April Update...

Hello, everyone! It's that time again for an update from the Healey family. April found us all in good health, and doing well. Dulcy is doing quite well with the pregnancy, and the baby is healthy, too. She has had her first ultrasound, heard the baby's heartbeat, and all that good stuff. I think I was more happy, though, to see that there was only one baby in there...:)

I have begun training to upgrade to the larger buses. If we stay in the area, this upgrade will give me more driving time during the summer months doing charter trips and such, when my regular school route won't be running. It also makes my license a bit more "marketable" as it will now include vehicles with air brake systems. The training has already come in handy financially, as they had me training for about 4 hours a day during Spring Break when I wouldn't have been getting any hours at all. So, God is good, and is continuing to provide.

Dulcy and the kids are still clipping along quite well in their homeschooling endeavors. The boys have started a California State notebook project for their Social Studies class. They are learning quite a bit more about California than I know. Katherine is becoming quite the little reader, now, too. Everything must be read, now...no word or group of words are too mundane. She reads them all! We're happy that she loves reading so much.

Concerning the hunt for a job...Leads are still very slim in the area. Frankly, they're slim everywhere. Presently, there are 5 leads that I am currently running down that are all decent prospects. One is in Homestead, FL, a church/school is looking for a youth worker/Bible teacher. Out of all the prospects currently on the table, this one is the most appealing to Dulcy and I. If God desires for us to leave the area, this is the one that seems to best fit our family. It also carries with it a possible reunion with some friends of ours that we've known since college and their family. Another prospect is in Forrest City, Arkansas, a school looking for a Bible teacher. The third is Berkeley Chinese Baptist Church, in Berkeley, CA. They are looking for an English Pastor to oversee their English-speaking congregation. A fourth is another school in Antioch, CA, who just contacted me this morning asking if I would fill-out an application and send in my resume. And the fifth is a church in New Jersey that is looking for an assistant pastor to take over when the senior pastor retires in the near future. Those contacts that I've made to this area's Christian schools have either come back negative, or haven't come back at all, with the exception of the one this morning. And of the 15 or 16 applications I've made to government positions, I've heard back from just 3. Two of the positions have been cancelled, and the third said that I was qualified, but that other applicants were more qualified.

Honestly, we don't know where God is leading us. We will go where He leads. That is our main concern. It would grieve us to have to leave the wonderful people at Bethany Baptist, but if that is God's will, so shall it be done. Offerings are actually lower than last year, now. Pastor Rushing doesn't understand it, either, because we haven't lost any people over last year. The only explanation we can figure is that the economy's effects have finally trickled down to where the church finances are feeling it.

Suffice it to say, though, that we have pretty much entered "crunch time". Our lease is up at the end of June, and while the lease agreement does allow for a month-to-month stipulation after the first year, we'd much rather have things figured out before then. If God is leading us away from here, there are so many preparations that would need to be made. We are not forgetting what God did to get us here, mind you. These things are simply on our minds.

Our requests this month are simple:

1. Pray that the pregnancy goes well, and that Dulcy and the baby stay healthy.

2. Pray that God would guide and direct us to His will for our family.

Thank you so much for your prayers for us. We are looking forward to seeing how God works all this out.

In His Service,
Sam, Dulcy, Michael, David, Katherine, and .5 Healey
Mark 10:45