The Job Search Is On

Well, back to the posting board again. During the last two weeks I have been on the job search a little more intensely. Two weekends ago I went to the University of Texas at Austin for a full day of interviewing for Teach for America. I think things went really well, and by April 13 I should know if they have accepted me into the core.

This week I talked to a small private school near my home about teaching Spanish, and they told me I could have the job, but the salary is too low to live on. Other than that, I am in contact with a few small schools around Texas. The starting salary at a public school is definitely sufficient for me at this stage of life, even for when Leslie and I get married.

Leslie is coming this weekend. I am to pick her up in San Antonio this Sunday morning. This is exciting because it is the first time for her to have a look into my life here in Abilene. Exciting times!

Punctured Tires

Tuesday morning I got up to enjoy a delicious breakfast of oatmeal with cinnamon and crepes with strawberry marmalade that Leslie’s mother made. Leslie and I later went to their old house in Chapala to pick up some gifts for my mom and sister. While we were driving over to the other neighborhood, suddenly my car ran over something and made a terrible horrendous noise, but because my tire did not go flat, I assumed it was OK.

After we went back to Leslie’s house in Lerdo, I packed up everything and said my final goodbyes to all the family (lots of extended family was there eating at the restaurant). I loaded into my faithful old car and headed out on the Boulevard Miguel Aleman. Thousands and thousands of people were lining the boulevard at that hour for a huge parade that was soon to began. I had a vision in which all those people were anxiously awaiting the Messiah instead of the parade. I long to see the day in which metropolises like the Laguna will in unity seek the coming of our Savior.

I continued on to Torreon to meet Brother Ernesto Lomas (a friend of my grandfather’s since the 1940’s). We met and went to get gasoline, and while I was filling up, he started checking my fluids and tires. One tire was 15 lbs. low, so we inspected the rubber. To our surprise there was a huge piece of metal sticking out of the tire! I praise God he showed us that before we set out for the endless deserts of northern Mexico. Although almost everything in the city was closed for the holiday, we found a small tire shop that was open. The quiet old man repaired my tire for $8, and Ernesto and I set out on the road only 1 hour later than we had planned.

More adventures to come… and hopefully some pictures.

In a Small Town

Thank all of you guys who were praying for my preaching last night. I was feeling a little out of place to be back in the pulpit, but the Spirit gave me the words and the fluency I needed. Many people expressed that they were edified and encouraged, and I praise God for glorifying his name through me.

I gotta go meet Leslie now. She gets off of work in a few minutes.

Finally in Mexico

Well, I finally made it to Mexico. I drove down in to the border on Friday, but I had to return all the way back to Coleman because at the Mexican immigration chech they demanded that I bring back my old car and cancel the permission before I register another car to go into Mexico. That was extremely frustrating, but I trust that God had a reason. Needless to say, I made the trip twice.

I have been having a great time here, and I am preparing to teach tomorrow night about Mission. I hope to get you more news soon. I have neither internet nor telephone where I am staying, but I will do my best to catch you all up soon.

God bless!

Friday Night Fiesta

Last night several of my dear friends and I gathered at Jorge and Peggy's house to hang out and have a good time. Probably about half of the people that came are from FountainGate (my church family). We started out just chatting and laughing together in the living room. Scrappy (the dog) was really excited when I got there. He has really missed his parents since they traveled, and I am a familiar face (or smell as it may be for a dog) to him.

After a while they turn on music and the girls started to have fun moving to the music (most of the music was Latin, my favorite). I was in the other room talking to Leslie on the phone when this started, and when I came back to the living room, all the guys were just sitting around, so I joined in the middle and began moving too, even tough my ability to choreograph moves is basically non-existent :P haha

After that the guys came along, and we all really enjoyed ourselves. It is nice to be able to dance in an environment that is clean and safe. That is one of the few environments in which I have actually danced (moving the body to music) outside of a congregational praise setting (not counting when I just get after it when I am all alone).

In my opinion dancing, just like all other activities in life, should be an act of worship to God, even if we are not in church. If my dancing is not bringing glory to the King I represent, I better just give it up.

After the dance session, four of the guys gave us a musical performance as a group, and then I performed my whole repertoire of one song. It was hilarious.

Well, I took some pictures for you guys just as we were about to go home. Sorry that I missed most of the action. Enjoy.

I fell out of the chair while shooting this.

_
_
The band adoring the pictures from their photo shoot.

That is an awesome bag of chips Eddy has!

_____ Esmeralda & Megan ____ _________ Marcela _________

My Sister Sarah

My sister Sarah came to see me today. She lives in a small town an hour away from Abilene (where I live). She is so special to me! I cannot even describe with words how dear she is to my heart. I think the intensity of the feeling of love is similar to intensity you would feel toward the one you love, but it is a brother-sister love.

Sarah is a young lady who loves the Lord and desires to please him. She is friendly, pleasant and just about everybody loves and respects her. Even though she is only 13-years-old, I can talk with her about deep spiritual matters, and she understands and is able to engage meaningful conversation at those profound levels. I have no doubt that she is, and will be, a power servant of God.

...oh, did I say that she is BEAUTIFUL !!! ???

(note: the shade of brown that you see in her eyes, that is the color my eyes were until I started college. Then they started turning green.)

Day in ISS

Tuesday night I was called back for an interview with Teach for America. I am thankful to be considered worthy of an interview. I will travel to Austin the weekend of March 25-26, and my interviews will be held all day Monday the 27th. The prospects are exciting, but also quite humbling considering the task.

I spent part of a day in an ISS (in-school-suspension) class today as a substitute teacher. I felt like I was trying to maintain order in a juvenile detention center, but with no arms and no recognized authority. It was like a madhouse, but none-the-less, an important learning experience for me. I had kids laugh at me, threaten me, smoke in the bathroom connected to our room, and more... There were only about 30 suspended students in my class.

I started taking students to the office to try to bring order, but I had to quit because the principals were not in their offices to deal with the students. One young lady even ran out of class without my permission. I ran after her and escorted her to the office.

When the coach who regularly babysits in ISS finally came to class, the students suddently returned to their seats and showed respect. I had been had. After a few minutes, I asked to be excused, and I left to recover the lunch that I had missed to babysit the discipline class. I have been reflecting on that experience all afternoon.

To Sleep in Brazil

On my Multiply site, you can see where I have posted the lyrics of Brazilian lullabies bi-lingually for my Portuguese class. There are also short explanations of each song. They were given the CD's at the beginning of the semester, but I did not give them the lyrics.

As the weeks go by, the are able to access more of the lyrics to explain what they have been hearing as they listened. I only have 3 songs listed so far. I think you might really enjoy them.

Spring Break in Planning

I talked to Leslie tonight, and it looks like we will be meeting in Saltillo on Friday, March 10. She needs to travel to Saltillo to turn in some papers for her magisterial work, so I am currently planning to drive there to meet her. We would stay with her uncle's family and then drive to Torreón/Gómez Palacio.

I am looking forward to that trip. I will hopefully remember to take my camera along this time so I can take pictures of beautiful sites along the way, and also have some better photos of Leslie to show you. That Wednesday night I am have been asked by the pastor of Leslie's church to speak to the church about missions. I don't know yet how I will focus a single half-hour period when I studied missions for seven years, but I trust the Holy Spirit to help me prepare and lead me as I speak.

If you would like to see more photos of Leslie and me, you can visit my photo page.

Am I Going to Teach?

Today I finally was able to mail in the application for the program I Teach Texas. If I am able to get accepted, I will be able to take a job teaching Spanish in the public schools in Texas as soon as a job opens up. I would have to teach for a year with supervision, and then I would be certified to teach Spanish. I pray that God will open up this opportunity.



I have also applied to a second alternative certification program called Teach for America. This program sends teachers-in-training to a low-income school in the U.S. to teach for two years. They say this program is really challenging because you are sent to one of the hardest, and sometimes most violent schools in the nation. I think my chances of getting accepted are not to high.

If I were to begin teaching in the public schools, that sure would help me to get stablized financially. I pray that this will work out, but I trust the Lord will take care of me regardless. He is faithful.

La casa de Tio Saul

Brian and Leslie in the front entrance of the house.

. . . more photos at http://bdh98a.multiply.com/photos

Blitz Trip to Saltillo

Hey Guys,

Back to the exciting trip to Saltillo... Two weeks ago on Saturday night I was talking with Leslie, and she told me that the next weekend she was going to need to travel to the capital of the state she teaches in to straighten out some things for her magisterial (post-graduate teacher's) degree. I got the crazy idea that I could spend the next week working and getting ready and maybe drive down to meet her in Saltillo to visit her and her Uncle Saul (with whom she was going to stay).

Near the end of our conversation, she told me that I may not have understood the dates of her trip correctly, but, "I am leaving tomorrow." WOW! I was a week off in my calculations. By that bit of information, that meant that I would have to leave in like... 8 hours from that moment instead of 8 days. And the drive to Saltillo from Abilene, about 13 hours.

Well, I pack up, shut my eyes for a few moments, and set out the next morning. We had a marvelous long weekend there with her brother Oscar and her Uncle Saul's family. It was freezing cold up in the mountains (Saltillo is a mile-high city like Denver). One night it got down to about 25ºF.

My trip was also beautiful because I passed over several huge mountain ranges along the way. The trip down there I crossed the mountains by moonlight, and I cannot even begin to tell the majesty of those moonlit mountain silhouettes at night.

Leslie and I are very thankful to God for the trips he has allowed us to make this semester to spend time together. I plan to travel to Gómez Palacio again in March to spend a week with her family and church. God has been good.

My Mentors

Peggy and Jorge

We had a leadership breakfast this morning with the leaders of our church, and I took this picture of Jorge and Peggy there. Beautiful couply, aren't they!

You should click on the images and see them full size; they are pretty neat.
Debe de clicar en las fotos para ver el tamaño original; son muy interesantes.

Ice a Comin'

Have you ever had the desire to just get up and leave the country? Well, I had that desire last Thursday night, and I'll have to tell you all about it. I had an amazing trip to Saltillo, Mexico. There are details you won't want to miss.

We are supposed to have ice here tonight and tomorrow. I don't currently have my camera, but I plan to go pick it up in a few minutes. I hope that if ice falls, I can take some pictures for you so that you can see what an ice storm looks like here in West Texas. In the meantime, I am going to bundle up and stay warm.

God's Amazing Provision Today

As I have been learning to trust the Lord fully to provide for me financial in this new phase of my life, he keeps pouring on blessings. His miraculous work in my life has been far beyond my wildest imagination. After I made a weekly tithing commitment to the Lord for this year based on an estimated salary that I had no promise of receiving, he spoke through a sister-in-Christ three weeks ago at our life group meeting on Wednesday night. As my group prayed over me on behalf of my girlfriend's health, Sister Cathy received a word from God and said it to me in the presence of the others. The Lord had showed her that He would provide for me financially in ways that I could not even imagine. I just needed to walk in complete trust. The Lord has answered that prayer over and over in ways that I truly never imagined.

1. The next day, Thursday, I received an email from one of my students requesting to have private Portuguese classes separate from the class, and she was willing to pay the extra costs.
2. The day after that I was contacted by another student who wanted me to begin to teach him Spanish. Again, unexpected income.
3. This week a brother-in-Christ who has noticed my need for a new car bought me a more recent automobile! (he chooses to remain anonymous) I was flabbergasted! I could only give praise to God!
4. And yesterday I found out that I might be able enter a program very soon that would certify me to teach Spanish in Texas, and I could begin teaching as soon as I find a job opening in Texas. I would stay here for a year through that process before possibly moving to Mexico.

I had felt almost hopeless about getting a good job because of my lack of specialization in my studies, but God is opening the doors! I can't thank him or praise him enough. May he receive all the glory! His is faithful to provide abundantly when we fully turst in him. May you be encouraged with these words.

The Muslim-American Dream

Thank you guys for the responses you made about the purpose of life. I can see that you have had your eyes opened to God's glory and the exciting purpose and promise he has for you.

I have come across something else that is very interesting. This video is about Texan Muslims who have converted from popular Christianity. Most of them from deep denominational roots. Take a look at this video and lets talk about what this reveals about "popular Christianity" in America. Listen to what the Muslims say about their reasons to convert, and listen to the shallow, uncompassionate responses that Christians give to the questions the interviewer asks.

I found this article on a friend's blog in Massamá, Portugal: Igreja Simples, by Nuno Barreto

Purpose?

Hey guys. I have a question that I would like to have your feedback on.

What is the purpose of life?

You can leave your answers as comments.