Maryland Family

It has been a little over a year now since we have answered the call to come serve at Allen as the cell pastor. I love Maryland more than any other place I have lived. Don't get me wrong I still have a heart for Chicago, Indianapolis and the Dayton but the Eastern Shore is a wonderful place to live. I like the fact that in our area you can get anywhere you want to go in one half hour. For ministry this is fantastic. In some of the other places I lived it would take an hour to go from the north to the south. If you reached someone for Christ in the north they wouldn't travel to the south to worship with you. But here you have people coming from all the surrounding areas and there are no barriers as far as outreach. But even more than the ministry side of it I love the people of the area.

Part of the reason we were willing to leave family and friends to answer the call was the love of the people of this area. One such couple that has really impacted our lives has been Kip and Sharon Powers. When I moved out here last year I drove out one week before Cary and needed a place to stay. The Powers opened their home to me and my cat Samoa. It was friendship instantly. The following week when Cary came out they had us over for dinner and we were surprised to find out that Sharon and Cary share the same birthday month and year as well as Kip and I sharing the same birthday month and year. It got even more strange when Sharon's cell phone rang and Cary thought it was hers. They had the same ring tone "Sweet Home Alabama."

Little did Cary and I know how hard it would be to move so far away from family. Our first 6 months here we both battled depression, especially the first Thanksgiving and Christmas away from family. The Powers adopted us as family and when those holiday family gatherings came around we were included in their family activities. We have been there ever since! I appreciate Sharon's daughters Kim, Kelly and Krista who have shared their family with us as well. The Bible says, that God puts the lonely in families and we have found out how wonderfully true that is.

I also want to thank our extended family at Allen, each of you have made us feel so loved and welcomed and we wouldn't be any other place. Maryland is our Home!