Neighborhoods

In our life, we change neighborhoods often. In fact, in our 11 years on the road we’ve been over 100 different neighborhoods. Last month we were close to a small town (Truth or Consequences, NM), but still pretty much in the middle of nowhere.
AppleTreeGoogleEarth
Next month we’ll be moving to a project outside of the town of Wickenburg, AZ (about 60 miles west of here). And when I say “outside of the town”, I mean like 17 miles outside of town.
StandingStoneGoogleEarth
(We rode out there yesterday, and I don’t even remember seeing those neighboring ranches. But Google Earth doesn’t lie, right?)
But this month we are about as close to downtown Phoenix as you can get and still find a place to park an RV!
GoogleEarthUIM
It’s been a while since we’ve been in such a populated area. So on the one hand it’s nice to report that we’ve been to Costco twice, In-N-Out Burger three times, checked out the local Lowes and Home Depot and even had the tires rotated at Sam’s Club. We can pick-up milk at any number of corner gas stations, and chose from several different grocery stores when we need to get provisions. Oh, and the restaurants and stores! There is any big box restaurant/store you can imagine plus a glorious selection of local spots to check out. Ah, glorious civilization.
But along with glorious civilization comes some not so glorious civilization parts too. Like the traffic! Oy! There are lots of people that live here (almost 250,000 in this 55 sq. mile community) and lots and lots of cars on the road! And as with many city neighborhoods, police sirens wail in the middle of the night and police helicopters frequently pass by overhead. There is a gate that locks us in each evening.

While this ‘garden’ where we’ve been planted is quite a bit different from our usual gardens we are still glad to be here and are honored to serve at this mission.  And with so many reminders to pray for this neighborhood (sirens, helicopters and locks) it helps to remember where our safety ultimately comes from.

I lift up my eyes to the hills.
    From where does my help come?
2 My help comes from the Lord,
    who made heaven and earth.

3 He will not let your foot be moved;
    he who keeps you will not slumber.
4 Behold, he who keeps Israel
    will neither slumber nor sleep.

5 The Lord is your keeper;
    the Lord is your shade on your right hand.
6 The sun shall not strike you by day,
    nor the moon by night.

7 The Lord will keep you from all evil;
    he will keep your life.
8 The Lord will keep
    your going out and your coming in
    from this time forth and forevermore.
Psalm 121

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