The new principal at Rimbey Christian School has arrived in Alberta during a winter that seems endless with temperatures that continue to hover at well below the average.
However, the warmth he and his family has experienced since they arrived here a few weeks ago has more than made up for the frigid conditions.
Sergio Cepero Esprinosa, his wife Iryna and their children, Amy, 11, Eileen, nine, Janie, eight, Joel, four and Nathan, four-months-old are settling into their new home at Meridian Beach at Gull Lake and adjusting to life in rural Alberta.
Cepero, 43, who was the Vice Dean in the Faculty of Education at the University of Granada is happy with his new position as principal of Rimbey Christian School.
“It’s a place with great potential,” he said, noting his children love their new school.
“They love it and say it is the best school in the world,” he said.
Cepero, who also spent some time at Columbia University in New York City said he has experienced several roadblocks that impended the process of the family making the move to Canada, but, despite the obstacles he and his family has faced, he is certain that they are following God’s plans for their lives.
“I feel that God is leading us as a family,” he said.
He said he enjoyed his position at the university, but felt that God wanted him to serve Him in a different capacity. In answer to what he believes was God’s calling, he began to search job postings on line. He even responded to a job offering in China.
He was interviewed for the position at the Rimbey Christian School on skype and two days later he arrived in person for the second and final interview.
Cepero had lived in the United States for a few years, but still found himself to be amazed by rural Alberta.
“I was so impressed by the distance,” he said. “There is no one around you for miles.”
He noted that the province of Alberta is five times the size of Spain.
Although Alberta, with its wide open spaces and freezing winter temperatures, seemed completely foreign to Cepero, he said he and his family are adjusting well to their new country.
“The longer we stay the more comfortable we feel,” he said. “Everyone has been so welcoming and so friendly.”