Wishing More Folks(Still) Read This

Many of the folks who read my blog at one time or another are very strong Christians who's lives and witnesses I have much respect for. I wish they were still reading, cuz there's a few "survey questions" of a Christian/theological nature that I'd like to ask. I'm sure I'd get some very interesting, thought-provoking, "worthwhile reading" in reply.

If you read this, consider yourself a "Born Again" Christian, and want me to go ahead and pose my question/s, please say that in a "comment" reply to this. I won't be surprised if I get replies to that effect, but I also won't be surprised if I don't.

"In other news"...

At this point in time, I'm pretty sure that daughter #2's name will be Sarah Danielle. Katrina & I have discussed this(at length), and while we both admit to being subconsciously stuck on "Danielle Victoria", we both like "Sarah Danielle" as much. We also like the fact that Sarah & Rebekah "go together", as well as the fact that there's no nickname for "Sarah" that's a boy's name. So, "Sarah Danielle" will _most likely_ be daughter #2's name.

Katrina & I(and Rebekah) went to this past Sunday night's Phils vs Braves game. The primary reason we went was to meet an online friend of mine, Jay, who lives in Kentucky. He and his family were here in Philly this past weekend for a work-related conference he attended.

Jay & I really have a lot in common, really enjoy each other's friendship, really "hit it off" online, etc., so it was nice to finally meet in person. We estimate we've been chatting/communicating online for ~8 years by now. So, anyway, since one of us was finally gonna be in the other one's general vicinity, his family and mine went to Sunday's Phils game together.

Well, every member of each family really "hit it off" - again(in some cases) - in person too! We really clicked very well with both Jay and his wife, Genople, we love their adorably sweet kids, Jayson(almost 5) and Haylee(about 1.5), and if you think the adults hit it off, you should have been there to watch the kids interact! Becky LUVS both Jayson and Haylee, and I think Genople wanted to adopt her too, lol.

At one point, Jay mentioned that they'd "decided we dont want to move/live here". Kat replied "We don't want to live here either, believe me!". It didn't go anywhere from there, but I remembered her comment and got back to it with her later.

The reason I did this is that this isn't the first time that one or both of us has mentioned a desire to live elsewhere. Whether somewhere more rural, somewhere more conservative, closer to (her) parents, etc., it's been a "recurring theme" with us, tho perhaps not coming up quite as often as that designation might suggest.

Well, to make a longer story shorter, we're beginning to look into and pray about the possibility of moving to South-Central Pa. We verbally batted around other possibilities(Vermont, RI, Md, etc.), but ended up concluding that the Lancaster-York-Chambersburg-Greencastle suburbs(!) of Harrisburg are the best choice. Yes, we definitely want to be open to other possibilities/answers while praying about this - including the possibility of staying in this area, but we're mostly looking into the pros & cons of relocating to that area(over others) for now.

Of course, any moving on our part is definitely over a year away, and maybe over 2-3 years away. The specific timing of any move's as much a matter of prayer as all the other factors, but we know we'll be right here in this apartment till October '06. After that, only God knows.

But even if we don't end up moving, seriously considering it's an interesting experience/exersize. Cuz, similar to a "steeple-chase", you really find out what your priorities are. And that's cuz, once the possibility of relocating goes from speculative to quasi-serious, you start itemizing things you want to have in/near your new location.

We did this last night, or at least we started to. Our list really covered everything from soup to nuts, "from the sublime to the ridiculous".

We want a good church/es nearby. We want at lest one Aldis/Sav-A-Lot. We want at least one BJs/Sams/etc. And we want at least one minor league baseball team in the area. I'm sure there are other things we want, but those are what we came up with last night. Quite a varied list, eh?

So, I started looking up the various things we want anywhere we might move to online today. I already knew where all the minor league baseball teams in/around the South-Central Pa. area are, but I needed to look up churches, Aldi's, BJ's, etc.

Well, I found everything on our list in the Lancaster/York/Harrisburg area multiple times. Or at least I probably did, since you can't tell how good a church is from their website. But there are multiple Calvary Chapels in that area(including one IN Greencastle, curiously enough), as well as 2 churches in the "Sovereign Grace" affiliation/association. Between those, the Southern/Conservative Baptists, etc., I'm sure we'd find at least one good church, and probably several.

Of course, I already know of at least 2 theological differences between us/me and the folks @Sovereign Grace. One is that they accept(tho I don't know them to push or promote) that _required_ tithing is "for today", and the other is that they're reformed/Calvinist(ic). I don't think they're paedobaptists, but I'm not sure.