I’m still here.

Blogging silence continues.

A few thoughts.

Props to Chris in passing ordination exams!

I’m VBS guitar man right now. I’m off to plan VBS music.

By the way? Anyone have an extra Mini-Van sitting around collecting dust?

My wife’s car decided to take a hike.

Now back to our regularly scheduled program of marriage, family, Lent, Easter Preparations, and the day to day things of being a pastor.

Today is Pink Friday if you haven’t already guessed by some of my brief little snippets between my blog and my facebook.

My wife has taught in the public school system for a very long time. Many of her friends having been teaching even longer. My wife is in the process of listening to the Lord and trying to discern what’s next in her life. She’s even about to consider a new career. How does a teacher who has been teaching for over 15 years as a public school teacher all of sudden start over again? With the rising costs of state colleges and especially graduate level programs how does someone like my wife do this with kids, a mortgage, student loan payments, car payments, etc, etc, and some more etc. I know it’s not just education that is being hit. Everything is being hit.

Does she continue teaching? The problem is that there are no teaching jobs for a teacher with that much experience,  if you really do the math and think about the massive budget cuts not only happening in California, but across the nation. My wife and some of her colleagues are the ones with high salaries because of their education and experience. Friends have said, “but the stimulus package will help.” If its supposed to help, why is Los Angeles Unified Schools about to cut something like 5500 teachers?

Please pray for my wife. Our kids. Kids all over California. Teachers all over California who are considering other careers and who will be living off unemployment possibly like us. Our state colleges and universities. And yes administrators we will pray for you too, it’s not your fault. Although my kids high school doesn’t need something like four vice principals and a principal as school districts are cutting teachers left and right. Something’s not right with that either.

I’d be lying to you if I told you I am fine. I am not fine. It stinks that our kids, our teachers, and our colleges and universities have to go through this. I have no answers. The only answer I have is something we talked about at a Bible Study I led last night. I love Peterson’s paraphrase of Isaiah 40:27-31.

I also point you to a person who gets it.

Find more videos like this on Pink Friday

The tags keep a coming…now I think they will stop…:)

1. I love my wife and kids dearly and thank God for them every second of my life. (Pray for my wife and the other zillion teachers who are loosing their jobs in California, I’m also so proud of our boys)

2. Thanks to the encouragement and support of some awesome friends, a couple of pastor types, and my lovely bride and kids, I am the first that I know of in my family to graduate high school, college, and graduate school…I was only 34 years old when I finished.

3. I was an extra in a Gary Coleman Cub scout movie in the early 80’s…hasn’t everyone whose grown in Hollywood been an extra?

4. I was in a March of Dimes photo shoot with Charles Bronson and his wife when I was in Jr. High. That dude was old!

5. As kids we used to climb up to the Hollywood sign before it was fenced off.

6. My mother is Dutch (Lelani Von Tellrop) and my biological father (Miguel Mascaranas) is Mexican-American, so am I Sputch?

7. My legal last name until about the year 2000 was Von Tellrop, not Wahe. New Jersey made me legally change my last name for my NJ License..Debbie & K.C. Von Tellrop?

8. My recent trip to Israel was the first time I’ve been out of the country other than leading Mexico mission projects in my youth ministry daze.

9. I’ve floated in the DEA SEA. (I had to put that one in, scroll down a post or two and you shall see a pic)

10. I used to deliver papers for the Herald Examiner before it croaked. I was the “throwing the paper dude” while the other dude drove for a car route I helped with and Eddie Van Halen’s house was a regular stop. (Thanks to a buddy, Van Halen was one of my first concerts I attended in my youth)

11. Deb, the kids, and myself attended the Rose Parade this year for the first time. (Thanks to a buddy)

12. Yes. I am a fan of Hootie & the Blowfish.

13. I saw RUSH (the BAND) for the first time in 2002 in Philly while living in Princeton…they kick butt even as old dudes.

14. I love coffee places that roast their own beans. (I miss small world in Princeton, NJ order their coffee online!)

15. I love Jesus, my wife, my kids, coffee, and my takamine and my martin guitars. In that order.

16. Greasy spoon breakfast over Denny’s breakfasts any day. (Come to the Antelope Valley for the best in Greasy Spoon cafes)

17. Grilled dodger dogs are the only way to go at Dodger stadium, In & Out Burger anytime of day, and tritip are the three foods that should be served at every meal. Okay…and really good Pizza.

18. I worked for the county of Los Angeles for a brief stint finding jobs for people who were over 55 years of age.

19. I thought I wanted to be a Forest Ranger at one time in my life.

20. Hollywood Blvd. was my playground as a kid. (We used to skate board up and down the blvd. We even used to go pool hoping in the neighborhood motel pools in the late 70’s to keep cool during the summer months, and as kids I think we sneaked into every movie theater on the blvd, that’s how I saw Chain Saw Massacre with my neighborhood buddies when it first came out and our baby sitter even sneaked us into Grease the movie, ugh!)

21. We loved living on the East Coast for three years in Princeton, NJ.

22. Before starting my work in youth ministry, one of my first jobs in the church was working as a church custodian at a real cool church.

23. When thirty something the television show was on in the late 80’s I wanted to be the guitar dude who would pluck the background music. (Cheesy but serious)

24. I love to cooooooook!

25. The only reason I like watching Tombstone the movie and the Matrix are for the fight scenes. (I’ll be your huckleberry)