Hello to all of our friends and faithful blog followers! (and by that I mean our family!) I hope life is finding everyone well this time of year. This is our first Tennessee fall and so far the changing of the leaves is a slow process, but we hold out hope none the less. I apologize for the lack of blogs. We have been pretty busy, but this is no excuse. We should be more diligent. So, if nothing else there is a TON of info to let you become privy to!
Since our last installment we have baked cookies for the neighbors and introduced ourselves, went for a visit to Travis and Emily (brother and sister in-law), and Sonya joined a women's small group bible study. We are really loving the area. One of our favorite things to do, when the weather is nice...which is most of the time.. we go to the top of the hill and read or picnic. Although it's not technically OURS, we do try and take full advantage of the 10+ acres that we consider "our backyard."
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| Sonya doing some reading in our backyard |
Another fun thing that we've taken part in is the hiking group here at Johnson. We've only gone on one hike so far, but it was really beautiful and a ton of fun! We drove about 30 miles or so to the Smokies and went on one of the trails. It was about 6 miles total...walked about 3 miles, had some lunch, walked back. It's really a gift from God to be able to have hills and mountains and beautiful country so close by....I do miss the coast, but... this ain't so bad!
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| A mountain stream in the Smokies |
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| Another mountain stream in the Smokies |
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| This has nothing to do with our hike, but I just wanted share this little critter that was hanging out on our clothesline. |
For my World Missions & Evangelism class I am required to do 14 hours of evangelism service hours. For my hours I decided to participate in "Friendspeak" which is conversational english lessons for international students or residents in the Knoxville area, offered by Laurel Church of Christ. One of the aspects of it that I love so much is that Sonya and I can serve together.
We have been truly blessed, because the couple that we were teamed up with are our newest friends Changwoo and Hanjin! They are from South Korea, have been married since May, like us, and have only been in Knoxville for a few months, also like us. Hanjin studied calligraphy in Daegu, South Korea and is just a sweet and gentle lady. On S. Korea's thanksgiving she made us these fantastic little treats that were shaped like little pumpkins. One of pumpkin flavored and the other was strawberry flavored, made from the real fruit. It was incredible and really impressive the way she shaped them like little pumpkins.
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| Hanjin's incredible treats!! |
Changwoo is just your average run of the mill nuclear scientist at Oakridge National Laboratory. He did his masters work at M.I.T. and then fulfilled his Ph.D requirements back in South Korea. What does he do exactly? He works on neutron spellation. You see, Oakridge has the most powerful neutron spellation beam in the world. For those who don't know, neutron scattering is an important tool in studying how materials are made so they can be improved upon-lighter, cheaper, stronger...and our friend Changwoo is right in the middle of that. (I figured everyone knew about neutron spellation??)
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The neutron spellation beam at Oakridge where Changwoo works
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The best part about Hanjin and Changwoo is their humility. You would never suspect that Changwoo was a scientist or that Hanjin had studied calligraphy. They are just really nice people who enjoy life. They are interested in eating fresh, good food and doing things like going to the symphony, learning tango and salsa dancing, and trying new foods. They're really a special couple and we feel blessed to know them. It's a lot of fun to meet and talk about Korea and America, the bible, neutrons, life, marriage, etc.
Two weekends ago we had a little Weeks family reunion. When you have three kids that live in three different cities, getting everyone together can be kind of a challenge. This is why, anytime all of the Weeks (or Davis) clan can get everyone together it's a special occasion. So, Sonya and I drove over to Johnson City to meet with Travis and Emily, Aaron and Morganne, and Tom and Mary Jane for a weekend filled with food, fun and fellowship (kind of sounds like an invite to a youth program). We had a big dinner Friday night and then Saturday spent the day at the Apple Festival in Erwin, TN. Surprising to us all, there were not many apples and not a single pie eating contest, bobbing for apples contest, or even an apple pie bake off. There were, however, a ton of tents with little crafts and things for the house.
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| i'm pretty sure that i've lost her to the country.... |
After our fun at the Apple Festival, the family journey'd up the mountain to a place called "Beauty Spot," which is an appropriate name. We were able to look out over Erwin and see all the way back to Johnson City. It also intersected part of the Appalachian Trail, so we took a little stroll.
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| where's sonya??? |
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| This is as good of a spot as any to take a nap |
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| right after this Sonya was told that it was highly illegal and expensive to pull anything out of the ground on the Appalachian Trail. whoooopsie! |
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| The family just hanging out on top of a mountain. same ol' same ol' |
It was really great to see everyone and to visit. We can't wait for us all to get together again. We do love having guests. Our friends Gabe and Audrey stopped by for a night and that was great, and my parents will be here in a few weeks. Can't wait!
Other than that we've just been living from one day to the next. I work in the Financial Aid Department at the school, and Sonya is currently working on full time employment. She has a short term job that starts Monday (praise the Lord!) so we're excited for that. We're being taught humility and patience, as well as God's provision from day to day, but we always have all that we need.
Last but not least, Changwoo and Hanjin and Sonya and I went for a walk through some nature trails around the city. They allowed us to take some mini polaroids for us with their camera (Koreans have the best technology) and we got these....
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| the tree in the background proves the leaves are slowly changing |
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on a bridge on the greenway
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Anyways, I hope that everyone is well and enjoying life. I am really enjoying school and learning a lot, but am ready for this semester to be over and move on to some new classes. All of the teachers and students are great. God is good. Please continue to pray for us as we move forward over the next few days, weeks, and months in the hopes that we will glorify God the most by what we do. We love you all!
Matt and Sonya
