BACK IN AMERICA

…we woke up and looked around and thought, “Where on earth are we now?” That’s what you feel like after 35 hours of traveling to get back to the USA. Not bad, actually.

Last time I wrote we were wondering where we’d be living, what we’d be doing and here we are already, looking back. All I can continue to say is, “God is good, way too good to us.”

So we left Thailand and felt the cracking and crunching of our hearts as we hugged our friends who came to the airport to see us off (perhaps making sure we got on the plane and left!). We flew down to Bangkok, only one hour, and then waited for 8 hours to catch our flight to New York City. We caught that one, flew for 16.5 hours and there it was—America. Customs, Immigration, piece of cake. The Immigration guy asked us what we’d been doing in Thailand and when we told him he just stamped our passports and said, “Welcome home.” Then the Customs guy asked us, who was just as polite, and never even opened a suitcase to see what we had—and we had a ton of luggage. Another 5.5 hours layover and we caught the Jet Blue flight ($59 each!) to Jacksonville. What an awesome airline they are. I know who I’ll be flying with whenever I have to go somewhere.

We got to Jacksonville and Paul (a friend from church) with Leah and the grandkids were there to pick us up in the church bus. That’s the only thing anyone had that could carry us and our luggage.

We stayed with Leah for about 2 weeks in all. After we’d been there a few days we drove to Jackie’s mom’s house, 5 hours south of here, and stayed there a week. We took the 2 older boys with us and had a great time visiting and catching up।

Above: Jackie, Lauren (Nathan's wife), Nathan, Zachary, Alexis (a friend, laying down) and Jake and the dog in the front.

When we got back we made it to church for the first time and enjoyed that immensely. It was a bit weird because when we left we knew about 75% of the people who attended on Saturday nights and this time we only knew a few of them. The service had grown a lot and we were strangers in our own home. Oh well, guess we’ll have to make new friends. Today is Sunday (Father’s Day in America) so we went to the Sunday morning service and felt even stranger. We saw a few faces scattered across the building that we knew, but when the service was over everyone took off. We were in our home church, maybe 750 people in attendance, and when we stood out by the doors to see who might be around that we knew, we didn’t know but about 3 people. Talk about culture shock. We came home but we don’t know anyone anymore।

Housing: We weren’t sure where we’d live and Leah had been looking and gave up. The houses she found for us were too expensive or kind of scary (neighborhood not so safe) so we were a bit concerned. However, one family in our church remembered us (there’s more than one of course), Billy and Phyllis Robshaw, old friends, and they had a house they wanted someone to live in. We took a look at it and were stoked. They’d been renting it to college kids that go to our church but all but one had moved out. The remaining one, Bo, still lives here and the three of us share it. He’s a great guy so it’s a good situation. We can share expenses. When I say God is good (so are the Robshaws) I’m making an understatement. The house is a 5-minute bike ride to the beach (where I used to surf all the time) and a 5-minute bike ride to the church where Jackie works. We are blessed! In fact, Jackie and I just came home from the beach on our bikes.

Above: Father's Day and Leah's birthday in our new house--note the unpacking mess and wonder boy, Elijah, Leah's youngest.

Jobs: Jackie starts at the church day care tomorrow (Monday) at 7:00 AM (God help her) and has the 3-year olds. She went in a couple of times just to get reacquainted with the place and was amazed that everyone understood her when she talked. Everyone over here speaks English! Hurray. She will be working 7:00 – 2:00, 5 days a week, so she’s stoked with that schedule.

I have a knack for getting jobs I don’t know how to do. My last job was a mystery to me and the one I now have is also a mystery. A friend has a business and he goes to car lots and does things like painting bumpers that are all faded out, dying interiors that are messed up or fixing up the outside when they are all scratched up. He does most everything. For some reason, he thought I’d be perfect for this job and offered to train me. So, for the last 2 weeks, I’ve been riding around with him doing these things and, sure enough, I do know how to do such things. It’s kind of fun but my back concerns me quite a bit. My back does OK until about the last couple of hours of the day and then it just kind of quits on me. Friday it was cramping and seizing up or something and I wouldn’t be able to walk for a few seconds. It hasn’t done that one before. But after a good night’s sleep it only hurt on Saturday. By the end of the Saturday (we are unpacking stored boxes and moving stuff around) it was cramping up again. I went to the doctor before we left for Thailand and just before we left Thailand to come to America and they tell me the same thing—“looks good to me.” Prayer appreciated.

So, all in all, we are doing fine. We are still a bit lost in America and really missing Thailand, but one thing that came to me was this: 2Co 3:18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory…. God didn’t bring us here as a demotion—He brought us here to be transformed more and more into the likeness of Christ. Our goal stays the same and we embrace our time here in the States knowing that God has a future for us. We are grateful to have our kids and family around again and await the coming of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ—King of kings….

We have mobile phones (no land line cause Bo works from the house and needs it) so if you have Cingular, we can talk day and night for free! Our phone numbers are…

Jackie 904 315 7734

Bob 904 315 7528

If you don’t have Cingular, we pay 10 cents a minute to talk to you and you know what? We want to talk to you. We’d love to talk to you. Our e-mail stays the same: bobandjackie@gmail.com Our mailing address is now:

Robinsons

43 Willow Drive

Saint Augustine, FL 32080

As always, we are grateful for each of you and look forward to hearing from you. Thanks for being our friends. Blessings to you all…