Peace and blessings to our Lodi friends and family!Life has been a whirlwind of busy-ness since we moved from Lodi. The changes have been exciting and challenging, but we’d expect nothing less from our walk of faith.
It’s nice to pause for a moment to reflect on all that’s happened because it seems like things just keep coming one right after another, with little time to process the significant changes that are happening in our lifestyle, daily routine and relational network.
We left Lodi in late May, and the busy-ness of packing left us dazed and exhausted going into my two weeks of pastoral training at MTS in Denver this past June.
Nevertheless, we were grateful for the opportunity to attend, and we had the same encouraging and uplifting experience we’ve come to expect from MTS.
It was great to spend time at the home of my Aunt Hope and Uncle Leroy Dais (along with Manny Zurita) and also to attend Uncle Harvey’s class on “The Call.” We even got to make a quick stop at the Grand Canyon on our way to Denver.
After I completed my MTS training, we were off to Minnesota for a long overdue visit with Liz’s family. We had hoped to travel through Iowa and stop and visit Liz’s sister, but the flooding in Cedar Rapids diverted us through the Black Hills of South Dakota.
It was my first trip there and I was surprised at how beautiful it was. I praised God for the unexpected detour.
Our only disappointment was that Alexis got sick just as we were arriving at Mt. Rushmore.
It had been a year and a half since Liz and I had been back home to Minnesota. We were able to spend six weeks there, and it was fun visiting the many lakes and parks we’d grown to love during our time there.
We took many walks and jogs and enjoyed a more leisurely schedule. We spent much of our time watching our nieces and nephews while we were there, and that kept us from accomplishing some of our goals for fixing up the house. But we didn’t feel the time was wasted as we had many fun times with the kids visiting the lake, going to the drive-in and even a trip to the zoo.
We especially appreciated the opportunity to have some meaningful conversations with our extended family and church friends. I spoke twice at church while we were there and visited an amusement park with the youth.
I even took one weekend to fly back to the West Coast to pick up the vehicle we left behind in Lodi and enjoy my 20-year Spring Vale class reunion that was held in Marion, Oregon, near where many of my classmates live. I had the privilege of speaking in Marion that Sabbath and enjoyed catching up with my classmates.
We were able to get a lot of work done on our house while we were in Minnesota. We cleaned the garage, stained the deck, repaired a broken window and did some landscaping while we were there.
The big project was a 24-foot retaining wall that I built along our sloped driveway. That was completed on our last day in Minnesota and took many long days in the sweltering humidity. I think I lost 15 pounds on that project! Don’t worry; I’m quickly “finding it all” again.
Perhaps the most significant event was our move to Michigan. We arrived at Spring Vale Academy on August 4 and had one week to try to get settled in our three-bedroom apartment attached to the SVA boys’ dormitory.
The next two weeks included staff orientation and lots of hard work trying to prepare the boys’ dorm for the students’ arrival. We even got into an unexpected bathroom overhaul just two days before the students arrived after some badly corroded pipes broke loose while trying to replace some fixtures.
The dorm opened on Sunday, August 24, and my on-the-job training began. I now have 18 boys in the dorm and am learning very quickly why God gives us 12 years of training before we become the parents of a teenager!
Nevertheless, God never calls us to a place where he doesn’t equip us to go, and my years of youth ministry experience are proving valuable.
Each day there are new challenges, and at Spring Vale the needs are great. There is so much to do and so many things needing upgrades and attention, but you have to pace yourself and set some boundaries or your life quickly will be swallowed up in the needs of this important and demanding ministry.
Andrew Fernandez, a Riverbank, California, native and LITES alumnus, agreed to join me as Assistant Dean and has been invaluable to me as a ministry partner and brother.
In addition to my duties as Boys’ Dean, I have been serving as Athletic Director for the school, and there are numerous speaking opportunities in the daily chapel services, dorm worships and church services here. I just recently completed teaching a Sabbath School class on becoming a disciple of Christ for all the first-year SVA students.
We feel we are off to a great start, with a great student body and many new staff who have brought new life and energy to the ministry. We have marveled at the way God worked to bring us all together and we enjoy spending the first half of each day in the chapel praying for the students.