What Comes Next?

Diane was a hair dresser in Georgetown with a full clientele book.  They had two kids and spent time at the neighborhood pool, bar-b-quing, and watching Longhorn football games like anyone else.  Mel would play golf, or Diane would go shopping on the weekends, nothing too out of the ordinary.

His children Rachel and Matthew were in public school and had plenty of friends and busy social and sports lives.  Now all of that temporal security for the Staubers was threatened with the chance to change the future of a little village, half the world away.

“As a counselor, I have spent many hours talking with people about purpose in life.  When this opportunity surfaced, I identified that working with the people here, working with the kids, youth, and adults was my life’s purpose.  It’s not just about doing another ‘feeding program’.” Mel says enthusiastically.

When he returned home from the mission trip, Mel scheduled a meeting with Pastor Joe.  Mel told Pastor Joe that he and his family wanted to be considered for the move to Africa to start the new church.  Pastor Joe agreed and decided to send Mel and Diane on another trip so they could see more specifically what they would be doing should they decide to take the job.  Diane had never been to Mozambique and at this point the entire family was feeling a pretty wide range of emotions as what could potentially be moving day drew near.  The option to back out was still on the table, but Mel was not considering it.

As the couple landed in South Africa for the final visit, the mood was excited but tired from the long trip so far.  It takes several plane rides and bumpy back road drives to get to Xai-Xai.  Diane was in shock the entire 4-hour drive from Maputo, the capitol of Mozambique that they flew into, to Xai-Xai, the coastal community in which they were soon to live in.  On their arrival to Xai-Xai, it started to rain which brings out the smell of the trash lining the streets.  This was so far from her sweet scented salon back in safe Georgetown.  This was not exactly what Diane was expecting or looking forward to.  Her major fears melted, however, the moment they pulled up to the care point where the children would be fed every day.  As she watched the hungry children, some of them homeless orphans, the decision was made for her; they had to move to Africa.

When Mel and Diane returned from that trip, their hearts were settled and they began to make preparations that such a move requires.  Getting the kids ready was the most important thing to them.  Mel and Diane showed Rachel and Matthew many photos.  They researched Mozambique with them and watched as many TV specials on African wildlife as they could fine.  Still, nothing could really prepare them for what they were going to have to give up and how their lives would change.

The Stauber’s extended family was not eager to see them go.  Mel’s family was rather receptive and have helped every step along the way.  But Diane’s family was a different story.  Rachel and Matthew are their only grandkids and going from 3 hours away to a different continent all together was not something they were excited about.  They have questioned Diane every step of the way and are still looking for Mel and Diane to “wise up” and move back to Texas.

On most weekend mornings you are likely to find hand-drawn signs directing you to numerous “Garage Sales”.  If you follow the signs you may find yourself combing through someone else’s personal belongings.  Antiques, old Nintendo’s, collectible gems or even a kitchen gadget are hot items at these mini-markets.  The bargains displayed on the rickety card tables and fanned out on the lawns usually belong to someone who will be moving soon, across town or even across country.  However, few, if any, will move 8,000 miles away to Mozambique, Africa.

In the summer of 2010 Mel Stauber of Round Rock Texas sat in his driveway and watched at his own garage sale.  Trunk after trunk of strangers’ cars was filled with his family’s clothes, toys and household items.  He watched as the inventory dwindled.  His family had built a life for themselves here in Texas and this garage sale bartered off everything they owned.  The small stack of cash Mel received couldn’t compare to the emotional value of some of the things he was having to give away.  They had decided to move to Mozambique, Africa to become missionaries.

They could only bring a few items so they sold the rest on their driveway.  Mel’s wife, Diane,  had left him to manage the sale while she ran errand, a choice she later came to regret.  Mel had mistakenly sold a suitcase full of his wife’s clothes that had been destined for their new residence in Africa for a mere five dollars.  He tried not to let his momentary laps of common sense dampen his excitement of the adventures and possibilities, which lay before he and his family in Africa the following week.

Joe Champion, senior pastor at Celebration Church in Georgetown, Texas, had presented Mel and Diane with an opportunity to move to Africa with their children Rachel, 10 and Matthew, 7.   Mel was a mission’s pastor and counselor at Celebration Church for many years. He had helped build schools and feed the hungry not only in Mozambique, but in Romania as well as a number of other countries. In previous visits, Mel led a group from church to a third world country and stay a few weeks working among the disadvantaged before retuning back to Texas. It had never crossed his mind that he would be a resident of one of these countries.

Celebration Church had located a village in Mozambique called Xai-Xai that they believed they could impact.   The church wanted to open a campus in Xai-Xai that could function as a church, community center, a feeding center for orphans and a “Care Point” for a goodwill organization in Africa called Children’s Cup.  Pastor Joe Champion and the board of elders at Celebration Church had decided that it was time to cross borders and help the people of Mozambique in a more permanent way than they ever had before.  “We are thrilled to have the opportunity to create a healthy, stable church environment so that these children as well the people of the community can come and build a relationship with Christ and each other” said Pastor Joe.

On his last trip to Mozambique, Mel was taking another pastor to interview for the job opening there.  While laying under the open sky, wrapped in a mosquito net and trying to fall asleep, Mel started to think about his life and his family.  He realized that these visiting pastors were not equipped to run a new church plant.  Mel says that he knew that night that he was supposed to move his family to Africa.  He text Diane and asked her to pray about moving.

My apologies for not posting in such a long time but I took on new responsibilities at work proving to be more time consuming than I thought it would be.  Been working a lot which means I have also been playing a lot.  Been doing lots of fun things that can only be done in this wonderful city.  Falling more and more in love with the city with each passing day.  Short recap:  I am now the photo editor for Faces in the crowd and the fantasy football page in the magazine as well as a few special stories, and sometimes all of college football and scorecard depending on who is on vacation.  Extra fun things I have been doing include but are not limited to:

The FDNY had to make a visit to my building.

Went to the Lucky Shops event in Chelsea and LOVED my life, got great designer christmas gifts for great prices.  A shopping event held once a year here in NYC.  Something I will now make an annual event.

Considered joining up with the Time/Life Holiday singers…however I did not.  Shame, I know.

Went to Central Park and walked the entire park to take in the fall colors on the trees.  It’s breath taking.  The Fall in New York is officially my favorite place to be in life.  It’s beyond wonderful, so beautiful, perfect weather, and I would love to paddle around on the water reservoir.

Went to see a taping of Conan!  Special guests: Matthew Broderick and Paul Simon.  The best part of the show was how relaxed and chill Conan was during “commercial breaks”.  Also when him and Mr. Simon jammed for like 30 minutes after the show was over playing Elvis and johnny cash covers.

Thats a wrap.  I promise to be a bit better about keeping you up to date in the future.

40 days till my return to ATX

First of all….it has been a crazy week.  I got a photo in the digital issue of the magazine.  The digital bonus page is a photo by me of the Battle of I-95 basketball game featuring Carmelo Anthony, LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and CP3 just to name a few.  It was a great game out at The Palestra in Philly.  Some how I’ve been here in NY almost two months already!  I don’t know how that happened….

Also, I was thinking this morning about what I was doing a year ago.  What did October 2010 have for me….I remember hardly sleeping for about two weeks because I was up till all hours of the morning writing cover letters, burning digital copies of my portfolio, and perfecting my resume`.  I was so terrified that I wouldn’t get an internship.  from the batch of 22 applications I sent out…I got two offers.  I turned them both down and decided to intern with the Athletic dept at UT so I could stay home for the summer.  Little did I know I would end up spending the summer in Africa, nor did the thought that I would intern for SI even enter my mind.  While I lay awake in worrying about my future I always knew in the back of my mind that something beyond what I could even dream up would work out.  Because it always does.  I never thought I would be wear I am and I am constantly surprised by what I am experiencing here.

I am so incredibly blessed and there are no words for how honored I am that God would choose lil ole me for such great things.  Experiences of a lifetime. I cannot wait to see whats gonna happen each day it’s always a surprise   Loving life!!!

Christmas shopping for Bentley.  I think i’ll get him a friend like this one!

Wednesdays are my day off.  Today I slept late.  Went for a run on which I ended up by the famous bellvue mental hospital…that was a little creepy.  After all of this I spent the rest of the day shopping for my brother.  He turns 30 in less than two weeks!!!  BOOM! SO sad i’m gonna miss it.  I wish I was there to take him to Sea World and arrange for him to pet shamoo.  None the less I got him fabulous gifts and while I was out I had my second celebrity siting!!!  Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Brodrick were on a walk, just south of Union square!  I was walking across 5th avenue and they were walking up about to turn and walk toward me and I thought to myself…”that looks like sarah jessica! it couldn’t be….Oh my god that’s matthew brodrick!!!!” i managed to muster a “Hello!  I love you guys! I loved Project X” He laughed and said thanks then the crossed the street and were gone.  They’re just people…but then again it was weird/awesome seeing them in person.

Feeling good, got J the best birthday gifts and saw Sarah Jessica and Matthew Brodrick.  I love today!!

creepy bellvue

I got a photo in the magazine!  It is of a stack of books, as a part of a time line dealing with the analytic’s of baseball and it’s running the size of a postage stamp, but published is published.   Be sure to pick up your very own copy and look for my name and photo.

In other news:

So the majority of the photo department does not work on Tuesdays…Only two of work and it’s the most fun and rather relaxing, yet a lot of work still gets done.  We finish the ipad issue and e-reader issue, which for some odd reason we call Galaxy, still haven’t figured that one out.  Funny things always happen on Tuesdays.  Today that funny thing was Miguel moving into his new office and cleaning out what the last person had left which happened to include a bunch of empty lap top boxes…which inspires me to tell you about my problem with encouraging people to do really silly things.  I encouraged D to only make one trip!  DUH!  Who wants to make more than one trip?  When you go to the grocery…you’re whole trunk is full of grocery bags, any natural person would make a few trips, but no no….not me, all at once even if my arm feels like it’s going to break off.  Put all 10 bags on one arm get it done.  Kick the house door in if you have to, some how it will work.  So here at one point D had 20 lap top boxes stacked so high he had to “squat-walk” (walk while slightly squatting because otherwise the boxes would hit the ceiling)