Goodbye 2019, Hello 2020

It’s hard to know where to start when it’s been so long… 

I feel like we need to go back before we go forward, though. We graduated from our Family DTS on 11/16. Our graduation evening is called Love Feast, and it’s a true celebration of what God had done in the previous 5 months. 

After Love Feast we traveled to Austin to be with my sister & her family for a few days. This is the first time since college that Stacie and I have lived this close together — we got to visit with them 4 times in 5 months! Such a happy record!

After a few days in Austin, we trekked up to Jackson Hole, Wyoming to visit Neil’s brother Jason & his family. We got to spend the whole week there, which included pretzel making, checking out downtown & the Elk Reserve, kids playing in several inches of snow, lots of games…. It is truly a gorgeous part of the country, and it was a gift to spend time catching up with Jason & Rachel, Hayden, Mei & Kaite.

From Jackson Hole, we made our way back to Michigan. Our dear friends, Dale & Kristin Ermshler, allowed us to call their summer cottage our home for the month. It was one of those gifts that you can’t seem to say thank you enough for… 

While at YWAM, you live in community. Living in community is great — stretching, at times, but overall, so good. One of the challenges is making space for family time – that is just our family being together. Our time in Michigan in December allowed us to reconnect as a family; a time to exhale together; it was a place for just us. We truly felt like the Lord lavished all kinds of love on us through our friends. 

And while we loved our time together as a family, we really especially LOVED catching up with so many friends & family-

~ Church services & Roots Youth at AHCC

~ Dinners with family & friends

~ Lunches with family & friends

~ Coffees with family & friends

~ Detroit with Grammie

~ Christmas parties

~ Visiting MOPS

~ Opportunities to share about our first go round at YWAM with friends, family & church

Even though we feel like we made the most of our time in Michigan, we still did miss visiting with some… One thing was very clear: we love Michigan, and no matter where God calls us in our future steps, Michigan will ALWAYS be home.

We say thank you, thank you, thank you for welcoming us back home to the Mitten. Thank you for spending time with us, sharing meals, praying for and with us… 

So, where are we now?  

We came back to YWAM Tyler  in early January. Neil & I started the School of Evangelism (SOE) on January 6. Topics for this school include:

Bible Overview, Cost of Discipleship, Financial Seminar, Suffering, Ministry Development, Leadership, Strategic Frontiers, & World Religions.  Neil & I love being back in “school”. 

The kids are also in school – which looks a little different this go round… Nolan and Savana are homeschooling – we have a table set up for them in the back of our classroom. That’s where they spend the morning doing schoolwork. After lunch, they each have work duties (Savana does kitchen clean up after lunch, and Nolan works in the YWAM snack bar, called the Substation). They’ve also gotten to listen in on quite a few lectures in our classroom. We love having them around.

Landon, Lucie & Tessa are attending Christian Heritage School. It’s a school that is run by our YWAM base — their teachers are missionaries! The school challenges them academically, while keeping it’s focus mainly on discipleship. They are able to ride the bus to school. All three have adjusted so well — they’ve made friends and are doing very well in their new school!

Eli and Titus are back in their preschool/nursery classes. They both call their classes “school” and go happily each day. 

Ok – so we’re back to blogging! Our next posts will include stories, sharing some lessons learned and…. our next OUTREACH!!!!  We are so excited for what the Lord has in store for us in the months ahead!