June 2004

HEAVILIN HERALD

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. (Isaiah 43:2)

A WATER heater
A WATER tank
A WATER leak

Do you see a theme here?

Glen went to get our WATER heater replaced. On the way home, a tire blew. The rubber fragments punctured the gray WATER tank. We waited for two weeks for the gray water tank to arrive from California only to discover it had not been ordered! After much frustration, we decided to leave our home in the shop and we drove to Michigan for the Heavilin reunion. We then visited several aunts, uncles, and cousins in the Michigan area, enjoyed a trip to Lake Huron and then drove to some beautiful areas near Lake Michigan. We stayed two nights at a Holiday Inn in Elkart, Indiana. Friday night a very heavy rainstorm woke me up several times. On Saturday morning, I sat down to check my e-mail and noticed WATER on the computer keyboard! I looked up to the ceiling and saw that it was wet, but only one spot was actually dripping....right on the touch pad of the computer. I had a very sinking feeling as Glen held the computer up and we watched WATER drip out of it. It took three days for the computer to dry out and function properly.
In the meantime, we kept checking on the whereabouts of our much longed for WATER tank. For a while the factory in California claimed they had lost it! I’m having trouble imagining how one could lose something as large as a WATER tank. Just as everyone was claiming to be searching for it, the tank mysteriously appeared at the shop in North Carolina. All I can say is

HOME AT LAST, HOME AT LAST, PRAISE GOD, I’M HOME AT LAST!

Now that we are home, it is much easier to reflect on the great times we have had in the past three weeks of travel.
While we were in Petoskey, Michigan we were able to find the plaque on a

rock memorializing the crash of a B52 in 1971. Glen’s cousin Jerry Black died in that crash along with 8 other men. In God’s great timing, while we were at the rock, we met a man who cuts the grass at that rest area. He remembers the night of the crash and was able to share some very special details with us.
While in Indianapolis we had a wonderful visit with Glen’s brother George who is recovering from open heart surgery. Modern day medical science is amazing, isn’t it?
While we were driving through Kentucky, we decided to check in on Glen’s youngest sister who just bought a farm near Lexington. Ruth is enjoying every aspect of living in rural America. A nurse/midwife, she has cut her schedule to two days per week and now spends much of her time tending her little flock of ewes. I am in awe of this spunky little gal who has spent much of her life in cities and now she has “found” her true self in the hills of Kentucky.

We do have a prayer request. Glen has had a recurring back problem over the past years. The pain has chosen to recur this week. We have decided to enjoy a “lay over” here in Gastonia, hoping he will be rested up and ready to drive again tomorrow.
We are planning to arrive at Keswick on Monday or Tuesday, and then we will be planted for a while.

Marilyn Heavilin
author of Roses In December