Everyone has a garden. Everyone is also very generous in offering their neighbors, fellow church members and especially pastors, a share in their fresh picked produce. We have received squash, zuchini, potatos, tomatos, corn, apples and yes...cucumbers. I think over a three day period we were offerred cucumbers by no less than three different people. I had no idea there were some many kinds of apples! I eat apples regularly and figured your choice was, Red Delicious, Granny Smith and a couple others. One family at our church has more kinds than that grafted onto one tree! Harmony used this to remind me of our status as grafted into God's Vine. There's a garden in our backyard that Harmony is busy preparing to use for next season.
Being located off of a state highway and hour from a good-size city has enabled me to enjoy one of my favorite moments a few times already. Ever since I've had a license and driven long distances, I have always enoyed those moments when you're on the open road unable to see any cars infront or behind you. Today as I was driving back from Bismarck was one of those precious occasions. However, even with few cars on the road (or maybe because of it) it seems like there are many more bugs out here! At one point driving back from Minot a couple weeks ago, it seemed like a bug was hitting our windshield every few seconds for a minute or two. We have to wash the car after every trip to the city. Another new experience for us is living in a town in which the paved road ends at one point and your forced to travel on gravel (still at 55 mph) as your drive past many of the farm areas. Speaking of speed limits, it seems that it is either 55-70 or 25 without many spots inbetween. In town the limit is 25 and on the highway it's 70 with a few spots of 55 as you pass other towns along the way. I have yet to see a 35 mph zone which seemed to be the standard in our previous locations.
Someone asked me recently what cultural differences I've picked up on so far. I thinking we are still discovering many of these and some of the interesting ones I've been trying to include in this blog. Another cultural difference that did come to mind though is the amount of time dedicated to the weather report on the nightly news. Maybe it's because there aren't as many murders, fires and political scandals to report on but more likely it's the continued importance of farming that prompts the weather to take up nearly half of the broadcast.
Well, I think that's all I have time for today. If there's ever anything in particular you'd like to know about, leave me a comment and I'll do my best to shed some light on it. Please continue to pray that God would give me a passion for evangelism and Harmony and I wisdom about starting new ministries and revamping existing ones (e.g. women's and youth). I'f you'd like to listen to my sermon from this Sunday ("Redeemed to Fear" - 1 Peter 1:17-21) click here.
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