We So Excited

We are currently one week away from the start of Staff Training for the upcoming school year and I’m not gonna lie … I’m excited! (But I'm not as excited as this) I can’t wait to get into the grind of the school year and see what God has in store for our community up here. I think that thing that I am most pumped up for is to meet the students and to start building relationships with them. This past year, while I was a student, the teachers had a huge impact on my life and it was not only with their knowledge in the classroom; but it was more because of the way that they took time out of their own lives to invest in mine. I desire to make that same impact on the students this year!

As we approach August, I ask that you would please pray for the school. Pray that God will show up and that he will move within the community. That he will reveal his character to the students and that they will continue to fall more in love with him over the year as they work through the Bible. I ask that you please pray for me and that he will give me the confidence to stand up and present his word and truth to the students. That I would not be distracted by my own ambitions to be a good teacher, but that I will be more concerned with how he is going to use me to present his truths to the students. I want to be focused on what he has for them and what they are going to learn from the books that I teach; rather than how I look up there in front of the class.

I can’t wait for this year to start and to see what God is going to do in my life and in the lives of the students and other staff! Thank you so much for your prayers!

Texas Forever!

My favorite line from any movie or TV show has to come from the 1st episode from the TV series 'Friday Night Lights'. In the episode there is a scene where one of the main characters named Tim Riggins holds up a beer and toasts his best friend and the star of the football team and says "Texas Forever!" I felt like this was an appropriate statement because that is the current state of mind that I am in right now. On July 3^rd I flew back from the “Motherland” aka Texas back up to the cooler and less humid state of North Carolina. However even though it does feel good to be back what I guess I can now call “home” (feeling good both physically – its about 10-20 degrees cooler here – and emotionally – vacation stresses me out at times and I don’t know why) I can honestly say that I miss Texas.

I had a great trip home. I got to spend a lot of quality time with my nephew Lukas which was awesome because at 8 months he is fun to interact with and everything to him is interesting. I had the pleasure of babysitting him a couple of times while my sister went out and ran some errands and I felt like we had some quality bonding time. We did some real man stuff like work on his tool bench, play on his laptop and watch MTV (just kidding about that last one Tori … it was actually Top Gun) I was also able to go to my brother and sister-in-law’s new house and see what they have been up to. It was good to catch up and visit with them. I had a blast to hang out with the family and just spend some quality time together.

I also had the pleasure of being a counselor for the Woodlands United Methodist Student Ministry and their summer camp. I had a great group of 8^th grade going into 9^th grade guys. I had worked at the church as an intern last summer and so I knew all of the guys in my group and that made the week really fun because there weren’t any new friendships starting, but it was just a continuation of our relationship. I was really impressed with our small group time and just how much those guys truly wanted to seek the Lord and their questions about him. I do miss being with the people from the church from the staff to the students. They have a great thing going on there and I love hearing about all of the exciting stuff that God is doing in their lives.

Finally to round out the trip I spent a couple of days down at my family’s beach house. This part of the trip was amazing because I got to hang out with my friends from high school that I haven’t gotten to see in a while. Also, two of my good friends from college came down and surprised me with their presence. I a really good time staying up late playing cornhole and just catching up with them.

Even though I am happy and definitely feel like God has put me here in NC for a reason, I do miss Texas and the relationships that remain there. I just want everyone back there to know that I miss them and that I will always be a Texan at heart no matter where my head lays at night!

Texas Forever!