Waiting on the Lord, changes at work, Ebola

Mama and I made a counter offer yesterday afternoon but have not heard back from the seller. Mama is tired of haggling and wants to get on with the sale. I am curious to see what God is doing in the delay. There is always a higher purpose and it is rare we get to see all the nuances of God’s hidden works but I think in this one we will get some insight into how we are being led, blessed and protected.

One outcome of the slow progression of the negotiations has been our introduction to another lender. One of the problems with buying land is that many banks will not finance the purchase. Those that will have lending tools that do not necessarily treat the buyer very well. Most land loans are written with a set period of time - usually five to seven years – that the loan will run followed by a balloon payment for the remainder of the load at which time the borrower is either reevaluated for extending the loan for another provisional term (at the prevailing rate at that moment) or required to pay off the loan in full. Not the best customer product on the market.

Our realtor gave us the contact information for another lender that will do the land loan on a conventional loan; one that establishes terms that will carry through the length of the loan. That would definitely be my preference. I will be getting all the required information to that bank this morning in hopes of meeting with the lender on Friday or early next week.

At work, the official announcement was made that my boss will be leaving for another position. He is going back to what his expertise is in – Liquefied Natural Gas. He will be leaving at the end of this month. In ways it is a good thing for us as an organization; in way not so much. Time will tell.

With the first acknowledged case of Ebola now announced in Dallas, it puts a special sort of angst in the air here. We are distanced enough from the area that there is not the panic that seems to be building at that local level; especially since there are school age children involved. I do not know where the truth is but it seems to be believable that the infection is pretty difficult to contract. If not the infectious rate in Africa would be far higher.

It also seems to be fact that it is frightfully expensive to treat but that it can be successfully treated. An outbreak of the disease in our country would quickly overwhelm our health care system.  It is a frightening scenario. For a potentially lethal disease, it is getting a lot softer sell that the normal hype that accompanies “flu season”. Perhaps that is due to the lack of marketable vaccine.

Liberal use of soap and hot water for hand cleaning is always a good preventive measure – especially until we know more. I would not trust the alcohol based hand wash solutions so ubiquitous in our lives right now. They are great for bacterial control but not too much for virus containment.

I am more concerned about the infected minors that have been inserted into communities across the US and the disease they are transmitting to our school age children than I am bout an Ebola patient. It is a little overwhelming to think of where this could end.

Fortunately, God is still in control.