Moving Is Nasty!

I can say it with authority!

I was born to move. My mom said that they moved 13 times the first year of my life. That was the beginning of a trend. After that we moved to Albany, NY and lived in two different houses in that area. Then we moved to Oneonta where we lived on Chestnut Street for a couple of years before we moved to an apartment on Maple Street.

At about that point we started moving out to Bloomington, IN for the summers. Mom and dad both did graduate studies there. We lived there through the entire year when I was in fourth grade.

Back in New York we moved out of Oneonta to the family farm near Portlandville. We lived in the old farmhouse for several years while we prepared to build a new house down closer to Saddlebag Lake. I think I was 12 when we moved down to the new house (an A frame) where we lived in the basement while the upstairs was being built. Then, after a year or so, I moved upstairs to my new room. And there I stayed until I went away to college.

How many moves was that? 21? (not counting the summer trips to Indiana)?

Then I moved to college in Cedarville, OH. After college Lola and I married and moved to Wisconsin. We stayed put for three years, then moved to Scranton, PA so I could go to seminary. After a year in Scranton we moved to West Endicott, NY for a while to do an apprenticeship, then back to PA - this time to a trailer park in Factoryville where we stayed for four more years.

What are we up to now? 26 moves!

After seminary we moved to Franklin, NY where we lived in a beautiful old house for a year. Then I became pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Cadosia, NY and moved into their parsonage. We stayed there for almost ten years. Then I accepted a call to pastor New Harmony Baptist Church in Caldwell, OH and we moved here in December of 1996. We have been here longer than anywhere - eleven years.

Three more moves and we are up to 29.

Now we are preparing to move to Canton, OH so I can become pastor of Whipple Ave. Baptist Church. That will be my 30th move. (OK - so I was under one year old for 13 of them. So say 17 moves - it is still a bunch).

I know what I am talking about. Moving is nasty!