News Bits

Speaking of B21,whose birthday was on Saturday--this young man has lost 50 pounds since last May!  It's the 50 pounds he put on while he was away at a college last year. Since he's been home, we've been helping make sure that he exercises daily, either biking (10 miles) when the weather is nice, or run-walking on the treadmill (5 miles) when it's been cold.  He's also eating a minimum quantity of food--eggs and rice cereal for breakfast, an apple or a banana for lunch, and a quesadilla around 4 to hold him till dinner.  No seconds, no dessert, and lots of praise from his family as we've seen the pound drop off, slowly but surely.  Best of all, he seems to have his secret compulsive snacking under control, which should help him keep it off.

He just hit a milestone.  He now weighs just under 200, which is less than his college-entry weight of 202ish.  We have promised him an Xbox 360 if he gets down to 160.  Without a job, he has little to no spending money, so he's very motivated to earn his reward this way!  I guess it's the silver lining to his unemployment situation.

Things are moving slowly with the Department of Vocational Rehabilitation.  He has a caseworker there who is working on finding him a job, but it's a slow process. He had an interview at an area hospital for a housekeeping position, thanks to a friend who referred him, but he heard back from them recently that they are "pursuing other candidates," which was disappointing.   Thank you for your prayers for him!

In educational news, B12 and I visited the public middle school on Friday and liked what we saw.  He shadowed a friend for four hours, and he knew what was going on in each class, and he felt good about the teachers and the kids. He's happy about the idea of trying it for the rest of this year.

I still feel ambivalent about sending him there, but we had another rough week in virtual school, when all final tests and projects were due, and it seemed like further confirmation that he needs a change.  When I pray about what he needs, I keep seeing a classroom, and as I shared before, it seems this is the classroom God is leading us toward, for now.  He wouldn't start until next Monday, so I don't feel rushed to submit the paperwork, but on the other hand, the virtual school's new semester starts tomorrow, so that's a decision right there, if he doesn't begin.

On the church front, we had a Holy Week planning meeting on Saturday.  Woo hooooo!  This year, I am going to have a partner to help plan and execute the readings for the week, especially the Passion reading on Palm Sunday, and the readings at Easter Vigil.  I am so thankful for the energy and creativity of JT, a percussionist, artist, sound tech and Easter Vigil coordinator extraordinaire, who moved up here from our old church.  We just had a house blessing service in their new home (although it was months ago that they arrived--but what better season for a house blessing than Epiphany?).  We just installed his wife, LT, on our vestry, and we are sooooo grateful for them!  

Also, something is percolating about a youth group for our middle schoolers who are, like dominoes, all about to begin turning 13.  The vision and the leadership are not fully formed yet, and it probably won't really get off the ground until next fall, but it's exciting to see God working!