18 July 2009

and now for something entirely different...

I've been waiting to post anything until something noteworthy happens in my life...and now it has. I have been offered a job as a director of youth ministry at a Catholic parish in a Pittsburgh, PA suburb. This is going to be quite the change, but I'm really excited to get everything started. I wish I could just be there and get an apartment and get settled in and get to work and meet some youth and repaint the ugly youth room! (Okay, so the youth room isn't that ugly--it's a good space--it just needs to not have walls that are painted with clouds and waves. That's going to be one of our first youth group activities, I think.)

But I can't get too far ahead of myself--I need to figure out all the paperwork that the diocese needs, how I'm going to actually get out there, where I'm actually going to live, and...a bunch of other stuff. Yeah.

So...I'm scared. But I'm so ready. I can't wait to start this adventure! Well, I suppose I've already started it--here's the story (the very very abridged version).

A couple months ago, I sent out a few applications for youth ministry jobs, and I heard back from St. Teresa's a while later. I had a phone screening with one of the people on their search committee, then a few weeks later, I had a conference call interview with the entire committee (made up of the pastor, the youth minister at a neighboring parish, and three mothers of youth at St. Teresa's). They flew me out to the Burgh less than a week ago for an interview, which was wonderful--I got to look around and get to know the area a teeny bit, and I also got to hang out with some teenagers and to talk with their parents. And after a few days of intense thumb-twiddling, Fr. Bob offered me the position yesterday evening. And I accepted it!

That's about all for now. Woohoo!