April 9th Phil Wrote

Hi all… Since Bill and Kathy have finally got their letter out, I guess I can do mine now. For a while I was wondering if they were going to make me late…

The last few weeks have been a wild ride. With the announcement 3 weeks ago that my place of employment would close in 60 days, Pat and I had to do some careful thinking about our future. I hated the thought of starting a new job, knowing that I would be graduating in August, but at the same time I knew I would need my paycheck through the summer months. We immediately started praying that my job would be extended through August so that I could postpone the change until then.

The day after the announcement, I started getting calls from other companies in the precast industry inviting me to come for interviews. I put most of them off for a while, but did go to two interviews in the Telford area. One of them was very appealing. It is a company that is thinking about getting into the same products that I used to make at Modern. After our conversation they suggested that I might be just the right person to head up that new department. I was very excited anxiously awaited getting their formal offer. While we waited we talked about the implications of taking this job on the bigger plan of getting into some sort of ministry. We prayed a lot about it and waited for God’s answer as well. The next week I went back for a second interview and they presented an offer that would have matched my existing salary and benefits, but it did not include starting the new department. They said they were not ready to commit to the new product line yet, but they would like me to come on board in their engineering department.

I felt over-qualified for the job they were offering and I felt like they were going to pay me too much for what they expected me to do, so again we went back to prayer… Was this God’s way of providing, or was the devil trying to distract me from the better plan.

The next day my current boss came to me and said that he was looking for a few flexible people to stay with him to the bitter end; to close the doors and turn off the lights. (We still have some projects that need to be finished up) He said he could promise me work through August and possibly into October. After more prayer I decided to accept his invitation, so I will be in Hatfield for a few more months… after that… who knows. Please pray for God’s continued leading in our lives.

Some other info…

Karalee and Willy are getting ready for their trip to Hawaii this summer… It is an exciting and a scary time… letting them go so far for so long… but we have a lot of confidence in their leaders and I’m sure it will be great fun for them.

Last week we had two children from Belgium stay with us fro two days. They were part of a children’s choir from Belgium that was touring the US and our children’s choir hosted them for a while. It was great to meet some children from another culture.

Pat and Karissa were planning to go to Colorado while I was in Peru and Karalee and Willy were in Hawaii, but because of the paper route that we are still doing, we decided that she would postpone their trip until after we get back. Then Anita said that if they were coming later, why not bring Karalee and Willy along… she offered to pay their fair… so that is the plan at this time.

Daniel is still planning to go to Hesston in the fall… We got his financial aid package a few weeks ago, and it looks doable. Please pray for him as he prepares for this next part of his life. He has had a frustrating spring. He likes track a lot, but his hip has been giving him some trouble (a left-over result of his accident) so he has not been able to run. He has been acting as a coach for the team, but he misses the running. (It’s a taste of what Brandon went through over the last number of years.)

Well… This is turning into a book… I’d better stop.

Love,

Phil