ELMER AND ANNA ARE BACK !!!

Anna and I are back from our trip to Pennsylvania.  What started as just a trip with Hannah and Moses to see a store and house they are thinking of buying there.  They wanted to know what we thought of it.  Well, our opinion is not really a honest one as we wish they wouldn't move, but we also understand that they must do what they feel the Lord wants them to do.

Anyway, Eli and his wife went along, and John and Sarah with little John, so we had a bigger group than we first started our with.  All of us wanted to also visit family and friends.  So went spent a lot of time visiting folks, sitting around talking and eating.  Anna and I think we put some weight on from this trip.

We had to agree that the place Hannah and Moses are thinking of buying is nice.  The store already is established and has a large local business plus tourists during the Spring, Summer and Fall seasons.  Most of the business is Amish and Mennonite, but like I said there are also tourists.

Next door is the house which is two stories.  There are more than enough bedrooms and alike for their family.  The only thing they would want to do is put in bathrooms with indoor plumbing.  There are outhouses at this house.  The only time you have indoor plumbing is when you run outside, pump the water and run it inside.  Moses got a rough estimate from a plumber to see what it would cost to put it in and it was a lot.  The Amish couple, they are thinking of buying the house from, said that some of the local Amish would help, which would bring down the bill.

It is a hard decision for Hannah and Moses to make.  I wouldn't want to have to make it.  It is a nice place, I have to admit that.  It is an established business.  But on the other hand, they would be leaving family and friends.  When you consider the cost of putting plumbing in the house and the cost of moving - that adds on to the cost.  Moses said they wish they could move that store to New York and they would happy, but they can't.

We also discussed what it would cost to establish a store like that in New York State.  What it would cost to purchase a building, stock it, hire employees and get established.  Eli led us in a lot of prayers when we discussed all this.

While there, as I said, we also visited friends and relatives - even stayed in their homes.  Also, went to some of the local flea markets.  On Sunday, we went to church in one of their's home.  Some of them tried to encourage us to move back to Pennsylvania.  But Anna and I plan on staying where we are unless we get some knowledge from God we should do otherwise.  So far, we haven't gotten that knowledge.

It was nice to leave, but it is always nice to come back home.  Jean, David and their family watched over our farm while we were gone.  Of course our milking equipment had problems while we were gone - it never does when we are home.  In fact, it never happened before. It was working fine when we got home.  Didn't know until David came over and told us.

When it happened, Jean said to call us and ask before they repaired it.  But David said it doesn't matter  if they called us or not - it still had to be fixed.  So he got it fixed.  We did lose the milk from a couple of milkings, but it could have been worse.  We agreed with David that he did the right thing.

Well, hope you enjoyed hearing about our trip.

Trust God's Wisdom,
Elmer