Well my short term consulting job turned into a permanent job! Praise God.

The guy who gave me the short term job is a consultant, and one of the people who supported me while I was in Kazakhstan. He is ... rather highly respected and the fact I was working with him made the company really want to hire me.

So ... for this season (whether it be short or long) I am a Quality Systems Engineer for Johnson and Johnson. Its pretty nice having a steady paycheck. Right now its sometimes lonely because I am new to Southern California, but I am getting involved in a church , and hopefully from there a small group. I think its a good church, the pastor was a speaker at the Campus Crusade conference in San Diego this year.

I think God is calling me to rely more on Him and His providence, and the doors He opens.
Its good , I don't even have a TV right now :). It gives me more time to read. Right now its "Let the Nations Be Glad" by John Piper. Not to bad.
Let me know about any prayer requests you all have,

Peace
Fred

Today I am wondering, before I left for KZ I felt a lot different. I was excited for adventure, I thirsted for far off lands, my heart pounded at the thought of doing His will.

As I think about engineering my heart neither pounds nor does it thirst. I need an adventure of epic proportions. I need to live the adventure God has laid out for me.

In Pilgrim's Progress (John Bunyan) Pilgrim is on the road to the Kingdom of his Lord. I think about the road and how there is often forks in it. Some are strait and clear and lead you astray, others are windy, go out of site and are dark, but they are the path that gets one closer to God. So did I take the strait and easy path? Or am I on the right one, and just can't see around the bend?

So I have been cooking lately. I cooked a lot in Kazakhstan and it was a challenge, cause you had to use the base base ingredients, so things took longer. Since I have been back though I have started my cooking again, which is fun, it relaxes me and gives me something to do.

I discovered a couple of new maranades (sp) for chicken that I am excited about, one is pineapple juice, garlic and teryaki sauce. Its pretty basic, but makes the worlds tenderest chicken and steak (and is a really good shishkabab maranade and all you add is the peppers, tomatoes, and pineapple chunks to the bowl). The other new one I found is more for salmon and chicken, its coconut milk, garlic, and hot Thai peanut sauce (about 3/4 cups of canned coconut milk and 2-3 tbs of the peanut sauce). The chicken was insanely tender after only an hour or so of maranading. I just thought i'd share these with everyone, as soon as I find a pizza dough I like I'll share that too (i'm on my third or fourth recipe...).

Goodnight!

Hey I got a job, its short term, but a jobs a job (even if it is for 12 days). Thats exciting...from there the company could hire me full time. Maybe :)

Peace

Looking for a job in engineering is proving more challenging than I thought it would be. It was such a struggle for me to decide to go this path rather than to stay in Kazakhstan...I was so close to remaining there another year. Then I was close to working with Cru in America, but I felt God lead me away from that also. My plan right now is to work and pay off my debts, then start seminary...and from there I don't know. I don't know what God is showing me right now though. Many things have vanished, one of my closest friends is in Israel for the next 3 years at Med school, others are spreading out across the states. Others are getting married. I am looking and trying to see what God is showing me right now, but I am not sure. I like to read, but its hard to focus on books when I don't have a means to support myself, but I have enough right now to float. So I'm good, I am also trying to keep my perspective. In the eternal since, what I am going through now is just a small blip, and my real interest is in heaven.

Peace

I really haven't posted seriously for a very long time. I would say almost a year. I did post some while I was in KZ, but mostly it was because I was feeling a bit lonely :). It got like that sometimes when I really needed a break, or a short vacation. Just some time away from everything I had been doing over there, and the people I was doing it with. To talk to someone new :).

Its sad saying goodbye to people, especially people you care about. Right now i'm trying to figure out where to get a job, what part of the state, whether it be down south in Orange County or San Diego, or over in the Bay Area or up in Sac. All those choices coming with decisions. I'll be close to friends in some places, and far from them in others. I really don't know if I should base my decision on where to find a job on how many friends I already have there, since I will probably make more friends wherever I end up.

Kazakhstan was amazing, God took me through a whole lot...a whole heck of a lot. He taught me about forgiveness, which I never really thought I had issues with forgiving people, and He took me to a place where I could really learn what it meant to be humble. I never knew how hard it was for me to allow others to serve me....so humbling.

This last month has been great, I have been visiting with people I haven't seen in a long time, getting a bit reaquinted and so forth. It was nice seeing people last night at Staff Concert, checking in with them, and listening to how they are doing. I forgot how much I missed some of my friends! :)

Grace and Peace ya'll
Fred

Honestly I don't think people understand the importance of e-mail to our sanity. Personally I love e-mail, and finding out that someone was thinking about me enough to e-mail me. I mean really, its a special thing. Or when you haven't heard from someone in a LONG time and suddenly they e-mail you and want to know how you are doing and stuff.

Well thats what I feel right now. It is 1 am, so my mind isn't working THAT great, but ya know, its good :)

Saulbol