A New Opportunity

For a long time, Kara and I thought that what we would do after our two years in Guatemala would be moving to Kentucky so that I could study some more in seminary. That's something that I have wanted to do for a while, we still have friends there from college, there would be good opportunities for ministry, and a lot of other positive things about it. So, I applied and up until about a month and a half ago, that is what we thought we were doing. All along, however, our plans were contingent on getting good scholarship offers to be able to study. We were very surprised when we found out the seminary was offering us $0.00 in scholarships, and knew immediately that plan was not going to become a reality.

The seminary I was going to attend allows churches to post openings for jobs on its website, so after the news about the scholarships, I began browsing through those listings and found two positions that seemed very interesting to me. One was a college ministry position at a church in MO, and the other was at a church in TX. I sent in resumes for both, and as the interview process went along, the TX position started to seem like it could be a really good fit.

The process kept moving along with them, and they invited me up for an interview. I flew to TX, and everything went very well. They offered me the job, and I accepted. So as of July 15 I will be the Director of Discipleship at First UMC of Midland.

I am very, very excited about this job for a couple of reasons. One is that it will give me the opportunity to focus on what drives me in ministry- discipleship. What I want to do more than anything else in ministry is to be effective in helping people who have an interest in learning to live their lives from Jesus to know how they can do so, and that will be my primary responsibility in this church.

The other huge plus about this job is that it's in Midland! (It's where I grew up- about a half hour from my family's ranch). I love West Texas and being able to be near my parents, but I didn't really think living there would ever be on our radar again. We're so thankful, though, that this really seems like an opportunity that Lord has thrown open for us. So hello Rosa's, Taco Villa, and Whataburger!

Kara and I are going through a weird mix of emotions right now between excitement about this new job and dread of leaving NLCH. We love this ministry and could not be associated with anything of which we are more proud, and the hold these kids have on our hearts isn't going away any time soon.

We will move back to the States on June 27. I will attend a staff retreat for the church, then we'll work on getting our things moved from being stored at my brother's house in Atlanta and Kara's parents' house in St. Louis. (We're trying to figure out the best method of doing so; none of them will be fun.) We're disappointed that we will be leaving NLCH a little bit earlier than we had planned, as our two years would have ended in early August. However, we would have had to come back a little bit early anyway since our baby is due to be born on September 7.

Plus, we know that the truth is that a good, easy, or convenient time to leave Guatemala never would have come. One of my heroes, Stu, put it well when he told us that we never would have ended up in Guatemala in the first place and had the opportunity to know these kids if we had not been following the Lord, willing to be obedient to whatever He has for us. And it's the same now- we can't do anything else but continue following Him into this new opportunity.

Trick Candles

On Wednesday evenings, we have been studying the book of John with our discipleship group. Last week's lesson was on John 3 and the story of Nicodemus. At the end of the lesson, we gave each youth a piece of cake with two candles -- one to represent their physical birth and one their spiritual birth. The point was to thank God for each and blow out the candles. Unfortunately, Daniel and I bought birthday candles from the local grocery store and did not realize that they were trick candles. So, after they gave thanks and blew out the candles, the candles re-lit automatically.... over and over again. We couldn't get them to go out and our apartment was filled with smoke. Finally, we had to bring over a bowl of water to toss the candles in. It ruined the mood of the lesson and the kids seemed confused as to if that was what we had planned, but it did make for a funny memory.

Happy 1st Birthday, Michelle!

Michelle's long-awaited first birthday was on Friday. We set a table in the middle of the dining hall with Michelle as the centerpiece and her brothers and sister joining her. Then everyone got a cupcake, including Michelle for the first time. She didn't care for eating it very much, but had fun smushing it in her hands.

We are very thankful that God has had His hand on this little girl and that she has made it through a tough first year. Getting to birthday number one really was a reason to celebrate. We also pray that her second year can be less tough, more fun.

Giggling Michelle... with teeth!

Happy Birthday Estela and Giovani

Our two most recent birthdays were Estela (25) and Giovani (10).



Tomorrow is a big one as Michelle turns 1!

Baptism Service

Twelve of our kids recently expressed interest in getting baptized, so they all participated in a baptism service together at our church, which was a really neat experience. Enjoy the video below. (Their order in the video is Eslin, Rebeca, Brenda, Marta, Delia, Jenifer, María, Daniel, Salomón, Elías, Rubén, Alex).

Michelle's teeth

Michelle is growing and changing in so many ways. She now has teeth! They have come in so quickly in the past few weeks -- two on the bottom, then two on the top, and now we can see two more on the top starting to come in.... just in time for her to eat a piece of cake when she celebrates her first birthday this Friday!

Happy Birthday, Eduardo

Thursday was Eduardo's 22nd birthday. It was also Labor Day in Guatemala, which meant that all of the kids had the day off of school. There is a team of college students here from Florida State University right now so they did fun activities with the kids that day. We also had a picnic lunch in the garden. During the picnic, we sang and had cake for Eduardo. One of the little guys who was standing next to him apparently became concerned that it wouldn't be as special for Eduardo if the lights weren't out while his birthday candles were lit. I saw him raise his face toward heaven and ask quietly, "Jesus, can you turn out the lights for just a minute?"