Summer/Fall Update 2019
- Kim Dvorak
- Oct 23, 2019
- 4 min read
Happy Fall Everyone!
Hello from Texas! We are enjoying the polar vortex that has brought familiar fall weather all the way down to Texas (and winter weather to Minnesota). I am enjoying the opportunity to wear boots and sweaters and drink warm apple cider, however I am sorry that everyone up north has had to experience snow as a result. We hope that things warm up again soon!
Aside from the silliness about weather, we have some updates to share! We moved (again… twice), and are now living on campus in the married student apartments. So many of our initial plans have changed over the last few months, but fortunately our plans changed in a way that made our daily lives less complicated…
The Story:
A few months ago I started a job on campus (Administrative Assistant for Mail Services), and my new co-workers (bless their hearts) started trying to convince us to move to the campus apartments. They helped us find solutions to all of our objections against living on campus, so after some particularly nasty commutes (including seeing some nasty multi-car accidents), and much prayer we applied for student housing. At the time we were told that an apartment would likely not open up for us until January, but all of my coworkers started praying that we would be able to move in sooner (bless their hearts) and shortly thereafter an apartment opened up for us to move in!
We moved into our new apartment a month ago Saturday, and now we are finally starting to get settled in. Curtains are up, some pictures are hung, we finally found the box of extension cords (yay!), and were starting to get to know our neighbors (bigger yay!). While I am starting to look back at everything that has happened over the last few months and laugh, I have to admit that changing our housing plan was one of the most stressful things I have done in recent history. (Though worth it) The most difficult part was meeting so many people, but not being able to stop and get to know them. Next time we move I hope that we can pad our schedule with extra time so that we can really engage with the people we meet along the way.
In other news:
We finished (and passed) Summer Semester 2019! And our house in Minnesota sold! Both of these were major blessings and would have been hard to do without the help of family and friends. My mom rescued the kids from the boredom of watching their parents write papers, allowing Rett and I to write ~30 pages of research papers (each) over a weekend! (May we never have to repeat such a feat.) Our friends up in Minnesota also sacrificed their time to help us pack and clean the last bits of our stuff out of our house, so that we could finish moving out before closing. I don’t even want to think about what it would have been like to do all of it ourselves, so thanks again to everyone who has been there for us in the last few months.
Also…
Ryan turned 7! He says “thank you” for all the birthday wishes.
The kids are enjoying getting to make new friends at our apartment and at school.
We got to go to the state fair which was a great break from all of the seriousness of moving and studying.
There was a tornado in Dallas, which is rare. Fortunately, we were not hit, but it did a lot of damage to some of the neighborhoods/businesses near us. In particular, the tornado did “catastrophic” damage to a classmate’s church building, so prayers for the rebuilding process would be appreciated.
Looking forward:
We are still playing catch-up a little on our fall assignments, though we are optimistic about being back on track soon. We started taking Japanese classes and so far, all is going well. My “sensei” graciously humors my class’s many questions, and we are learning a lot about the language, Japanese culture, and the other people in our class. We are still in a bit of educational decision limbo, and would still appreciate your prayers that “our desires for education and for returning to Japan would align with what God desires for us.” I hope to meet with an advisor in early November, who will hopefully help a lot with those questions. (Yay!)
Book Recommendations
Cross-Cultural Servanthood by Duane Elmer (Assigned for a class)
READ THIS BOOK! (Ok here’s a real book review: If you are looking for a logically organized, easy to read, and entertaining book that will equip you to love and serve others better, this book is for you. The author blends personal experience with science and biblical teaching to provide a trustworthy framework for every Christian to better understand how to love and serve others. This book is an excellent read for anyone serving across the world or across the street.)
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