Merry Christmas to all our family and friends!
Our 2019 has been an wonderful year of recovery after last year, which had included Dan’s quad
bypass and rehab, then the sarcoma (cancer) on his arm with preventive radiation, as well as my
cataract surgery and torn meniscus repair. Medically, this year has included multiple follow-up
doctor visits, my bunion surgery in August (well-healed now) and I’ll have a laser “touch-up” on my
cataracts yet in December.
In April we drove out to North Carolina by way of the ridge drives
along the full length of the Blue Ridge Mountains, including a couple of national parks and a great B&B. We made an interesting discovery along the way. The purpose of the trip was for Darin’s 40th birthday. Darin is still happiest rebuilding motorcycles and autos in his free time as he now has an indoor manufacturing job to fund his “toys.” We saw Derick too, along with his girlfriend Nicole. Derick continues to keep busy in the rope access and safety industry.
We enjoyed planting and harvesting our vegetable garden this summer AND we had a bumper crop of thornless blackberries with lots of recipe experimentation – blackberry bread, cobbler, jam, chocolate-chip-blackberry ice cream... you get the picture!
We’ve taken on more responsibilities at church besides singing on the worship team and my producing the weekly bulletin (no matter where we are) - Dan’s on the church board and teaches Sunday school. I’ve also picked up the bookkeeping duties temporarily. I’m on the planning team for ladies’ events; we had a Christmas craft night in December and will enjoy a ladies’ tea in January. We participate in the Wednesday night meals and ministry to church-neighborhood youth and kids; also on the “care” team, visiting with and praying for those in our small congregation with special needs.
It was nice, if strange, to be home for so long (18 months) before Dan went on a tech-team mission trip to the Dominican Republic the end of October. The project was to install WiFi at a Bible college there. He was only home 1 full day before we returned to Germany. Late in the summer we’d been invited to participate in a Nazarene Eurasia regional conference (and we insisted that we’d help, not just attend) so I was drafted to help with the database of participants for several weeks prior, coordinating attendees in hotel rooms along with their designated roommates/families. I worked with over 530 people’s records into 270 rooms! Dan was tapped to help with IT and AV needs in the workshops, of course. So we flew to Germany on Nov. 8 (hoping to get a jump on the jet lag) for a few days; then to Kyrenia, Cyprus, for 9 days for the conference!
It was a great time — and warm — as we met/reconnected with so many lovely people from Europe and British Isles, India, the Middle East, Russia and Eastern Europe, besides the American missionaries (many of which we’d already known). I was selfishly really glad to wear sandals again and take a dip in the Mediterranean too! Afterwards, we were able to stay in our usual guest apartment near the regional office in Büsingen to help out a few more days before flying home just in time for Thanksgiving!
While we were away, Erica had gone to our house to move our frozen turkey to the fridge to thaw so we could host the family meal. We had 8 around the table this year - Monica and Dylan (he’s had a difficult couple of years, now a senior), Caitlyn and her boyfriend John, Erica and her boyfriend Mike. Everyone volunteered to bring sides and desserts to go along with the turkey, so I didn’t have to do much besides cook the turkey; we didn’t even have much trouble staying awake!
You’ve probably heard about St. Louis’ high crime rate and we’ve finally been touched by it — Monica was car-jacked in the city early in November. She wasn’t hurt and her undamaged car was found and returned to her the next day. Also she only had to replace 1 credit card. God clearly had his hand on her but she was still badly shaken. So awful that she had to go through that! She’s grateful though, since it turned out better than anyone could have hoped. She also chaired the parent group of volunteers for this year’s madrigal dinner at the high school. We enjoyed the event once again; we’ve attended since Caitlyn was in the concert choir and now it’s Dylan’s last year.
Erica has returned to her previous job as food service purchaser at a 500-resident retirement village where she also gets to cook occasionally. Adam continues to live and work in the Peoria area.
Our family continues to grow in so many ways. We’re looking forward to seeing Marcy and her family in the fall of 2020. Megan is now married and has 2 step-daughters; the wedding reception will be in October. Morgan is an RN working in Boston and Tucker is a junior in high school. Derick’s daughter, Tessie, who lives in Pennsylvania, is due to give birth to her 3rd child (our first great-grandson) in January. We hope to see them as we travel out East also. By the end of that trip – counting the 2 that live near us, we may actually get to be with all our 6 grandkids and 5 great-grandkids. Impossible! We are not that old… ;-}
Anyway, Dan and I are back at the Y 4 mornings each week. I’m still knitting, reading, and loving to cook while Dan deals with local and global missionary tech help requests as needed.
God is good and we are blessed in so many ways including family and friends like you. We pray that you too will enjoy His Blessings in the coming new year.
