolina to the campus of the Center for Intercultural Training where we'll spend the next six weeks working through a cross-cultural preparation course. We got to have a brief meet-and-greet this evening with all of the attendees and the staff. From first impressions, it seems like it's going to be a pretty amazing time here. We'll be sure to post some regular thoughts and impressions as we go along.
We experienced one simple blessing yesterday that we though would be neat to share. One of the many errands we had to complete while we were home Monday was change the oil on our car. So, Monday afternoon, I drove 20 minutes into town to the auto parts store to pick up a few quarts and a filter. On my way out of the store, I happened to notice something strange on our front tire - there were two softball-sized knots bulging out of the wheel. This is very bad. I knew immediately that we couldn't drive this car all the way down to NC. One small bump, and we'd be on the side of the road with a flat tire.
As I drove home, my mind raced trying to figure out how we were going to get a new tire so late in the afternoon. The nearest discount tire shop was a good 45 minutes away, and there just wasn't enough time to make that happen. Luckily, we drove by our family's mechanic on our way home. I quickly pulled in thinking that we could at least when they could get us in to change the tire. Amazingly, they immediately started working on it, and we had a new tire in half an hour. Praise God for small miracles. (Big shout out to Ron Ruegg Automotive in Malvern, Ohio!)
