The Move: Part Deux

Well, Nicki’s here in the living room doing yoga, so I figured what better time to write about reasons to celebrate God stretching our boundaries and moving us here to Staunton. The move is the dawn of our life together as DINKs (dual-income, no kids), professional counselors and charter members of a church plant. It marks our return to the mountains for which we longed in Mississippi, closeness to family, the Eastern Time zone and four seasons. It has thrown fuel on the fire of our passions, such as cycling, backpacking, running and generally being outside. What follows are a few of the details of why we love Staunton and that fuel our hope that this be the place God lets us put down roots.



Our house is awesome. Instead of an interstate highway, we have a soccer field. Instead of having noisy neighbors, we live on an island in a quiet neighborhood. The back porch is made for drinking coffee, hanging out and watching really bad NCAA Division III women’s soccer on the aforementioned soccer field. We have a basement in which to store our bikes, we have an upstairs where we have a guestroom. You really should visit.

Much credit is due to Mama and Papa Bear (my pet names for Paul and Jan Baran, my in-laws). They were our housing scouts and drove about 2 hours from Richmond twice during August to check out places we found on Craig’s List and others they found. They deserve praise for many things, but most of all for caring enough about our housing to refuse us the chance to use our own judgment. They showed us places we wanted them to see. So glad they were able to put eyes to the city and ears to the landlords.

We can walk almost anywhere we want to go: Church, downtown, the Y, grocery store Gypsy Hill Park. Another park, with 5 miles of running/MTB trails is 2 miles away. We can get to our favorite cycling routes out our back door instead of driving them 15 miles up an interstate to the starting point. Can’t tell you how much I appreciate those extra minutes of sleep on Saturday mornings!



This place is hilly! This is the view from the end of Johnson Street, which runs through downtown. The road hits a 19-percent grade just before its summit. For some perspective, consider that Alpe d’Huez doesn’t go steeper than 12 percent. Lance would have fun in our city.



Nicki has a nose for horses. She often rides Ohle, a Norwegian Fjord, at Cedar Creek Stables. When she moved to Jackson, she did an Internet search for barns in the area at which she could do chores and take lessons. That was part of the process for finding our friends Michele and Tim at what used to be the Mount Leopard Children’s Ranch between Pocahontas and Flora. Tim and Michele introduced Nicki to EAGALA, a certification organization for therapists who use horses as therapeutic tools. On a bike ride shortly after we moved, Nicki saw Cedar Creek’s shingle on Shutterlee Mill Road. It wasn’t long before she knocked on their door. She found that they already were involved in Ride With Pride, a NARHA program. Before Nicki showed up, the RWP coordinator, Debbie, had been wanting to bring on a Master’s-level therapist to open up the mental health side of equine therapy. Now, Nicki had had a lot of frustration finding a job up here, and the slowness of finding employment gave her time to search for a barn. Within a month, Nicki and Debbie were talking about including Nicki in grant writing, attending EAGALA certification weekends next year, and paying her a salary. How’s that for God’s provision?

Speaking of God’s provision, I have been employed with the Harrisonburg office of the League of Therapists, and I have just reached full-time status. That means I’m billing at least 100 client-contact hours per month. I call this my tent-making venture, because it’s giving us a regular paycheck and providing benefits while we also work with Journey Counseling Ministries, a biblically based counseling ministry started by John Kuebler, a fellow RTS Jackson graduate and an licensed professional counselor and marriage and family therapist on staff at Covenant PCA in H’burg. Nicki and I were approved to come on staff by the board of directors on Oct. 21. I saw my first client through JCM last week. Nicki is going to Lexington today to meet with a pastor down there who wants to give JCM office space to do work with their community, which includes two major college campuses, Virginia Military Institute and Washington & Lee University. Our practices are taking off, and we get free supervision toward state licensure through Kuebler and the League (Nicki is in talks to come on with the Waynesboro League office).

As you can see, God has taken care of us. I have only touched the surface. There will be much more to report; we’ve only been here two months. Look for Nick to let you in on our last-minute, overnight jaunt to the top of Elliott Knob. It’s the highest point in our county (4,600-plus feet), where Nicki took the sunrise pic at the top of the post, and the trailhead is less than 15 miles from our front door. Be jealous. Be very, very jealous.