Howdy! Many of you know that over this past weekend (Saturday, January 31st- Tuesday, February 3rd) that Kimmy and I went down to Texas for a job interview with a church for their Director of Student Ministries position. Well, we made it down there and back safely. In fact, we had a great time!

The pastor and his wife put us up in a “mother-in-law suite” that they have at their house and it was really nice. We had our own little place but we were also able to have a little bit more time hanging out with them and getting to know each other better. It was a perfect situation and a lovely place to stay.

While we were there we had a pretty full weekend. On Saturday after we arrived the pastor and his wife took us out to a very nice dinner at a VERY nice restaurant. The meal was wonderful but the time spent with them was even better. We shared lots of stories and lots of laughs.

On Sunday we obviously attended one of their services and we were really impressed with the friendliness of the people there as well as the diversity of the crowd, which we are very happy about. The service was wonderful and felt very comfortable to us. It was definitely a place that we could call home. After the service a group of the college students there came up to us and asked us to go out to lunch with them to a place called Freebirds, which is like a Chipotle. We had a wonderful time getting to know them, especially since I will be also working with the college ministry at the church.

Then later on that day the moment of truth came when I had an interview with the committee at the church that helps make staff decisions. Kimmy and I were both pretty nervous and it was exacerbated by the fact that they made us wait for a while as they met to go over some of their questions for us. However, our nerves were for naught because the people were very nice and the interview went very well. We had a great time getting to know the people who serve on the committee and look forward to hopefully seeing them again.

After that meeting we headed over to someone’s house to watch the Super Bowl with some of the people from the young adults group at the church. We even stayed afterward and watched “The Office” with them. It was another really great time. It was nice to hang out and get to know them, especially since many of them would probably be people we would hang out with if we moved down there. And so it was nice to feel like we were already making friends before we potentially move down.

On Monday we met with the pastor in the morning and went over our Flippen Profiles, which is a thing we had to fill out before we came. It is basically like a personality profile that helps you discover areas in your life that you could use improving on to make you a better person. I have to say that these things nailed Kimmy and I dead on. It is really neat to look at these things and see ways that we can improve our lives and to also know that this pastor wants to see us become better people as well.

Then we went and looked at the house that we would live in should we be so fortunate to be the one’s they picked for the position. It was a really nice house and in a great neighborhood for us to raise our kids. It is bigger than the house we have now, so it would be nice to have some extra space for us to live in and entertain teens and friends. After that we met up with some of the other people on staff at the church for lunch and had a really great time getting to know them.

Then we took Kimmy to her manicure and pedicure appointment while I joined the pastor for a couple of denominational pastor meetings. I actually did have a good time getting to meet some of them and hear some things about the denomination and how it operates. It was also nice to spend some time with the pastor talking about ministry and the position I would be filling. After that I went back to their house and he went onto another meeting at the church that he had to be at, so Kimmy and I went into town to do some souvenir shopping. We bought the kids some Texas A&M shirts and we bought one for me also. Since we were going out to dinner that night with the pastor and his wife, I decided to wear my shirt to dinner. (Hey, a little brown-nosing never hurt anyone, right?)

On Tuesday we headed back home but had to stop by the city of Todd Mission, TX, which we saw on the way as we were driving to the church. So we made sure to stop on our way back to the airport and snapped this picture of me in front of this building they had there. It is a very small town, but I was proud to find it.

All in all it was a really great trip. We enjoyed being able to escape the snow and cold, but it was more enjoyable to spend time with the people at the church down there. I will find out sometime next week if they offer us the job. They are bringing someone out this weekend to interview and will make the decision after that. I will keep y’all posted.