Dear friends and family,
This year has been rich in experiences!
Dan continues to hold several volunteer positions with the Church of the Nazarene – Illinois District Missions President, tech helper to the District Superintendent, and he assists the global missions leader and her staff with a weekly newsletter (tech stuff and translations and archives). As Nazarene missionaries tour the U.S. in the spring and fall, Dan and I get to host those who tour our District (the southern 2/3 of Illinois). Having served as missions volunteers for 10+ years, we’ve met so many special people and have the contacts to invite to our District!
Since we moved our church membership to Belleville First Church during Covid, we’ve enjoyed our involvement in 2 life groups, monthly men’s and women’s breakfasts, the Community Garden, summer students’ lunches, and any other event that crops up! Dan helps occasionally with tech stuff during worship services and I get to be a resource for the Treasurer. And my part-time bookkeeping job has turned into Church Treasurer (it involves a few hours weekly) for a small Nazarene church near Belleville, keeping those skills active.
Summer was busy! We attended the Cardinals home-opener game, as well as the last home game and a few during the summer. We hope they’ll have a better season next year! We enjoyed 4 musicals at The Muny in Forest Park. In June, we spent several days in Indianapolis at the Nazarene General Assembly (international, only meets about every 4 years). It was great to reconnect with people we’ve met from all over the world! Our Illinois District Assembly (annual) was in July. It’s always a good time to reconnect with more local Nazarenes too. We picked blackberries and LOTS of green beans in our garden.
On June 30, the worst wind and hailstorm we’ve ever experienced came through our small town, taking out power for almost a week, damaging so many homes! A couple of homes in our 100-house subdivision are still waiting on repairs to their roofs. We were very fortunate, with power out for only 40 hours, but with enough damage to our screened porch that we replaced it with screens and glass so we can use it more than just during pretty weather!
We still try to get to the YMCA 4 times a week. We attended several funerals this year but also a couple of baby showers; my cousin Todd’s daughters each had a baby so I have new cousins and got to knit stroller blankets for them!
Marcy is a school resource officer in Fairhaven, MA. Her daughter Megan is living in NH, married to Ben, who brought 2 daughters with him. Their daughter Ember will be 3 in May! Marcy’s daughter #2 Morgan is an RN in Boston and is planning a 2025 wedding. Son Tucker is working for a real estate company.
Monica married fellow runner, Shannon, in March. They JUST moved to a new house in Belleville over Thanksgiving weekend. He has 2 children. Monica’s daughter Caitlyn lives in St. Louis and her son Dylan works for a glass company and lives with mom and Shannon for now.
Derick works for a construction firm in Pennsylvania now and was excited to qualify to be part of a volunteer fire department. Darin still lives in North Carolina – he had a heart attack on September 6 (at age 44!) and is recovering and back at work.
Erica still works at The Ohio State University in Columbus but is now Residency Program Manager for the Department of Pharmacy, Wexler Medical Center! So far, she’s enjoying the learning curve, and got to spend a few days in Anaheim, CA, at an annual event for pharmacy resident students.
All in all, God is good and life is moving on as all the kids are doing well through some significant changes in all of their lives. As for us, technology enables us to TRY to keep up with the kids, grandkids, and greats as well as sisters, cousins, and friends. Our greatest challenge continues to be learning how to adjust to this ‘stage of life’ as senior adults…
A major help with this is when we realize how blessed we are as our health is reasonably good while we see others (often younger than we are) dealing with a variety of physical and other limitations. We deserve no credit for this, it all goes to our God who continues to bless and use us in this Christmas season and throughout the year.
And we pray the same for all our special friends, like you.
Blessings and Merry Christmas!
