Our Last Night As Residents of Tucson

Ten months have flown by. It seems like just a few days ago we were driving up to our house in Tucson and unloading all of our earthly possessions. Tonight we are packing the last of our belongings, using the last of the tape and packing paper, cleaning out shelves, cleaning the floor under our washer and dryer and a million other tasks. Tomorrow at 8:00am, two professional loaders will start loading all our stuff and later in the day we'll drive four or five hours into New Mexico.

During a break today, I started a mental list of all the things we'll miss. First, we met some wonderful people here in Tucson. The church we came to serve has some great people in the congregation. We have made some lifelong friends here, and we're going to miss them.

We're going to miss the weather. Last Christmas may be the only time Shawn and I wear shorts and tee shirts to put up our Christmas lights on our house. The mild weather was so easy to get used to. Since we live on the eastern edge of Tucson, and our subdivision doesn't have any street lights, we are going to miss the panorama of stars every night. With only 12 inches of rain per year, almost every night is clear, and the beauty of the night sky is incredible.

We're going to miss seeing the mountains. Tucson is surrounded on all four sides by mountains. We're going to miss watching the A-10 Warthog fighter jets flying in formations near our house. Today I watched two jets take off from the Air Force base and watched one of the large transport jets come in to land. At 5:00pm every afternoon, if the wind is blowing just right, you can hear our national anthem being played on the base.

I personally am going to miss all the Hispanic people here, and hearing Spanish being spoken all around me. I have never lived in a place with so many of my own people. I have loved it. I love the diversity of the people. In April I worked the eleven days of our county fair. It was a people-watchers paradise. What fun, and great interaction. I enjoyed every minute of it. The Mexican food in Tucson is fantastic. There is no where else like the Southwest for great Mexican food. We're going to miss it.

We arrived in Tucson, full of optimism and ready to roll up our sleeves and get to work. Kathy and I could have had a long term positive impact on this church and surrounding community. While we are disappointed it didn't work out for us, we are taking a lot of positive feelings and memories of Tucson. Hasta luego, Tucson.