Well, it has been a long time since we have posted an update to our blog. The past few months have flown by quickly and we are amazed at the working of God in our lives.
November was difficult with the passing of Brian's Grandmother at the beginning of the month. We spent a couple weekends in Pennsylvania with Brian's family, mourning and rejoicing in the grace and love of God demonstrated through his Grandmother's life.
We spent Thanksgiving with Aunt Cindy in Boston, enjoying much quality time with Cindy, Chris, Dan, Ben and Matty. It was a great time and was even better when Chris and Dan changed their plans and decided to stay in Mass and were able to spend Thanksgiving with us and Aunt Cindy.
December was filled with celebrations, youth and church events, and time with family. Our youth group hosted a successful ham and turkey dinner fundraiser for our trip to Florida in July 2007. We spent time with Karen's coworkers at a Christmas party and then left for Pennsylvania. We observed Christmas and spent Christmas morning with Brian's family for the first time. It was a joy to spend Christmas morning with Brian's sister and her young kids, even though some of them were a little sick. After spending some time in PA, we headed out to Michigan to spend a few days with Karen's G-Ma and Aunt and Cousins, and sisters. It was a good time with family but unfortunately, Karen was constrained to the couch for most of the visit, struggling with a fever and sickness.
January was an exciting month. We spent much time doing fundraisers with our youth group, and Brian began to focus on finishing his thesis and finding a job and our church plant began meeting more regularly for prayer, worship, and organizational meetings. January passed quickly into February. We worked more on fundraisers, a Father/Daughter dinner for Valentine's day. The evening was attended by several father/daughter couples and every father expressed great joy and gratitude when leaving, most saying that they had never spent so much quality time with their daughters. To God be the glory.
February also saw Brian received two interview opportunities, one in Boston and another in St. Louis. So, for Karen's February break, we traveled to Aunt Cindy's house and visited Boston, Karen and Cindy walked around the city and visited an amazing museum while Brian interviewed for the position. We had to return early from our trip to Boston so that Brian could quickly fly to St. Louis for another interview.
March began with us waiting to hear from Harvard, St. Louis, MD Anderson, U of Michigan, and
Azusa Pacific University, regarding possible job
opportunities. Brian was a finalist at Harvard, St. Louis, U of Mich, and
Azusa Pacific and received his first offer from Harvard. After praying, and praying and praying some more, we decided that we would accept the offer from Harvard. Also during the month of March, we planned and held more fundraising events for our youth group.
Brian has recently submitted the final copy of his thesis to the Dean's office and has confirmed his defense date in April. He will begin his position at Harvard (a postdoctoral fellowship position) after the youth group trip to LIFE 2007, in Orlando FL in July.
During this entire time, Karen has been very busy teaching her middle school students. The
work is very stressful as she continues to learn how to work with
IEP students and some very difficult students. Most of her students are doing great work and love her teaching. She is now looking at next year while spending most of her time and energy doing her best to finish this year well. We aren't certain if she will continue to teach next year or look at working in another field. We are both extremely excited by the prospect of living in the second most Brazilian populated area in the country and the
opportunities that Karen will have given her love of people and cultures and her fluency in three languages.
We are continuing to work extensively with our youth group, leading Bible studies and fundraisers, and providing overall guidance in life. The church plant is continuing to meet more regularly, having Bible studies at least twice a month, prayer meetings and organization meetings each once a month, and meeting for services about once a month. When we are not working with the Church plant, we are working with our original home church, helping to lead worship and coordinate the church's assistance with youth group fundraisers.
Prayer requests:
Youth group fundraisers; we have raised $2400 and we need at least $6000 more ($3600 more before May 18).
We have several upcoming fundraisers.
Karen: for her teaching and energy levels. May she continue to learn the best ways to teach her students.
Karen: Direction when searching for possible jobs for next year and energy to pray for next year.
Brian: Defends thesis on April 23. Needs to finish a couple papers for publication before starting his position at Harvard.
Brian: Contacts for research at Harvard.
Us: Contacts in Boston in the Brazilian community and churches in the city
Us: Living situation in Boston; should we rent or buy? Which neighborhood?
Us: Wisdom, grace and love in our leadership roles in the youth group, church plant, and home church.
Labels: Future
