Belhaven Update

I waited to post this until the blog was made private, simply because this is still a tentative, unofficial arrangement. So please keep this information to yourself--especially if you live in Jackson, as news there tends to travel fast. Read on...

Just in case you didn't hear, we did all finally make it home from Jackson this week. Josh was the last to arrive in Phoenix at 2 pm Monday. And I think I've also told everyone in some fashion that the week of teaching went well... very well... better than I would've expected actually.

The first day I was there they had what they call a 'soul day', a day once a semester when they cancel all classes and rehearsals (within the dance dept) and come together for times of corporate and individual worship and prayer, discussion, etc. I led a dialogue based on some of my research questions (which I recorded as supplementary data :). It was a nice introduction for me and a way to ease into the week. The rest of my time was spent on a regular, and rather grueling, class schedule: technique, rehearsals, theory, composition, production, etc. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be because the regular professor had left detailed lesson plans for some of those classes. And I enjoyed the students! I felt like I established a nice rapport with them. I had some great conversations with Cynthia (dept. chair) concerning her vision for the department and the ways I might fit into that vision. Leading me to the big announcement, which is that essentially I have been offered a position there. It's still very fluid because I'm not finished with my MFA until December, but the position is there.

Thank you so much for praying for us! Keep 'em coming because now the question is--do we take it? Do we move to Jackson? In all honesty, at this point we can't see why we wouldn't but we want to depend on God's wisdom and not our own. I will see Cynthia again this summer in Houston at Ad Deum's summer intensive, so we will talk again then. I probably need to make a decision by the beginning of fall term for Belhaven's planning purposes and our own (Benjamin's school does full-year contracts and we have to find a replacement for him in January or we'll be committed to paying for the full year). It's exciting to contemplate this very positive transition!