August 2023

Just a quick update while I’m still here in Southeast Missouri. God is at work and has used many people to date to get us this far!!! There’s so very much for which we can PRAISE the Lord!!!

• After 4000+ trouble free miles in my vehicle, “the move” is partly completed. My niece Naomi and her son Julian are officially installed here in Poplar Bluff.
• 4 days into the term and Julian is loving his new school!!!
• Naomi’s car was successfully shipped cross-country so she has her own wheels.
• Mega THANK YOU to the church family who found a reliable business contact for us and then let us ship Naomi’s car to their local car lot address! The car arrived in town before we did!!!!
• The 1st U-Haul pod load of possessions arrived last evening, was unloaded and is ready for Naomi to sort through. Much of this load had been in storage since her husband’s death 5 years ago so there will be memories galore on top of her transitions from CA to the heartland. Please do keep Naomi and Julian in your prayers!

I will be returning to California, planning on leaving tomorrow and Lord willing, will arrive in California in a few days. Since plan #??? of renting a vehicle in CA and dropping it off in MO fell through (so I could have flown back to CA,) I will be heading out again in my own car. It feels like my home away from home!!!! I LOVE cross-country driving (west
of the Mississippi!), the open road, the peace and solitude, etc. BUT will appreciate your prayers for that jaunt, too. no matter which route one takes, it is a l-o-n-g haul!!!!!

Once back with my sister and niece, we have a LOT remaining to do:

• Rehome a dog. This is critical. It was rescued from an abusive situation and both my sister and niece have formed a very strong bond with this canine. It is shy of strangers though, growls at me any time I come near, and is far too big & strong. She has only recently been comfortable coming out of her crate. She is untrained so it would be a nightmare to try to bring her 4 days cross country!!! Also she just wouldn’t fit in our small MO houses even if there were a way to safely transport her. The sooner she can be placed in a healthy environment in CA the better all around!!!!
• Hopefully also rehome some tropical saltwater fish, and some geckos!
• Get rid of furniture (maybe donate it to a homeless shelter that helps families get moved into housing???)
• Rent another dumpster for all the remaining not worthy of recycling or donating items.
• Clean carpets, walls, ceilings, etc., etc., etc. removing webs from outside the house too!
• Set up pick-up times to have the local waste disposal company haul away the remaining old (who knows where they came from) tires.
• Take hazardous liquids, batteries, etc. into???? for disposal.
• Take old fluorescent light bulbs for safe discarding.
• Maybe take yet more tins and plastic to recycling???? Though they get money back for these, it is very time-consuming. Hopefully, it will not be a massive amount, meaning we could put them in the weekly recycling trash instead of all the effort in taking them to a recycling center.
• Items in another storage unit need to be sorted and either donated, boxed for the move, or discarded.
• Did I mention rehoming the dog, fish and geckos????

What have I forgotten????????????????

All these things need to be finished BEFORE we can appeal to my realtor friend Seth in San Diego to see what can be done with the property! I have known Seth since he was a toddler growing up in PNG. When I e-mailed him some months ago for a bit of direction, he graciously went far beyond and has been planning to help us through this ordeal! Though he hasn’t yet eyeballed the house he thinks he can get it sold for us as “investment property!” Oh how we thank the Lord for this willing helper too, to give us advice and input too!!!!

Once the house is on the market (and the dog rehomed) ……

• We plan a trip to Oregon so Faith can see her son & wife with all the other grandchildren!!!
• We’ll also need to make plans to somehow move the remaining load from CA to MO:
  • I have checked into numerous nationally well-known moving companies. ALL seem to farm the work out to local businesses though and the reviews are simply horrendous! I had hoped a moving company would be the way to go but ……… what to do?????
  • Rent 2 or more U-Haul pods???? I dread having to load them! We had the first one packed to the gills and so greatly overweight it created added issues getting it from the town where it was delivered (an hour away) and having it hauled to our doorstep.

– What have I forgotten???????????????

Faith’s daughter Jessica has been a blessing helping as she can around her full time work schedule. I’m sure it will be hard for them all to say goodbye as Jessica stays on in CA and the rest of her family will be so far away.

Needless to say, we need prayer – a LOT of prayer as we work toward getting Faith and Eva moved here to Missouri, too! Thank you for taking the time to read through this, and for your prayers and support as we seek to finish what God has started in this relocation.

I do hope and pray we can be back to Missouri before the snows fall in the mountains!!!!! My sincere and grateful thanks for your part in that as you pray with us through all the details, known and unknown, of this relocation!

Because Christ came and is coming again – perhaps today! we therefore have ……

HOPE !!!!!

Hope Sharp – Retired NTMPNG

P.S. But wait! There’s more!!!! BREAKING NEWS!!!! Just as I finished writing the above a phone call came through. It was Catherine, the daughter of dear friend Jan. Catherine just happens to work for U-Haul and has graciously volunteered to do research and give us trustworthy input on how to work out the last leg of transporting all that remains in CA!!!! Please thank the Lord with us for Catherine, and the help she’ll be when the time comes to pull off the rest of this move! God is indeed at work on our behalf to see this through!!!!!!