We are joining Watershed Arts!

We are very pleased to announce that our friends, Garold and Lori Andersen, have invited us to join them in their unique ministry, Watershed Arts.  Garold and Lori have been ministering to artists in Europe since 1994.  They have recently developed and implemented a performing arts program in Kenya called Find Your Voice (FYV).  FYV trains and mentors young people from both urban slums and rural areas to help them break the cycle of poverty.    FYV gives real hope, life skills and assistance to young Kenyans through the Christian principles of dignity, integrity, encouragement and compassion.

FYV also has an opportunity to affect the entire nation of Kenya.  The students of FYV have a standing invitation to perform in any public school.  These aren't just little "Say-No-To-Drugs" skits; these are pieces that dramatically connect Christ-centered teachings to the everyday lives of children.

Additionally, Watershed has been asked to join in a national anti-corruption campaign to promote goodness and integrity in Kenya.  What an opportunity to use the arts to promote a standard of righteousness in one of the most historically corrupt nations in Africa!

With this expansion of vision and ministry, Watershed now requires more staff.

We have gladly accepted Garold and Lori's invitation to serve with them as their stateside liaisons.

No, we do not currently have plans to move our family to Kenya, but we will be serving Watershed Arts and FYV in roles that are vital to the continued growth to the work in Kenya while still living in the states.

• Sarah will be pursuing and writing grants to help fund the work in Kenya.  Additionally she will assist in web development.
• Steven will be developing partnerships with churches, organizations and individuals, acting as a liaison between FYV and domestic groups.  Moreover, we are beginning a project of cross-cultural exchange between young people in the west and Kenyans.  Steven will be key in the facilitation and organization of this exchange.

We would like to ask you to pray and consider how you might be able to stand with us financially in this work.  We are working to raise financial support so we can commit our time to this amazing opportunity while still providing for our family.  We are currently asking God to provide $2000 each  month through donations to Watershed Arts so we can devote our time and efforts to the growth of FYV.  This amount is not sufficient to meet all our needs, but it will give us a base with which to start.

Please consider adding Watershed Arts and us to the charitable works you currently support.  We would appreciate both monthly support as well as one-time gifts.  Both of these can be given in one of two ways.

          Checks can be mailed to:

Watershed Arts

524 Olympus

Cedar Hill, TX 75104

          Please designate your gift as Shaw Support in the memo field.

You can also make your donation via PayPal here by clicking Donate.  Please indicate Shaw Support in the comment field.

All gifts are tax deductible.   If you plan on sending regular, monthly support, it would be helpful to us for budgeting purposes if you communicated your intentions by sending us a note to the Watershed address or by emailing us at 6shaws@gmail.com.

We are very excited about where God is leading us, and we so appreciate your prayers and support as we come to your thoughts in the coming days.

The Blessing of Unemployment

Dear God,

I know I've been asking you for awhile now to give Steven a job.  I just wanted to take a minute to thank you for NOT answering my prayer.

If Steven had started a new job, he might not have been able to stay with me at the hospital when our baby was born.  He might have had to work rather than staying with me at the NICU as we waited for our son to come home.

With the pressure of employment, Steven would not have been able to put in all the hours necessary to work on the house so we could move in.  Our move certainly would have been delayed, and the unpacking and settling-in would not yet be done.

Yes, I can see how it has been best that he has been unemployed.  You had it worked out all along.

Usually I associate unemployment with lack and despair.  But not now.  You have met our every need, and then some we weren't even asking for.  Thanks for the house that is big enough for our family to spread out a bit.  Thanks for giving us a refrigerator and a washer and dryer before we even moved in.  Thanks for providing for movers to get all our stuff moved on one of the hottest days of the year.   Thanks for giving us a whole new living room full of furniture so we can offer people a place to sit when they come over to visit.  You have blessed us in so many ways; I'm overwhelmed with gratitude. 

Now that the baby is home and healthy and the home improvement projects are done enough for us to live comfortably, I'm tempted to worry and fret, thinking that now would be a good time for a paycheck to start.  But I've learned that I don't always have the best perspective and that you don't need a paycheck to provide for your children.  We're committed to follow wherever you lead.  You are always faithful. 

Waiting Again

by Sarah

In case this is your first time reading our blog, let me catch you up to speed. We are facing changes in three areas:

• New job
• New home
• New baby

We've been living in a constant state of flux, wondering which of these three areas would unfold first.  Would we find a job, move and have a baby?  Would we move, have a baby and find a job?  and so on.  (Take note that the math teacher in me is being held in check,  not divulging all of the different permutations this situation provides.)

So all summer we've been waiting.  Waiting for a job.  Waiting for direction.  Waiting for August 3rd when our baby would be born.  Waiting... waiting...waiting.

After the disappointing news of not getting a job we had hoped for, we regrouped and moved forward.  We decided to stay in the area and to pursue moving into a house some good friends of ours had offered.  Suddenly, we had focus.  THIS was something we could pour our energy into.  We had packing and painting to do.  We were eager to get things in order before the baby's arrival, and we thought we had plenty of time.

We were wrong.

Tuesday morning, July 19th, (yes, that is 15 days before my August 3rd due date) my water broke.  I had not even packed a bag.  After so many days of Steven and I being together all the time,on this day, he was about 30 minutes away, working on the house.  I was a little panicked, but it all worked out.  A few hours later, we were thrilled that, at least in one area, our wait was finally was over.  Levi James had arrived!

We are flexible people.  The early arrival of our son did not throw us off.  It is inconvenient that the hospital is 35 minutes from our home, but we expected the inconvenience to only last a couple of days until I came home with the baby.  We could handle a couple of days of driving back and forth and solving the puzzle of where the children should go and when.

Everything changed when Levi had to be admitted in the NICU on July 21st, the day we were scheduled to come home.  I was discharged; he was not.

Now our situation is not as dire as some other families; we did not leave wondering if our son would live or die.  His condition was relatively routine; he just needed more time to be ready to go home.  Even still, leaving that hospital empty-handed was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do.  As I was wheeled to the front doors, I literally struggled to breathe.

Levi has now been in the NICU four days.  And again I'm back to waiting.

We've spent the last four days making multiple trips to the hospital (which hasn't moved any closer to our home) each day.  Everyday we have to figure out the questions of when should we go and what should we do with the other kids.  There's other stuff in life that needs to be done (laundry, grocery shopping, packing to move), but nothing seems as important as being at the hospital with Levi, waiting by his bed, watching him sleep.

And so we wait.  We're waiting to hear that his bilirubin has come down.  We're waiting to hear that he is digesting food like he's supposed to.  We're waiting to hear that he can come home.

When I examine how I'm walking this one out, I see that I have not learned my lesson of how to wait peacefully yet. This is much worse than waiting to hear about a job or about where we might live.  And some days, I'm certainly not the picture of faith.  But, what else can I do?  I cry and I pray.  I trust God and tell him how much I want my baby to come home.  And then I just wait.

The Weekend Interview

When we first moved to Dallas two years ago, neither Steven nor I had a job. Since Steven was busy with school, I began applying for all sorts of part-time jobs.

The first job I applied for was an editing position that would utilize my education as an English major. I was surprised that at the first interview I was required to take a three-hour test over word usage, grammar, punctuation and sentence structure. When they called me for a second interview, I could only imagine the level of testing and writing that might be required and decided that job was not for me.

About the same time I applied to be an online website researcher. This interview process entailed several weeks of testing. I would complete one testing module and then receive an email that said, "Congratulations!  Please click on the following links for the next tests we would like for you to complete." I would complete those modules only to be asked to do some more. After about 4-6 weeks of testing, I finally got the job.

Since the online researcher position only required about 10 hours a week, I also applied to be a tutor. It was only 3-5 hours a week, but it paid well, and it gave me a chance to teach. The application process, however, turned out to be extremely long. Some parts of the process were expensive: for example, I had to get a Texas driver's license which required us to re-title our car. Other parts of the process were tedious: I needed a back-ground check which was simply a matter of filling out a form and getting fingerprinted. However, I inadvertently wrote my social security number incorrectly, so my 1-week wait time on my background check took six weeks.  In the midst of it I wondered, "Is this 3-5 hour a week job worth all of this?"  Finally, however, after two months of processing, I was finally able to start tutoring.

So, I'm not really unfamiliar with long hiring processes. However, all of those experiences are dwarfed by the process we have gone through more recently.

As you may have read in previous posts, we first applied for a pastoral job a couple of months ago, I think in April. It started out with familiar steps: application, a few follow-up questions. Those were stages one and two. Then Steven was asked a series of important "churchy" questions (stage three). Next he had a phone interview (stage four). And finally we were invited to come for a face-to-face interview (stage five). Of course the church is sifting through many applicants, trying to find the one who is the best fit for the job and the church family, so it takes some time. And it's not something anyone wants to rush into, so I understand that taking your time is important. My patience has been tested with the volume of stress in our lives right now, but I get it.

So last weekend Steven and I drove 630 miles for the interview (we just didn't tell the doctor). Through this whole process, we knew that this church does EVERYTHING with excellence, so we expected no less with the weekend interview. We were not disappointed.

This interview was different than any other interview I've ever been on or even heard of. First of all, the other two candidates for the job were there as well. You might think that there would be lots of competition and tension between the three couples vying for the job, but there wasn't. We found that we all get along quite well. They are great couples. In fact, we're now Facebook friends so we can keep up with each other. But still... you have to admit, that's a little different, right?

We were all put up in a wonderful hotel, and we were given the royal treatment all weekend. Every need we may have had was met before we needed it, and even our personal preferences were catered to. The attention to detail was remarkable.

I think it's really hard to interview for a church because when you're part of a church, it's not just a job. It affects every part of your life and your family's life. It's more important in church staffing to make sure it's a good fit than in any other occupation, I think. So I've often wondered how you can do that when you haven't had a relationship in the past, when you don't know each other at all. Now I know because this church did it so well.

Steven was given a list of assignments to prepare about a week before we arrived. These assignments were an opportunity for them to "see him in action." He had to prepare a message and speak in front of a group, lead a small group discussion, teach a basic doctrine class and lead a brainstorming session. We also were put in several interview settings where eight different people were given a chance to ask us interview questions one-on-one. We also ate and spent time with different church leaders, and they even provided social times for us to just hang-out. And finally we were able to serve in different areas of the church during service times. After all of that, I think they know us pretty well!

We don't yet know if we are the ones who are the best fit for the job or not. We hope we are, but we met the other candidates, and we know what high-caliber people they are. But there are a few things we do know.

We know:

1. Whoever the church chooses for this job is high-quality.  The other applicants are fantastic.
2. We were completely transparent and real. If they choose us, we know that they got as real of a glimpse into who we are as we could give.
3. Steven gave his best. In every assignment, he gave his all, and we're happy with his preformance. We don't look back with regret on any answers that we gave or any comments that we made.
4. If we're not offered the job, it's because we weren't the right ones for it. There are no regrets or second-guessing. If this isn't for us, God must have something different in mind that's an even better fit. If we don't get it, I'll admit, I'll probably cry; we would love to have this job. But at the end of the day, I know that God has a purpose for having us go through the process, and we'll be okay.

So, now we go back to waiting, but only until tomorrow. We're praying for the pastors and staff as they make their decision, knowing that God will certainly direct their thoughts, discussions and final choice. Our fate isn't in their hands, though. We know who's got our backs... and our fronts... and our every side.

Sarah

Wait

Our transition can be summed up in one word:  WAIT.  Next week, things will pick up dramatically.  I'll go to the doctor to check my progress (I'll be 36 weeks).  As long as there's no head peaking out or anything, we're planning on driving north for an interview on Thursday.  The weekend will be packed full of ... something (we haven't been told exactly what yet, but we've been told we'll be busy).  Then we'll know if the job is a fit or not, and we'll come home.  When we return we should have a plan of what we're doing or at least one thing that we are not doing. 

So, I just have one more week to wait.  What should I do while I wait?

Option One:  Pack

We want to move, so as an act of faith that we will be moving at some point in the near future, I could start packing.  But... it sure does seem like a lot of work.  It's really hard to bend over and pick things up; I probably shouldn't be lifting anything very heavy.  It's just easier to sit with my feet up and try to remember what my ankles used to look like.  The packing can wait.

Option Two:  Find good deals on the baby stuff we need.

Yes, even though this is our fifth child, there are some baby things we still need (thanks to some sticky-fingered renters who cleaned out our attic when they moved).  But... we kind of want to wait to see how this interview goes.  You see, if we stay in the area, we might be able to just borrow some stuff from generous friends.  If we move, we'll probably need to buy that stuff, but depending on when we move, we may want to wait until we're in a new place.  I don't know.  Baby's not here yet.  The baby stuff can wait.

Option Three:  Relax and wait. 

This is one I've been going with.  I've been spending my days helping my kids reach their summer goals, assigning cleaning detail, laughing at their antics.  I've been reading a little, praying a lot.  Then I'll sleep a bit, pray a bit more.  I'll cook some, pray some more.  Some days I'm not mastering the relaxing part because I get myself stressed out by all of my questions.

But, like it or not, I'm getting this waiting thing down.

Sarah

The Call

Today we got THE call.  Well, maybe not THE call, but The call.  This is the call in which we were invited to come to the church for a face-to-face interview.  They'll fly us up and put Steven and I up in a hotel!  (Can anyone say, "Romantic Getaway?!")

Well, maybe.  The weekend we've been invited, I'll be 36 weeks (plus a few days) pregnant.  Apparently, that's "full-term."  Also APPARENTLY, I'm not supposed to travel.  And as a third apparently, I will not likely be allowed to travel without a doctor's note, which he's not super-excited to give.

Now, none of my other children came early, but you never know with my advanced maternal age and all.

We're very excited with the prospect and are currently trying to adjust interview plans and dates without being too difficult to work with.  Surely they'll understand, right?

I can't help but point out a few things to God, though.

"You know, God, this wouldn't have been an issue if You had let this process move a bit faster.  A couple of months ago, I would have been a good traveler... nay an EXCEPTIONAL traveler.  We wouldn't have had issues with summer camp schedules and such.  Not to mention all the stress this long process has caused.  Not that I'm not grateful, because I am.  I'm so thankful that we have this opportunity and that we'll know soon if this is a good fit or not!  I'm just saying, we could have avoided a lot of frustration, stress and tears if the timetable could have been moved just 8 short weeks earlier.  I know You're never late, but You sure do like to make for some last-minute excitement."

Maybe I shouldn't be surprised, though.  Throughout the Bible, our God is a God who has a flair for the dramatic.  And maybe the journey, including all the frustration, stress and tears, was the point all along.

Sarah

Please Be My Strength

Sometimes there is just a song that pretty much sums it up.  This is one of those times.

Sarah