MOVING RIGHT IN
Accepting a new call does have to mean several years of feeling (and playing) the stranger.
Douglas G. Scott
October 1, 1987
My wife and I nervously looked right and then left as we scanned the pleasant tree-lined street for house numbers. The magic number was 92, the rectory of the church I had just been called to serve, but all we saw were dozens of seemingly numberless houses. We were anxious for our first glimpse of the house we would call home. We had followed the moving van for 150 miles. The driver led us through a labyrinth of streets and back roads. Friends will have to find us, I thought. I'll never be able to find my way out. The van stopped in front of a nondescript house with a leaf-strewn lawn. While there was nothing to distinguish it as a rectory (the church itself was about four miles away), the key was underneath the front mat, just as one of the board members had promised. "There probably won't be anyone there to greet you," he had said. But someone had pinned a note to the front door saying, "Welcome to your new home!" Busy hours passed, and when the truck was finally unloaded and the movers gone, Jane and I surveyed the impassable mountain of book boxes. Drawing herself out of her fatigue, she said, "Well, we better get to the supermarket or we'll die of starvation." We both stood up and headed for the door. Then I stopped, and we looked at each other. Jane asked tentatively, "Do you know where the supermarket is?" "I don't know where anything is." With a flash of inspiration, I grabbed the telephone and juggled the handset while I fumbled in my wallet for the church phone number. I dialed, listened to three rings, then four, and then heard the cheery voice of the church secretary electronically proclaim, "There is no one here to help you now, but plan to come to church this Sunday and meet our new rector!" They'd have to find me ...
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