Midland, Texas

Wow, where do we begin. Looking back it has not seemed like almost four weeks since we have updated our blog. We have been so incredibly busy here in the last three weeks. Well, I guess we should begin with the move down to Midland.

We had three very short days in Portland before making the four day trek down to Midland, Texas. We spent those days visiting family one last time before we made the move. Then, along with two friends from school, we set off on Saturday the 5th bright and early. The drive was very pleasent as we were able to spend time with friends along the way in both Idaho and Colorado. The only real hitch on the drive was running out of gas. We thought, though, that it was something more serious, so we ended up staying the night in Utah. Other than that, it took four days to arrive in Midland.

Once we arrived, the projects began. The office of Worldview Academy is currently under renovation and it has taken longer than expected due to some structural issues with the building. As a result, the office is currently in our house. So, when we arrived all of our things were in our bedroom and then, the rest of the house had office things set up. At first glance this looked to be a potential problem because of lack of space for our things, yet in the end it has all worked out. With our two friends down here helping to set up the house, we got most of our things set up in the first few days. And now, two and a half weeks later, we are essentially all set up. It is exciting to be down here and getting settled in as well.

So, what have we been doing since we arrived, you ask? Well, for the first week it was a lot of sorting through different things from camp and figuring out where they needed to be. Then, following that, Angela has spent most of her time answering phones and talking to parents about camps from the summer and our upcoming camp in October. She has also been busy fulfilling orders for different resources we have, including books and dvds. Along with these two aspects of her job she has been working with different churches as we prepare for our Christianity & Culture conferences coming up throughout the year. We actually have a conference in Midland coming up the 8th and the 9th of September!!

Michael has been busy with several things as well. After getting the office organized it was a matter of getting his desk and computer organized. After that first week he has been working on a couple of big projects. The first, is working towards hiring a staff for the camp in October. As of right now we have around half of our staff confirmed for the fall camp. Along with that, Michael has been working hard to get out a formal invite to all of the alumni staff for Worldview Academy. We are having a retreat/reunion and he is in charge of putting all of it together. It is going to be held in Colorado. So, needless to say, Michael has been busy trying to get that word out and get addresses for the former staff members and put together the invitation to it.

Although these are the main jobs that have occupied our time these last three weeks, there have been several other jobs like registering campers, doing bookeeping, and planning events throughout the year. On a personal note, we have really enjoyed the amount of time we have had to spend time together since being down here. Last year we were both so busy with school and work that we did not have a whole lot of us time. Well, we have taken advantage of having much of that so far. Also, though, we have spent a lot of time with two other members of the Worldview Academy team who are around our age, Holly & Tim. It has been a blast!

We are still seeking a home church down here in Midland. We have visited three churches in the last couple of weekends. We are excited to get plugged into a local church down here. Also, though, and we are really excited about this, we are both going to be small group leaders for Teen Community Bible Study down here in Midland. We will be leading a small group of high school students in discussions on a Bible Study throughout the course of the year. We are very excited to have an impact on Midland in other ways than just through Worldview Academy.

We are so excited to be down here and see what the Lord is going to do. Please keep us in your prayers and pray that God would continue to surround us with Godly men and women. Also, pray that He would give us direction as to where he would have us call our home church. There is so much that we have already begun and excitedly, so much still to do. We will be much better about updating our blog more regularly now that we are all set up.

Thank you so much for your generous support and prayers. Without you we would not be able to be down here in Midland serving God in this way. Thank you so much and God bless you!!!

Mike & Angela Tiland