Happy Easter!

"For I passed on to you the most important points of what I received: Christ died for our sins in keeping with the Scriptures, he was buried, he was raised on the third day in keeping with the Scriptures - and is still risen! (1 Corinthians 15:3-4, ISV) What a simple, yet complete statement of the Gospel and the reason for which we celebrate Easter! It is my hope and prayer that we will continue to celebrate the resurrection every day of our lives, not just once a year in the spring.

This week is Spring Break for all of the Helena schools as well as the school in MT City, so I am not substitute teaching this week. The school in Clancy, MT is having school today (Tuesday) but I didn't get a call from them this morning. We are actually preparing to go on vacation - or "vaca" as my wife now calls it - later this week. We are going to North Carolina for 5 days to visit friends from seminary. More about that later.

I called both MSU-Billings and UGF (Univ. of Great Falls) this morning and am waiting to hear back from the education departments. I was on UGF's web site and saw something interesting. They offer a Master of Arts in Teaching degree that is completely online classes. The site says that it is for people who have a "teachable" undergraduate degree and desire to change careers to teaching. It is 42 hours of credits, but all of the classes are offered through the web so I could do all the work here at home while I am still working. It sounds very interesting but I am waiting on more info. Please keep praying that we would see where God is leading and that we would have the faith to follow.

Since turkey hunting fell through, I went fishing yesterday instead. I drove to Melrose, MT (about 100 miles...not very far by MT standards) and fished the Big Hole River. Whe I arrived, it was raining/snowing, the wind was blowing about 10-15 mph and it was about 38-40º. Yesterday was really my only day to go so I decided to stay and tuff it out. The weather stayed about the same for about 1 1/2 hours, then it was like God opened the shades of a small window in the sky and let the sun shine through. For the rest of the afternoon there was sunshine, 55º, and a slight breeze while in the mountains all around the valley it continued raining/snowing. It was pretty amazing. All of that by itself made the trip worth it...the fact that I caught four trout (2 browns, 2 rainbows) was just icing on the cake. What a great day!