It has been a while since we last posted on this blog - as you probably noticed. Well, it is because life for the Browns has been a bit busy, a bit stressful, and a bit eventful.
I (Alex) finished up my first semester for a ThM at Covenant Seminary. It was a really great semester, and I learned a lot - I am very glad to have had the professors I had, and been in the classes I was in. It was good to be in such a different atmosphere from the Free Church College. The semester did end rather frantically, however, largely due to a miscommunication with the professor who was supervising an independent study paper that I was writing. However, I got all my papers in on time but not before coming close to packing it all in because of the stress - however, my lovely wife helped me get a grip and get the work done. I learned a lot about communication also.
In the last post Sara posted about our visit to Savannah, Georgia to visit with our friends the Wallers and to attend the Kirkin' O' the Tartans service, which really was an experience. However, the trip was also somewhat of a candidating trip for me - that part we didnt tell you. I had applied for the position of full-time Pastoral Intern at the Independent Presbyterian Church last year, when we thought we were getting married in June. Obviously our circumstances changed and so did IPCs, and they were unable to take on an intern last year, and so I thought nothing more about it. However, I got a call from Bradley Waller, asking if I would still be interested in the position as the church would still be interested in me if I were. So, part of this weekend in Savannah was an interview with Terry Johnson (the Senior Pastor) and Ron Parrish (an Associate Pastor), and a chance to meet with the elders, and also see if IPC was a place that I wanted to be. Well, it all went very well and I was offered the position and I have accepted. I start in Savannah on the 18th of August, and we will move down the week before.
So, that is very exciting, but it led to the dilemma of finding a place to live in a strange city which is half a country away. We couldnt make it down there, and so were left with the internet. This is fine except that we really wanted to live in downtown, historic Savannah but downtown Savannah has pockets of not-so-good places. The story is that it used to all be quite rough down there, but when the Savannah College of Art and Design came into town they ritzed the place up and have attracted people back to downtown. However, when inner-city regeneration takes place without a Revival, the bad elements do not go away, they just get pushed out a bit, and so downtown Savannah still has some places that are not ideal to move in to. These are the places that are often on Craigslist, and we were kinda clueless as to which parts were good and which parts weren't. So, with the help of Brad Waller and our friend Nate Henderson (whom we are still to meet), we waded through ads for apartments for a good few weeks, and depressingly were finding nothing that is suitable. By last week we had decided that we were going to quit looking in downtown and started looking at generic apartment complexes in the suburbs. They were nice enough, and most had a gym and pool, which was very nice and were getting excited about living in the suburbs. That is until Nate Henderson called. He had been on the phone to his old landlady, who had something for rent in the historic neighbourhood of Savannah, and we had first refusal on it. He told us that it did only have one bedroom, and were really looking for two but he could not have recommended it more highly. So, we got in touch with the landlady and thought about it for a couple of days and we have taken it.
Our new apartment is right above Mrs Wilkes' Boarding House! We will be living right in the heart of historic Savannah, just a few blocks from the church. We are pretty excited about living there, and are very glad that we did not opt for an apartment complex. Now we just need to work out how we are getting our stuff down there, but that is a lot less stressful of a prospect now that we have roof over our heads.
And that pretty much sums up things, for now.
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Downtown Savannah is home to SCAD, Savannah College of Art and Design.
We had a yummy lunch at Zunzi's South African Cafe.
River Street.
IPC was all bedecked in Tartan for its annual Kirkin O' the Tartan Service.
The massive pulpit of IPC.
