By Tina Teng-Henson

Loving Our Neighbors

After too many years of wondering if my husband John’s love for his parents might compel us to move to Louisville, Kentucky – which still might happen someday – there’s time to love the people we get to live next door to. 

Three families all in a row have children who were born on July 14th! (Who knew Halloween was such a popular time for conception? ;D) 

Bellomy comes from the French for “beautiful friend,” and that was what I sensed God might have for us if we were to obey his leading to prayerfully stay put and remain here. That we might remain and become beautiful friends to many, an anchor family in a region where so many come and go because the cost of living is so high. 

There’s been time to get to know Tim – who is a descendant of Johann Sebastian Bach! – and teaches piano at San Francisco Conservatory. His lovely wife Milena teaches opera, and loves cats. Our recent adoption of two kittens has allowed us to bond in a special way with her! 

How did we get to know them? Well, we haven’t yet had the time to have them all over for dinner (forthcoming) – but we got to attend their opera students’ excellent concluding concert this summer and last summer. 

Somehow, there’s been time for music and for new friendship… with wonderful neighbors. Amidst the business of life. 

Expansion

By God’s grace, there’s been time to work on a house expansion. 

We bought our little California bungalow 4.5 years ago, knowing it would be “just right” and “suitable” but ultimately not large enough for our long-term needs. Presently there are 5 of us, 2 cats, and lots of books. 

But after 4.5 years of patient waiting and saving, by God’s grace, we’re ready! We’ve planned with our wonderful general contractor and architect what we need for the next stage of life. 

A second full bathroom, an additional bedroom with a walk-in closet, a larger living room for hosting meals, and removing the chimney that ends up being decorative because the weather is so wonderful, year-round. 

My lurking anxieties have been as follows:

• What will moving necessitate?! 
• When will it happen? 
• Where will we go? 

I can’t answer any of these questions while we wait to hear back from our city for approval. 

So what I have done is invest bits of time into going through our possessions and giving away as much of it as I can. Because of our Buy Nothing neighborhood group on Facebook, I can do it lovingly. 

It’s been such a blessing to spend little bits of time matching our items with our  neighbor’s needs. We give away a LOT, AND we’ve for sure received far more from the group than we’ve distributed!  God in his unexpected bounty just blesses us through that group and also blesses others through our abundance. 

But the best part is that whenever we figure out our temporary move out date… I’ll know what we own and why. So packing should be a lot simpler. And we’ll move out somewhere close to where we presently live, so we can keep an eye on the work.

Somehow there’s time to keep, and a time to throw away. Thank you, Lord, for giving me enough time for this process. 

I could go on and on, but now it’s time for the making of breakfast and the sending of children off to school. After that, there’s a day of conferencing an hour north. So I’ll leave you, gentle reader, to greet your day with Ecclesiastes 3. May it bless and anchor you to our good Lord and his perfect provision. May he make your day both suitable and beautiful. 

Tina Teng-Henson is now the Discipleship Pastor for Peninsula Covenant Church. She recently completed Spiritual Direction training and loves to write when opportunities avail themselves. She and her husband John have three energetic children, two cats, and a lovely backyard in Santa Clara, CA. Come visit!