Florida here we come.
It was a strange thought to live in Florida for the winter but one we welcomed for the heat. We have never had a warm winter. We were born and raised in Massachusetts. We have sold almost all our property and moved to Florida for a 5 month assignment with no permanent address. My pops is letting us call his condo home so that we can have some type of address. We are currently doing almost all our banking and bill paying online so we should get minimal if any mail there. We are appreciative of him and Susie letting that be our address. I only hope it causes him no inconveniences. Anyway, we will live wherever we work. This has been a wonderful assignment for us. It is coming to a close and my writing is catching up to the actual time of the experiences we have. As I had mentioned in an earlier post, we were called on the way here by a brother named Kent. He hooked us up with a family out here named the Mcguires. We have enjoyed much fellowship with them from the time of our arrival. We spent quite a few hours at a campfire in their backyard that was truly a blessing. We just got to know each other. They have two adopted children and three children who are full grown and living on their own. Josiah being the youngest of these older three is planning on marriage to a girl he recently met and has been courting. We wish we could stay and attend his wedding but we will not be here then. They met in a god-ordained way and have kept themselves pure. It is truly an example to us. The one thing that sticks out to me is when they arrived late to our house when we had everyone over for dinner, and I walked by them at the table and noticed them holding hands next to their plates. I "assumed" they were going to give thanks so I said, "Oh, do you want to pray?" Josiah looked at me and said OK! SO I did. But they didn't let go of each others hands when I finished. Then they STILL didn't let go of each others hands. Then I realized that they were not about to pray but that they are just excited to be with each other and hold each others hands all the time!!! I felt so foolish! My daughter Grace witnessed the whole thing and tells me the story while she laughs at my expense...
Well, anyways, Pete's wife is Chello, but she doesn't play the chello. He does however play the chello. Pete is a musician in his heart as well as a construction worker who now builds homes for a living. They have shown absolutely no hesitation in opening up their lives to us like an open book. They are an example of what brothers and sisters in the Lord are supposed to be. Perhaps they have felt some reservations in welcoming us into their lives but they have not shown it. As I told Chello last night, they have been God with skin on for me and my family. As far as I am concerned they have loved us with the love of the Lord. Thank you Mcguires and thank you Lord.

Before I get to Florida, I must wrap up Virginia. It was such a pleasure to be there and to work with so many different people. I would be remiss to not at least mention so many others who were so much fun to work with. Thellon.....she was gellin!!......like a fellon. All I had to do was look at her and she would start laughing! I am not sure that is a compliment but I take it as such. Penelope pitstop as I called her. She went by Penny, but we had some fun times together also. She is a person with a wonderful sense of humor. I could tell just from working with her that she was in love with her husband and lived a contented life. Marty the night nurse. She seemed to rub some of the day people the wrong way, but I got along well with her. In fact, the Lord used her in a gentle way with me. She was always very helpful and kind to me and taught me some nursing skills that I did not have before meeting her. There were quite a few aides who were very kind, as well as those pesky housekeepers. I particularly remember when I was kinda new and I went up to the housekeeper and asked her to enter an order for me on the computer because I thought she was the secretary! She gave me a look that could kill! "Why don't you go mop up that room for me then!!" She was a funny lady. Keith was a good man to work with also. He would do whatever I asked, as long as I could find him!! Many times he was off the floor gone to get the lottery tickets of the day for him and Mamma Diggs. All of them were very friendly to me. I don't recall anyone not being friendly towards me while I was there. I'll not soon forget Virginia and the relationships that were built there at my job are one of the reasons this is true.

F-L-O-R-I-DA!!!!! Here we come. I was pretty excited about the idea of coming to FL for the winter. I had no idea what we were getting in to down here but we came anyway. There were some things we learned from our time in Virginia. We knew we had to get connected to other believers right away to have some fellowship. We didn't want to go to an institution to worship our Lord so we had done some investigating on the web; or should I say my wife did the investigating. Well, on our way down, we stopped in Virginia and were blessed once again by the Coons family. Gordon and Jimmie-Lou with their daughter Molly were there to greet us and take us in for 2 days because of troubles getting our uhaul hooked up to the van and loaded with our stuff from the storage bin in VA where we left half our stuff. God sometimes meets you in places. We just don't recognize him when we see him at times. God provides for his children mostly......through His other children! There's an old analogy that I though of once a long time ago during my early days in AA. I made the coffee for our BIG Monday night meeting. 2 big pots plus hot water. It was a chore. While people were grateful for the coffee and often thanked us for making it, no one ever talked about the coffee making machine. Many said, "good coffee!" Not one said, "good coffee machine". I say this to make my point. God is the coffee and we are to be the coffee machines if you will. We want people going away from contacts with us saying, boy their God is a good God!! We don't want them to walk away thinking about us, but thinking about Him who flows through us.....the living water. Jimmie-Lou and Gordon are the coffee machine of this story. They project to me also that they are happy to remain that too; the coffee machine. I sense no desire from them to be noticed for the many many good deeds they do for others. I must make mention here that I lived with them for a month in the trailer next to their house at no cost. All I had to do was enjoy some home-cooked meals whenever I wanted to!; it was great! It certainly helped during my absence from my family. They helped me through many difficulties I had and were a great encouragement in how God cares for His children. When I think of them, I think of how it is a good thing to trust in my Creator,and my Lord Jesus. He will never let me down.
Well, back to our trek to Florida. As I was saying we wanted to get connected early to the Lords people in FL and wouldn't you know, that on the way down we got a phone call in the car ride from a man named Kent who lived in...........you guessed it FLA.