Nashville: Getting There

I think I'm going to try to blog every day we're here. Not making any promises, considering some of the days will be ten hour days- but I'll give it a shot! I know there are several people that are interested in our journey.

For those that might read this blog and don't know where we are, Chris and I are now in Nashville, TN this week at a Pastor's Assessment Center. It consists of four days of intense interviewing, testing (like personality profiling, gifts, strengths, etc), and lots of getting up in our business type stuff. Chris has to make four mini presentations over different subjects and then is evaluated and discussed right there. We think there are seven other couples besides us, but we'll find out for sure when we get there in the morning. This has been months in the making, and we're believing that it will help give some definition to this next season of our life and ministry that is approaching.

The trip here was anything but pleasant! Before we ever took off the runway, the airplane all of a sudden lost all power. After a minute or two the pilot came on saying that the thing (I know- real technical- I know nothing about planes) that supplies power to the engine and the air conditioning had shut itself down as a precaution that there was something wrong, but they were getting back up one to help get us going. I don't want to hear words like "troubleshooting" about the plane I'm about to ride in. I was a little anxious. Chris was laughing at me because I was squeezing his hand and didn't realize that I kept getting tighter and tighter! But we took off just fine. There was stormy weather all around us, and on this first flight we were on a very small airplane that tossed us like salad during the turbulence. I really thought at one point that I was about to lose it. Had to close my eyes and not move until we landed. Needless to say I was so glad to get off that plane and run to the nearest airport store that carried Dramamine for the next flight! Thanks to the medication and some food in the tummy the second flight to Nashville was much more pleasant- we had our moment of hesitation because there was a thunderstorm while we were waiting to board and thought it was going to be delayed but wasn't. And here are some disturbing images I saw looking through one of those random airplane magazines that kept me entertained (and bothered and bewildered)

And first we have the pet doorbell- most of the things that were most disturbing had to do with pets...

And for your dog that is too fat to jump on the couch...so now he gets even less exercise

This just makes you ask, "Why???" The people that come up with these things have too much time and the people that actually buy these things have too much money to throw away

And because a yard gnome isn't bad enough....let's have aliens stealing him

And the most disturbing award goes to.... potty train your cat. Creepy and wrong on way too many levels. Chris leaned over to me and said in a scared voice, "Just look at the way he's looking at me." I know.

You know you're in Nashville when you step off the plane to hear a dude playing live country music on his acoustic guitar, complete with a tip jar and all. In the airport. And although I admit we're not fans of country music, what I do love about this place is that music is everywhere. It's playing, it's decorated with music decor, and that makes people who love music happy. The walls along our hotel floor are adorned with music prints of close up shots of instruments. Just a cool place.

So now we're sitting in our hotel room- I'm blogging and Chris is preparing for the things he's going to talk about tomorrow. I also have to come up with 5 adjectives describing him (and him for me) and we have to talk about that a little, so I have homework, too! Good thing lots of people are praying for us, because the butterflies are settling in! I mean, no big deal- just the rest of our life, right?? Or the next chapter, at least.

But I can tell you one thing- I don't know that I've ever had the sense of true providence that I feel now. It's like the scene in Indiana Jones when he steps out off that ledge and just as he's about to fall the stone appears under his foot, and then they appear all the way across to get him there. One of the actual dictionary definitions for Providence is: "timely preparation for future eventualities". Another says, "the protective care of God as a supernatural power." I literally feel like tomorrow we will walk into the start of something we don't know yet but has been prepared and planned for us. That's exciting. So after we get tomorrow out of the way we'll both (especially Chris) feel a lot better because we will at least have an idea of what it is like. Right now we don't. But it's still exciting. So until then....