Last night was rough. I finally got the vomit bug that has afflicted 75% of our house within the last few weeks. Thankfully i am doing better now, thanks in large part of my awesome roommates who helped me out.

In other news, I GOT THE MISSION TRIP POSITION!! I have unfortunately not been able to celebrate properly, but i am really excited. The trip will be sometime in April i believe, and i will get to be part of the committee who decides which littles will come. Right after Ron the Residential director told me this, Brian Albright who is the guys house director called me into his office and asked me if have been thinking about the future at all, and specifically what i was planning on doing after my contract at shelterwood expires. I told him i have been giving some thought about the internship position, and doing something more along the lines of planning and leading weekend trip, Biking, hiking, camping for shelterwood. Or working for a wilderness program. He said, well as you probably know Justin (who is one of our current hall directors) is going to be stepping down from his position soon because his wife, who is the girls house director is pregnant. So he asked me if i have ever thought about becoming an hall director and that if i wanted the job i could probably have it. As i think i mentioned in some of my previous blogs i have been considering this position because i knew that there was going to be an opening. I am excited and scared at the same time about his possibility. It would be an amazing opportunity to serve the Lord and i know it would challenge and stretch my faith. I definitely have my reservations though, first of all, i am only 23 year old. i think the average age of all of the bigs is like 25 and i am currently the second youngest big. I feel like this would be weird leading a bunch of people who are older than me. Second, Its a very different job, 75% of a bigs job is relational where as 75% of a HD’s job is administration/organization. Third, stress, while a bigs life is strenuous at times we really don’t have a lot of stress (anymore). We basically get to hang out with kids all days and act as a surrogate consciousness. Hall directors on the other hand have a vast array of responibilies and are flung into every single crisis situaiton and then tasked with all of the follow up(phone calls to parents, paperwork ect). While it would be an incredible opportunity to be a HD i really need to pray and see if it is what God has for me.

Please join me in praying for the mission trip preparations/fund raising and discernment about the HD position.

In Him,

Brian F

Wow, it has been a long time since i have had a post, i apologize for that. Things have been very different recently. We have great coverage(the ratio of Bigs to littles) and the kids have been really calm. I have been here for just over 5 months and i am just now feeling competent. I have been sitting in on a lot of subsystem conversation, which are when a kid commits a bigger infraction like, fighting or stealing. It is nice to feel like i know what i am doing. To be presented with a situation, take action, and actually have it turn out the way you wanted.

Looking forward i am really excited about the posibility of being able to help lead our mission trip to Haiti over spring break. I am pretty sure they are only going to take one guy big. I have turned in my application and i am waiting to hear back if i get to go. If i get selected, i will need to raise $1,500-1,800.

I am also excited about another potential trip leading kids on a month long biking trip across the US from Canada to Mexico. I ask that you would join me in prayer about these trips.

I have 7 months left at Shelterwood, and i have begun to pray and ask God what he has next for me. One option would be to stay at shelterwood another year. I have really began to enjoy my time here, and i feel like i am pretty good at what i do here. If i did stay longer i would either become an Intern where i would basically still be a big, but with more time off, and more of area of focus. Like Daniel S is our current Guy intern and he organizes fellowship events for the bigs and helps lead activities for the littles. I also have been considering the Hall director position. There is a good chance that one or both of our hall directors might leave before my 7 months are up and they almost always hire from within. I have also been considering working with a wilderness program for troubled youth. Some of my other interests are possibly going into teaching. I really loved being a TA for a semester, and i actually went into college wanting to be a high school history teacher. One of the other big brothers was a teacher for a few years before he came here and really encouraged me to look into it. Finally i have thought about going back to school to get my masters in counceling. The problem with that is that i still don’t really know what i would want to with that degree in terms of doing private practice, or working at a church or at a facility like shelterwood. I would also appreciate your prayers for discernment in these matters as well.

God Bless

Brian F