Our First Stop -- Nashville, NC

We arrived in Nashville, NC on December 20, the home of Alissa, Matt, Sarah, Jordan and Dalton. They live in a rural area on a mini-farm with chickens, goats, hunting dogs, ducks, guineas and even a turkey. They also raise a garden and enjoy cooking and eating fresh veggies. We have not lived near Alissa in 18 years. She is an awesome cook -- a Rachel Ray protege.  She even has RR orange cookware, and unfortunately, I'm sure we have gained weight eating dinner with them every night.

We had a quiet Christmas and New Year. As this will be our "base-home," we have spent the past month  establishing ourselves with various doctors and have been very busy with appointments. Alan has been diagnosed with early Glaucoma and started on eye drops. He was diagnosed with diabetes in 2008.  I have had some problems with my left knee that the doctor tells me is degenerative arthritis.  Today is the first day in over a month it hasn't hurt all day, but other than that, I'm pretty healthy, but of course I need to lose weight.

We have visited several churches in the area.  I thought AR was in the south, even tho it is centrally located.  I guess because people often describe Arkies as "southerners" and "hillbillies" and say we have southern accents.  However, I'm learning NC is definitely the south.  There is a church on every corner, but one church we visited -- no one even spoke to us or asked us our names.  Apparently, they do not have visitors often.  This past weekend we visited one of the  largest churches in the area with approximately 1400 in worship service on Sunday mornings.  Although it is bigger than our home church in AR, we liked it.  However, they had a guest speaker, so we didn't get to hear the pastor.  We plan on returning soon. 

After a doctor's appointment last week, Alan and I stopped at "The Diner" for breakfast.  A couple drove up in a truck, parked and came in.  We couldn't help but notice their front license plate that said, "Campers on Mission."  This interested us, but not wanting to interrupt their breakfast, we waited patiently.  I truly believe God places people in our path for a reason and I just could not walk away without speaking to them.  I introduced myself and inquired as to the meaning of their license plate.  Campers on Mission (COM) is a national fellowship of Christian Campers, working in cooperation with the Adult Volunteer Mobilization Unit of the North American Mission Board and the Southern Baptist Convention.  COM includes Christians of all denominations who want to share their faith and the love of Jesus Christ while camping or participating in mission activities.  The gentleman we spoke with is the past president of COM in this area.  We hope to learn more about this organization and may become members ourselves. 

One thing that catches our eyes as we drive down the road in this area is the many individual gravesites you see adjacent to people's homes. Some headstones look fairly new, but of course we cannot just walk in people's yards to check the dates. Apparently, some want their deceased loved ones to remain nearby.
 

Please be patient as I am still trying to learn how to blog .  I feel I am making progress, but it's a slow process and I don't yet feel very confident.  I can type -- that's no problem, it's the visual images, maps, etc. that I struggle with.  Hopefully, I will eventually understand it all. 

In the meantime, thanks for checking us out -- May God bless our family and friends and may God continue to bless our voyage.