Happy New Year!

"The LORD is the one who goes ahead of you; He will be with you. He will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed." Deuteronomy 31:8

This was what Moses told Joshua when it was about time for him to take over command of Israel on the banks of the Jordan River. Joshua must have been afraid, because Moses says over and over "Do not be afraid. Be strong," and God says the same thing in the book of Joshua. If he needed all that encouragement, he must have been doubting some. I feel a certain affinity with Joshua right now. :-)

I have now graduated with my elementary education major. It's pretty exciting to look forward to life out of school. I'm really excited to teach my own kids instead of another teacher's. The only hitch is finding an open position in the middle of the year. Everybody says it should be easy but for some reason it's not. Oh well, who needs easy security?

So my plans are sort of up in the air. Adventure is fun, but I'm looking forward to settling down too. Maybe Joshua felt a bit like that as he looked over the rolling Canaanite hills across the Jordan. (I picture them like Idaho hills, tree-covered and green ;-D.) Anyways, I do have some plans that I'm kind of excited about. Currently I'm at my grandparents' house in Ohio. Tomorrow morning early Abigail and I are setting out for a college visit -- she's planning to attend McMurray (spelling?) College in Illinois. We're going to check out a potential church's Wednesday night service, then visit her college the next day. She's flying out of Chicago, so we'll stay with my family there on Thursday night. Her 7:00a.m. flight will get me on the road plenty early to get to Iowa on Friday evening.

Then I get to start packing. Dad told me that I can pack about 1100 pounds in my new (used) white Buick Regal. He said to pack carefully and make sure the car sits evenly and that I put most of the weight over the rear axle. I love having an engineer for a dad -- he reminds me of all kinds of things I never would have thought of. Anyways, anything that doesn't fit is free for the taking. Does anybody want a gem of a pink and purple mountain bike? Any fantastic used books that I couldn't bear to leave at the book sale where I found them? I may need to have a garage sale or something. ;-)

Then I plan to head for Idaho. I've applied for some jobs in New Mexico and Phoenix. So far, though, the prospects of having my own classroom don't look so good, so I will probably get to substitute for a while. Those are all my plans for now. "The LORD is the one who goes ahead of [me]" -- so wherever I end up it will be pretty cool!