Update

This is from an email I sent to a couple of friends about how we're doing here...

Things with me and Jake are going great. He started a job here on Monday and is getting acclimated. I think it’s going to be a great opportunity for him with this company. He’ll be managing cases of severely mentally disturbed adults and helping them with life skills. For example, he has an alcoholic agoraphobic 63 year old man on his case right now. How do you help a guy that is addicted to alcohol but afraid to leave his place to go buy some? Jake’s been doing a ton of research and taking some classes to equip him for these cases. I think it’s way interesting.

I’m doing really good too. At first I was so bored because they’ve been operating for so long without me. I didn’t really know where I was going to fit in and what my purpose was going to be… so I’ve just been sitting back and observing. And you guys know me, I can’t stand to not DO or SAY something so it’s been hard. But then things have come up that they haven’t know what to do about (conflict with leaders, parent issues, spiritual formation and teaching, etc.) and I’m starting to understand more and more that God brought me here because I’ve been through so much with Adventure and have something to teach the staff out here. It’s pretty awesome.

The kids and leaders here couldn’t have given me a more warm welcome --- tons of cheers and hellos when they had me on stage. Very very sweet. I’ve even been to a football game with the whole group. I guess I made headlines with some of the veterans and staff of this church – it’s 50 years old. I am the only woman on staff that is called “pastor”. For some people I’ve had to just try and win them over with my good looks --- JK JK JK. LOL It was a challenge. I had one bad day with it. But now it’s actually going good. I think those people have warmed up to me. I’ve spent ALL of my time meeting with leaders and parents so that I can connect with them on a heart level before I lead them. I’ll have my first leader meeting at our house (SO COOL) on October 8th. And the student ministries staff here is great. We had them over for dinner and Wii Thursday night and had a blast. God is definitely taking care of us in all areas of our lives.

Well, that's it. I'll keep you posted as we experience more in this desert land!

PS - The sand storm didn't freak us out. We're definitely experiencing crazy weather.