Now I feel a bit sheepish...

Hello Again,

Well, now I do feel a bit sheepish. :) Thanks to all of you who expressed concern over my failing health; I appreciate your care. Last night after I got home, I had this fleeting thought: "Jon, you probably shouldn't have talked in detail about your mystery illness...folks could get unnecessarily alarmed." But alas, I wasn't online until today and saw that in fact, that is what had happened.

Now, I have been sick for a couple weeks, but I'm by no means on death's door...it feels more like the cold and the flu at the same time; not pleasant, but more an annoyance than anything. All the tests that have been run have come back pretty well normal, so while we still don't know why I'm feeling the way I am, we are pretty sure it's just some random virus that my body needs to fight off, although a bit more sleep would probably be helpful. ;)

Anyway, thanks again for your care and concern, and do pray that God would deliver me from even this small health issue, as it would still be quite helpful to be at full strength for these next few weeks.

All for now!

Jon

New Staff Prospects!

Hello Everyone,

It's 60 degrees in Iowa on February 10th, can I get an "amen"?!

I'm sorry for not writing sooner, but as is typical, the beginning of the Spring semester has been rolling on at a breakneck pace! All of our chapters are up and running with some exciting reports already (I'll look forward to sharing these with you sometime soon!)

For now, however, I wanted to make a quick post to invite your prayers for me over the next few weeks on a couple points.

First, and most importantly, we are in the middle of "staff recruitment" season, and I'm so thankful to be working with ELEVEN total applicants for our work across Iowa (our current staff team is only 9!) We've already invited one of these folks to join our team, and am in process with the other ten helping them complete the application and preparing for interviews! As you can imagine, I'm thrilled not only to have so many folks applying, but in particular that a number of them would actually make great staff workers! So, you can be in prayer for me over the next few weeks as I interview these folks and make decisions about whether to offer them a spot on our team, and if so where...here's a quick interview schedule:

Thursday, 2.12- Brian

Friday, 2.13- Sarah W.

Tuesday, 2.17- Dayna

Wednesday, 2.18- Sarah B. 

Thursday, 2.19- Christina

Tuesday-Thursday (2.24-26)- Ryan, Sarah P., Brett, Nick

Friday, 2.27- Trevor

On a related note, I'd love prayers for my health. I've had a pretty odd set of symptoms over the last few weeks and am awaiting the results of some testing to hopefully figure it out. You can pray not only that God grants healing to my body, but that he would keep it from spreading through our family.

Thanks so much, may God's grace be upon you all!

Jon