Brady  

Job Search

We made it back from LTC in one piece and had a great weekend together in Dallas.
Jay & I are spending this week getting his resume sent out to congregations who are looking for a Family & Youth Minister. We picked up our pictures today from the photographer. This is the first professional photo we've had done in about 4 years. We needed a good one to put with the resume.
Hope you all had a great Easter. God Bless....

Jay & Melissa 

Jay & Bree Fishing 

Spring Break Ends

We have returned to Lubbock after a week of visiting our family and friends in Henrietta, Texas. I snapped a photo of Breanna's fish that she caught on our last day of fishing. We didn't realize that she even had a bite until she had it on shore and said, "I caught a fish".
Fishing was just a small part of a much needed break week for us. On Monday, Jay went to work with his former construction crew for the day while I took the kids to spend the day with my brother. Brady went with my Dad to help him get one of his cows and her new calf out of a tight spot in the creek bottom.
On Tuesday, Jay & I helped my dad work cattle. It has been a while since I've done anything like that and I had forgotten how exciting it is. My job was keeping the needle full for Blackleg vaccinations. Kinda gross, but cool. Brady & Britt left for Ft. Worth Tuesday afternoon. Brittany's lab results came back positive for Mono last week, so we have been trying to get her to slow down and rest. That is like trying to get a gnat to sit still.
On Wednesday, Jay spent the day with his friend/ minister Ryan and they worked on Jay's resume. That evening, Jay taught the High school and Jr. High combined class at church. We had about 8 teens show up for class and it was a great hour of Bible study! What a difference it was from the 30+ seventh and eighth graders he teaches on Sunday mornings at Sunset. It was great!
On Thursday Jay did some livingroom painting for his mom and grandma in Henrietta, while I went to Wichita Falls with my mom and spent the day with her just shopping and having fun.
We came home on Friday morning and spent the rest of the day enjoying Joshua and Breanna.......
Since we arrived here in Lubbock to attend SIBI, we have been praying for God to send us to the place where He wants us to work. Jay applied here at Sunset for the High School youth minister position and the committee decided they were looking for someone else. So we have decided to send out Jay's resume to several other congregations in Texas, Arizona, Oklahoma and Missouri.
Leadership Training for Christ is coming up next weekend and we are really excited about the kids participation in all their events. I'll let you know how it goes.
Meanwhile we have one day left of our Spring Break and I need to get outside and enjoy it. Hugs ;)

Bree, Josh, Britt & Brady Dec. 2004 

Jay & Bree going to Father/Daughter Banquet 

Hello everyone!

Well, now that we are graduating in May, I have just discovered an easier way to keep all of our family and supporters updated on our life and times at Sunset.
I have tried so often to get on a newsletter schedule and I continually fail at it, so I am hoping for the remaining 3 months at SIBI, I can update each of you more efficiently.

Jay is so swamped with homework and studying for tests!!! He would greatly appreciate your prayers on his behalf. He is also teaching the 7th & 8th grade Sunday morning Bible class at Sunset Church of Christ. God has really blessed Jay to be able to teach, love and bond with these kids as he attends school. He has needed the outlet to allow him to pour all that he is learning into some wonderful kids! He also needed the friendship that we have established with each of their families. God is really working and moving in our lives and the lives of the families of these teens.

I am currently taking a semester off from LCU to try to get things organized as we search for a Youth Ministry position upon graduation. This is going to sound strange after reading the last sentence, but I started teaching preschool at the Sunset Just Kids Preschool. It is open on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so I still have some "packing" time available. It is such a joy to get to work with 14 three-year-olds twice a week. I say "joy" because I don't know how else to describe it. Some days are so exciting and some days are draining. If you know any three year olds, then you can relate to my life right now.....but you need to multiply that by 14.

Brady is in a job interview as I write this. He volunteered to be the Chick-fil-A Cow for a fund raiser for my friend Shannon and her family on Monday night. When he showed up for duty, the owner of Chick-fil-A asked him if he would like a job. So he is now interviewing and we couldn't be more excited for him. At 16, he needs a job for his spending money and this is such a good Christian company. Since they are closed on Sundays and Wednesday evenings, there is no conflict for him in attending church.

Brady will be going to the Texas Solo & Ensemble contest in May to compete with his fellow bandmates. He is in 2 separate groups and both of them are going to state competition! Brady plays the trumpet.....

NEWS FLASH: Brady has just informed us that he has been hired!

Brittany is currently a very ill teenager. I took her in to see Dr. Gray on Thursday. He ordered chest X-Rays and some blood tests. The X-Rays came back OK but we have to wait until Monday to find out about the blood tests. He believes that she may have Mono. She is exhausted and is having horrible headaches and stomach aches. The headaches are coming around 2:30 in the morning, so she isn't sleeping very well. She is having to drop Track for now until she is better, so she isn't really happy about that. I will update you as we find out her test results.

Breanna came home from school yesterday and had received an award from Monterey High School's Mentoring program on her academic achievements and on her conduct in the class room at Wheelock elementary. She is getting ready for her 4th grade Honor Choir Program later this month. She is also studying very hard for Bible Bowl.

Joshua just got new glasses last week. He broke his last pair twice in a 4 week period. We decided that he needed a pair that were more durable. He nearly broke them again on Thursday while helping Daddy clean the yard. He stepped on a shovel and it came up and hit him in the face. He has a scrape beside his nose now which he thinks is "kinda cool". Josh's 1st grade class will perform a musical at our Spring PTA program on Thursday, March 10th. Josh plays a sheep.

Just an update on my friend Shannon. She is home now and recuperating. The doctors are trying to get her healthy enough to accept a bone marrow transplant. The Bone Marrow Drive that we held on Feb. 20th was a great success. We had 166 donors show up. The news is that there is a potential donor match for Shannon already, but we are waiting for confirmation. Chick-fill-a held a fund raiser for her family on Monday night at the mall. They donated 20% of all their profit from 5-9 pm to the Reeves medical account to help them pay their medical expenses. We were amazed at all the people who came out to support them. It was a fellowship meal at the mall!

I am going to wrap up for today. We have a youth group PAINTBALL war going on this afternoon and I have to go dust off my lawn chair. (Melissa doesn't do paintball.)

May God bless each of you in great abundance!!!!