Chapter Three: Welcome to Eden, Population 410

Do you ever feel like there is so much happening in your life, that when you try to talk about it, you can’t compress it all down enough to fit into mere sentences?

That’s kind of how I feel right now.

So many new things. 

A new town.  Eden.  Well, really two new towns as Hazelton is only a few miles from Eden, and right now I’m actually living in Hazelton.  Small towns surrounded by miles and miles of farms.  Lots of farmers in the community as well as lots of migrant workers.  A very large Hispanic population.  Getting anywhere takes forever because nothing is close to anything else.  It takes 15 minutes for me to get from my house to the church.  30 minutes to get from Eden to the nearest city, Twin Falls.  10 minutes to get from my house into Hazelton and Eden proper.  I’m using a lot more gas than I’m used to!  But people wave at you when you pass them on the road, even if they don’t know you. 

Lots of wide skies and open roads.

A new house.  Jerry and Evelyn, a couple from the church, are very graciously sharing their heart and home with me until I can find a place to live in Eden/Hazelton.  They live in an old farmhouse with a field right next to it full of cows and a canal in the back of it full of carp.  (Okay, probably not full, I haven’t even gone fishing in it, but Jerry says there’s probably some carp in there.)  Jerry is a Packer fan and likes to play the guitar.  Needless to say, we get along well together.  Evelyn is the kind of person who makes you feel right at home.  She says I’m one of her kids now. 

Here are some pictures of what the house looks like:

The side/front of the house.  The part closest to the camera was added on a couple years ago;
the part to the left is the original farmhouse.

The back porch/patio area.  This is on the other side of the house from the driveway.

A view of the back of the house.  The road is directly in front of the house.  The driveway is to the left.

  This is my view when I look out the window:

This is the view from the new part of the house, overlooking the back patio.

Jerry and Evelyn don’t own the cows; they rent the field out to a Mennonite farmer named Kendall.  Evelyn is glad because it means that when the cows get out, all she has to do is call Kendall and he’ll come and herd them back into the corral.

The cows get out a lot.  And when they do they like to moo.

I expected to wake up one morning with a cow starting at my face.

Also part of the family are Squeakers and Shorty, their two dogs.

Squeakers looking much calmer than she normally does.  She also is never inside the house.

Shorty, with his usual look of patient suffering as Squeakers is a derp behind him.

Squeakers is the puppy; she’s a mix of various kinds of breeds, and Shorty is a very old Australian Shepherd with bad hips.  Shortly doesn't like Squeakers, and is constantly trying to herd her away from me.  Squeakers likes nothing more than to jump up on you and give you lots of kisses; she will get as close to you as possible when you pet her.  They are both fulfilling the dog-shaped void in my life for which I am very grateful.  Jerry and Evelyn also have three cats, all tabby’s, who are semi-friendly but I have only been able to pet one of them because they are somewhat shy.  I did get to watch one of them take a mouse that she had killed and play with it in front of the window.  That was…educational. 

They like to curl up on an old blanket in the back of a pick up truck in the garage.

Evelyn and Jerry have an old barn/garage that is full of a lot of cool stuff.  Like bicycles.  And hand grenades.

Check out that sweet banana seat!

TAKE COVER!

In all seriousness, though, Evelyn and Jerry have been the most amazing blessings I could have imagined.  They have taken me in, and treated me like one of their own at a time when I definitely needed it. They have made me feel at home.  For that they have my tremendous gratitude. 

So, new town, new house, and also…new church.  

Trinity Lutheran Church, in Eden, ID, is a small church.  On average about 100 people worship there on Sundays.  The youth group has 5 kids.  The sunday school has two classes.  Most of the congregation are 3rd or 4th generation members, with their grandparents and great-grandparents having started the church.  

Despite all this, however, Trinity doesn't *feel* like a small church.  It has a gym with hardwood floors, which is pretty sweet. It has a playground outside that has teeter totters, a merry-go-round, a metal slide, and a tube that you can roll people in.  It has a ministry called King's Kids, which meets on Wednesday nights, and ministers to over 60 kids each week, most of them Hispanic children whose parents work on the farms.  It has a worship team.  (It only consists of guitar and piano, but still, it's a worship team!)  The members help with a thrift store in Hazelton.  They run a soup kitchen during the winter.  

Big things are happening in a small place.

I  have a nice room as an office, although I share it with various other groups on Sundays and Wednesdays.  Evelyn and Jerry bought me a new desk and chair, and all in all it is a pretty sweet set-up.

What it looks like when I'm working.

So that, in short, is a small glimpse into my new life.  I'm leaving out about 500 million things.  I have seen more new sights, met more new people, and tried more new things than I think I have in the last 10 years of my life.  Every day is a learning process, but I'm slowly getting there, and who knows what tomorrow will bring?

Vincent (Gattaca): "I was never more certain of how far away from my goal than when I was standing right beside it."