Hey Friends and Family!!!
It's taken me longer than I planned to update you
all on my latest journeys. As planned, I left last
Thursday, September 20th for a roadtrip cross country
to West Virginia. I will be here for at least a year
working with youth, children and families in my career
as well as with my family through church ministries.
After a little over 2-days of driving from the West to
East Coast, I arrived on Sunday Morning (30 min.
before sunday service) and have been busy beyond
belief since then getting settled, opening bank
accounts, job hunting, helping with home/family and
church activities, i.e..
I'm so blessed to have many great things to share
since my arrival:
First, a great job opportunity was offered to me
working at The Olympic Center, a teen drug and alcohol
recovery center here in the mountains. I will be a
behavioral health counselor making pretty decent money
(especially for this area). It's full-time, with great
benefits, and great coworkers...I did fingerprinting
already and will start as soon as I get clearance...as
if that weren't enough...I'll be working alongside
DAvid (my fiance --- he proposed Last Night!!!!
AHHH...so my children will be
Dominican-Mexican-American....not including the foster
and/or children we plan to adopt......crazy!!! God is
so good and so faithful!!! ) So new job,
man-of-my-dreams/husband to be, new home in the
mountains and so much more that has yet to come...
Other plans here which I've mentioned before are
the Youth Center that will be established, funding is
still in the works and a location in the process of
being confirmed...when it is, things we'll be busier,
getting state licensed and getting the center up and
running that will offer after-school programming,
mentor programs, counseling, various focus groups,
recreational activities, i.e. I'll be applying for
grad school as well in a few months (though I have no
idea yet where i'll be...since David is from NYC, my
heart is back in Cali and yet we both find ourselves
in West Virginia at the moment)...Life is full of
surprises...in any case, I won't be leaving my
committment here at Praise Chapel Terra Alta (the
reason I came) until I complete my year-long mission.
We already had a youth service last (friday) night
which was great. 10 youth showed up though we envision
a packed church full of 'em soon. Our first Greenhouse
Young Adult bible study is set for this coming
thursday, October 4th. Flyers have been made and we
begin outreaching tonite at the Preston County's
annual "Buckwheat Festival" (the biggest event of the
year in the area)
So all in God's timing, things are happening...it's
so exciting to be a part of what God is doing here in
Terra Alta, West Virginia and the surrounding
communities...
In closing this email, I pray the best for all of
you and please keep me posted with any and everything.
Remember to live with No Regrets and keep up the
awesome work...Love and Miss you!
Carmen Renteria (soon to be Ms. Abreu)
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