Weddings, new jobs, and moving sites...

Okay, so here's the deal. Last Friday, I got a call from my old boss at the district office here in Fresno Unified. Turns out that they decided - three weeks before school starts - to reinstate the budget for the music programs they cut over a year ago, and now, one week before school is scheduled to begin, they're set to hire again. Ack! Lucky for them, they called at a point in time when Jen and I had been praying about finding additional income somewhere, because we have been really struggling this month. Ugh. But - as it turns out, God has been incredibly awesome in the opportunity, and opened the door for me to go back for the district to work half-time (which includes full benefits) at the high school RIGHT NEXT DOOR TO THE CHURCH!!! Wow! So, needless to say, as Jen and I have been beginning our work as the informal youth pastors at Friends, this will open up some amazing doors of opportunity to work with several of the high school students over at Hoover. Please keep that in prayer!!!

On another note - I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT LAURAL & SEAN ARE GETTING MARRIED THIS WEEKEND!!!! Aaaaaaaaugh! I wish that we could be out there to celebrate with them, but my job and lack of finances are preventing us... so... if you know them, be sure to wish them well and pray for them! Their wedding is scheduled for Sunday early evening, and I'm sure that Laural's running around all over the place getting ready. So... Laural or Sean - if you're reading this, CONGRATS! You two are an incredible pair, and Jen and I wish you the best! :-)

Okay, now for the decision that I'm facing with these blogs... As Jen and I have found ourselves delving more and more into youth ministry, we are also finding that sites like Xanga and MySpace are attracting a huge amount of traffic with our youth, and the youth of our community. As scary as it may be to read through some of those blogs, we are also finding out that the connections made through the blogrings on Xanga have brought my site there more and more traffic, allowing me the ability to share the Gospel with many of the students that I used to help teach over at Roosevelt while I was there. With that in mind, I'm praying about moving my blog completely over to Xanga... what do you all think? Would you follow me over? Or do you even care? :-) I'm hoping that you'll be able to help me make my decision, so... let me know what you think. Oh - and also be praying for the kids who have been visiting my Xanga and MySpace sites - it's spawned several ministry opportunities already. :-) If you're wanting to find me there, my site is as follows: http://www.xanga.com/DDote77

Hope you all are doing well!!! Comment back, will you? :-) I miss you all!!!

-D