Reflections on the first official week of the "Sabbatical"

Well, I should write something I suppose. We finally have the internet at our house. That's a good thing. I'm getting settled in at Samford and have wireless access there, but have been spending most of my time looking around, reading, and settling Maddie into her school. All of the kids are transitioning really well. Maddie's anxiety makes it a bit tougher to get her settled, but she's really working at it and doing way better than I thought she would.

What do I do on a sabbatical, you ask? So far I have been reading a lot. I'm prepping for some discussions that I'll have in the next couple of months with some of my "theological" heroes. They've agreed to sit with me and let me pick their brains about this whole pastor thing that I do. I am trying to think out what it is that I want to ask them in order to utilize the time I have with them in the most effective way.

I'm also enjoying my family. It's really weird to not have to wonder if the phone will interrupt our evening. Last Friday morning I realised that I needed to plan our week-end. What would we do for church? How would we spend Saturday? It was really fun to feel free to do whatever. My week-ends usually don't have that much flexibility. Ang and I are havng a blast too. Best decision I ever made to marry her! She makes sabbatical fun!

A big surprise is that I'm feeling some culture shock here. Alabama is a world all to itself. I like it, but it's a bit different. I had thought that growing up in the south would make my transition pretty seamless. The girls might feel a little culture shock, but I was sure that it wouldn't affect me. Not so. I felt a little better when the telephone line installer said that he had the same feelings when he moved here from...Louisiana. It's a different world. But it still belongs to God and He seems to have a lot of fun teaching me about who He is through the things that I am experiencing. Just to let you know that the more things change the more they stay the same, we've had a phone line here for only 4 days and I got two, you count them, two telemarketing calls tonight. But, just like in Canada, they can never pronounce Kuhn right.

We miss our family, friends, and our church family, but I am convinced that this is going to be an experience that all of us will grow through and will treasure throughout our lives. I'll keep you posted as things progress. Until then, keep praying for us. And Jim, if you're reading this (or if Sandy is) then happy retirement. It couldn't happen to a nicer guy. And congrat's Mike and Jan. All the best people have four kids. It's the lazy self-centered ones that stop at two.

Just read through this and I must admit it's pretty boring...I guess you had to be here...but it's working for me so far.