January
VDP school student in Prek Pneu.
God leads, nudges, speaks, in many ways, and following His lead can result in traveling unexpected paths.
In June, I sat down with my supervisor at the Anchorage School District to discuss the upcoming year, and was surprised to hear that they would no longer be funding my position past first semester. Suddenly I needed to find something starting January. At the same time, Kirsten would be completing her Masters program in December, so she would also be "free" starting in January. All at once it became clear that starting in the new year something was going to change.
I began applying for education related positions, but was getting a lot of closed doors. To make a long story short, we heard that the elementary principal position at Logos, in Cambodia, was coming open. Logos is one of three Christian school missions run by Asian Hope, the organization we have been partnering with for several years now. On its face the position looked like a good fit for me, but we had not been considering moving back to Cambodia, and besides, the school year was about to begin, in August, and we were certainly in no position to just take up and go!
As I mentioned in the previous blog post, I had a short mission trip scheduled for the beginning of August anyway, so while there I met with Pam Sephton, the Academic Director for Logos school. During our conversation it became very clear that we were on the same page. She suggested I apply. When I returned to Anchorage, we had an online interview, and they offered me the position, starting in, you guessed it, January.
It still wasn't the easiest decision to make. We have grand children here (and that's a ministry in it's own right - just ask our kids Mike and Heaven). And Kirsten has a photography business that she would love to try on a full-time basis, now that her schooling will be completed. But we counseled and prayed and opened our hearts to God's voice, and it became clear that this was His next step for us.
Logos is looking for a three-year commitment, which makes sense, though we do plan on coming back Christmas and summers. We know that this is a vital ministry, and are excited to join God in this work. We can't do this on our own, though, not in any way - spiritually, physically, or financially - so, yes, we do hope that you will partner with us, even as we partner with Asian Hope. In the end, what we want most of all is to be in community with you as we walk this path. We thank you for your prayers and encouragement.
May God bless you all - សូមព្រះប្រទានពរដល់អ្នកទាំងអស់គ្នា។