October 17, 2008

Greetings from central Illinois; 

A warm welcome to our website for those who are visiting for the first time, as we are presently making many new contacts in the central Illinois area.  We look forward to a long-lasting musical friendship with those whom we are now just meeting through Salty Strings music.  We'd also like to say "hello" to our many friends we left behind in California, especially to those at Rim of the World Community Church, who we miss very much. 

It's good to be back in the Midwest and at home in our "new" house in Weldon, about halfway between Bloomington and Decatur, Illinois. We have been on staff as part time Music and Worship Leaders at Crestview Christian Church in Decatur for about eight months now, and it's turning out to be a real good fit.  We feel we can fill a definite need in this church, and the position has potential to grow in the future.  John is in the process of looking for a part time "day job", and Connie is about 2-3 weeks from graduating from her schooling in medical transcription, so hopefully she can also find some good work in her new field of expertise.

The search for further employment has been hampered by the fact that we've been spending half of our time at John's parents house about 2-1/2 hours away because of his dad's illness.  His Father passed away on September 18, so one of us is still going over 3 days a week to help his mom with paperwork, bills & such, and to help her make the adjustment as she goes through this time of grief.  She's doing pretty well, so we will be visiting less now and spending more time looking for work.  It's been tough financially, but it's getting better and we haven't missed any meals.

We have made a good start to successful music ministry here, having played for numerous senior living facilities, a couple of churches, and some community events.  Our house in California finally sold, and we took a sizable loss on the property, but now we are able to move forward  with our lives and music without the financial burden that we put ourselves under with that house.  Our "new" home has been a work in progress, but we got it cheap as a fixer-upper, so the mortgage is very low.

Thanks to God for the blessings He's already shown us, for all our old and new friends on our journey, and for the miracles to come!

Thanks for reading - until next edition, God's richest blessings to you all.

John and Connie