2023 Christmas Letter

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!

2022 Christmas letter

Dear Family and Friends,

The tree is up, but not yet decorated and there’s lots to do before Christmas Day arrives!

This new year started with Dan’s new Toyota Tacoma, which he immediately accessorized with running boards and extra lights. I was just thankful that he also lowered the height so I can climb in the passenger side!

In 2022, we’ve seen our doctors virtually and in person; we’ve exercised with online classes, in-person group classes at the Y with masks, and finally without masks. So far, we’ve avoided Covid and gotten all our immunizations for Covid, flu, and pneumonia.

Early in the year, I volunteered to help a small local Nazarene church with their bookkeeping when their bookkeeper passed away last December. There’s been a learning curve, but I managed to catch up their books on new software and improve their record-keeping. It actually has been fun for me! They’ve been pleased, so I was asked to continue as their church treasurer starting in January!

It was also fun for me to help organize, with 2 other women, BFCN’s (Belleville First Church of the Nazarene) Easter Breakfast. There, Dan attends monthly Men’s Breakfasts, and we are part of 2 Life Groups for fellowship and Bible study. JoyFM, where I used to work, offered a women’s concert in May; several of us girls from BFCN attended and had a wonderful evening.

May also brought a missionary family (friends of ours) our way, so we hosted them for a couple of nights, even taking them to a Cardinals game before they went on with their time in the U.S. before returning to the Philippines.

We were asked to attend some training sessions in Kansas City to assist missionaries as they use new financial software. Still a part of the Nazarene Missions Tech Team, Dan is often referenced to help make technical things work as he assists others around the Illinois District as well. It is good to be useful.

It was a wet spring and a HOT summer, but we grew lots of blackberries! Dan spent many hours keeping the yard and gardens thriving! We attended several Cardinals games in person (we watch the rest on TV), along with several wonderful musicals at The Muny in Forest Park. My favorite was “Mary Poppins” – so professional and fun! Summer also included Food Truck Fridays in Tower Grove Park – yum! And we always invite folks to join us on our screened porch to enjoy 4th of July fireworks that we can see for miles!

In July, we attended the Illinois District Assembly. Unfortunately, we lost the District Missions President the day before the meeting. A few weeks later, Dan was asked to be the new District President of Nazarene Missions International (NMI). The district area is the southern

2/3 of the state. While we’d been volunteer missionaries for 12 years, he’s never been involved in this support organization. He’s facing a significant learning curve but has a good council of folks to go through all the experiences with him, as they rebuild interest and activities of the NMI that were limited during the Covid years. We’re hoping for some Missions Team (Work & Witness) trips in 2023!

July was a busy month – we finally got to celebrate our 25^th anniversary (a year late) with our dream of an Alaskan glacier cruise and it was wonderful on Royal Caribbean’s Ovation of the Seas.

This year was an expensive one as well – we had to replace our computers (over 10 years old), our cell phones, and our home’s HVAC system.

In October, Dan was able to attend several training days for NMI presidents in the US. And, on Districts each fall and spring, there’s usually been a missionary speaking tour scheduled. Covid had precluded any early scheduling of a missionary so, a few days after Dan returned, we spoke in 9 churches/zones (in a 2-week period) around the Illinois District about our missionary journey in “God’s retirement plan”. I helped by sharing some of our blog entries of our experiences.   

In November, Dan drove us out to Marcy’s home for Thanksgiving (5 days of driving and 2 days of visiting). She’s now an SRO (school resource officer) while serving as a local police officer. It was great to spend some time with her! Monica is the only one living near us now, but she’s a very busy lady in a serious relationship, sings at her church, runs races literally all over the country, and seems to enjoy her full-time job in the county auditor’s office.

Erica visited for Mother’s Day and my birthday in August and in November as she ran her 7th Hot Chocolate 15K Race. Janet enjoyed a surprise Facetime call with Adam on her birthday that we all enjoyed.  Derick and Darin are both still in North Carolina. We have occasional chats with both of them as Derick is staying active with various rope access safety jobs and consulting while Darin has bought his first home and stays busy outside of work rebuilding/customizing old cars.

Looks like we’ll celebrate Christmas a few days later this year, when we can get a few family members gathered here! Skype, Zoom, Facebook, and other social media will have to do for the others others.

As the years keep going by more quickly, we surely do wish to see more of our friends and family! As God continues to bless us with good health, we keep busy but love to make time for those we care about. Please let us know when you’re near the St. Louis area so we can connect!

Wishing you all God’s blessings in this wonderful season!

    With Love and Appreciation for all,                             

    Blessings,  Dan & Janet

Summer of new things

This will break our recent years' pattern of using the Christmas letter to cover the full year.  Suddenly this summer, we are finding our days and weeks filling with more than the routine exercise classes at the Y.  

It started with a call from our church global missions office asking if we could be available to with a new project that, in most cases, we could do from home.  They are changing a number of the computer finance tools that the missionaries use and the staff felt that our skills could be useful as part of the support team during the transition. As we learned more of the details and plans, we agreed.  The full schedule is not clear but this certainly does not look like a short term project and we are okay with that.

Alaskan glacier

Last year was our 25th anniversary but, due to Covid's impact on travel, we had deferred our hope of visiting Alaska.  But then, once again, God stepped in and we 'randomly' learned some dear friends had just scheduled a cruise to Alaska and they were excited to have us join them.  On a very short timeline, we got booked and went on our planned-but-unplanned holiday.  It was a wonderful time and made even more special by the couple we shared it with, Clark and Connie Armstrong.

Then, at this year's Illinois District Assembly, we tragically learned of the passing of the District's Missions president the night before.  A few weeks later I (Dan) was having a text conversation with the District Superintendent about some changes on the district web site when he mentioned that he was gathering names of possible candidates to fill the missions position. I went on with the site work and then asked if he had been hinting in some way.  He responded, "Well, yes, sort of."  I responded that because I had no experience or knowledge of the district level missions organization, I was not interested.  However, that being said, I was available...  Soon he responded by asking that I prepare a bio for consideration to go with the others he was gathering. A few days later, he called to inform me that I had been elected if I would accept!  If you have been around this blog for very long, you know that we have learned that God's plans are far better than ours. So I accepted with no clue of what this meant or how I could fulfill it. What I told God that night was this is ALL ABOUT HIM!

In the meantime, Janet has been volunteering at a Nazarene church not far from ours in Belleville as their bookkeeper after theirs passed away, leaving books that needed to be reorganized and redone. She keeps busy feeding us healthy meals, some from harvesting our prolific blackberry vines, the single small apple tree that resulted in 1/2 gal of apple butter, and our vegetable garden.

So as you can see, we have new opportunities and responsibilities God has once again led us into.  HIS guidance and your prayers are all we need going on from here.

2021 Christmas letter

 

Dear Friends and Family,

The weeks & months have flown by in another very different year! And 2021 is almost over!  We got our first 2 Covid vaccinations in February and March, then the booster in November. We wear masks as needed and have stayed well. We attended too many funerals this year, many due to the Covid pandemic.

Dan had a fall off a short step ladder in early March that resulted in a badly bruised hip but thankfully no broken bones.  Meanwhile, I enjoyed some physical therapy for my painful knees.

We drove to Fairhaven, MA for granddaughter Megan’s baby shower in May, staying in a bayside cottage, near Marcy. Ben & Megan’s baby Ember Lynn was born May 30! She’s awfully cute!

          This summer we replaced most of our main floor with hardwood – it looks beautiful and changes the whole look of our home. In preparation, I asked Dan to paint the 2 main floor bedrooms. What a great refresh after 14 years in this house!

          Dan made it easy on me for his birthday and Father’s Day, choosing his own new gas grill. We’ve certainly enjoyed the benefits!

Erica moved in with us for 5 months; over the summer she worked for Salt & Smoke, a local barbecue restaurant (we didn’t mind the perks!), while still looking for work back in Columbus, OH. She applied for and earned an assistant manager position at one of 5 huge food service buildings at Ohio State University, moving back there in late August.

We harvested an incredible stash of blackberries once again (gave away lots and froze a bunch too) but had only a handful of apples (à no apple butter) this year. We’ll hope for a better harvest next year! Dan takes wonderful care of our home, yard, and gardens!

Having missed last summer’s cancelled shows at The Muny in Forest Park, we were glad to be able to see 5 musicals this year and look forward to a full summer of 7 shows next year. We got to several Cardinals games and didn’t miss many Food Truck Fridays in Tower Grove Park either – good summer fun.

In October, we decided to be “leaf-peepers” in the mountains of upstate New York, Vermont, and New Hampshire on our way to Ben & Megan’s wedding in NH.  We took lots of photos – we’d never seen such vivid fall colors (I said, “Wow” too many times to count)!! 

Ben & Megan were married in November 2019, but never got to have their wedding/reception until 10/11/21 – it was a lovely ceremony outside, in a farm/barn setting, with a wonderful dinner following.

With the upside-down markets for vehicles, Dan decided to sell his 17 year old pickup (for more than it was ordinarily worth) and we ordered a new 2022 Toyota Tacoma (in June). We knew we’d have months to wait, but now this "last-one-we’ll-ever-need" is being delivered around Christmas!!

We’ve gotten more involved at Belleville First Church, singing in the worship team, joining a small group for Bible study and fellowship. It’s great being back on the Illinois District, attending the annual Lay Retreat, renewing friendships, and (Dan) assisting the District Superintendent with some computer and web site topics.

We celebrated Thanksgiving 3 times – with Dan’s sisters, at home with Erica, then with Monica and family.

I’ve been knitting baby sweaters and blankets; sewing baby blankets and a small patriotic quilt, and some Christmas gifts. More knitting and quilting to come, I’m sure (especially with 3 great-grandchildren under 3 so far…)!

Life is good! God is good! Praying for our friends and family – for good health and a healthy reliance on God, who gives all good things!

2020 Holiday letter

Dear Friends and Family,

We hope you had a Merry, if different, Christmas! Obviously, this year has probably been the most unusual one we’ll ever experienced! And some of those unwanted aspects will continue for a few months into 2021! 

For us, the various forms of isolation have given lots of opportunity for reflection on the blessings, opportunities and failures in our lives. But God’s presence is always there, sometimes guiding, sometimes holding, and sometimes shielding and often all at the same time.  That is the beauty of the relationship He desires for us all.

The year started out as Dan traveled to India in January to help with IT support of a Nazarene Regional conference. Since the pandemic hit, being retired, we have not been affected nearly as much as friends with full-time jobs and school-aged children. But we felt like we got quite a number of things done at home. I completed quite a few knitting projects, lots of cooking and baking, and Dan has become quite a tree trimmer along with all the house, yard and garden, and computer maintenance! We have continued to exercise at home and walk our neighborhood, especially when our YMCA had to close!  Our blackberry vines grew like crazy; I was picking 3-4 quarts of berries each week, freezing most of them. And our crab apple trees were so happy that they produced full-sized apples; we got really good at sharing the work to make several large crock-pot batches of apple butter that we shared with friends and froze some too.

Our subdivision stepped up to the challenge of school and work at home too! On our Briar Lake Facebook page, mothers asked that we put teddy bears in a window for the little ones to count on morning walks. We all added Easter eggs and encouraging signs in windows as well. We met more neighbors while walking. We shared games and puzzles. One woman baked lots of bread and we purchased several kinds. I helped communicate with food trucks to bring in some no-cooking nights through the summer. The shaved ice truck may have been the most popular!

Dylan graduated from high school; Monica had an outdoor, drive-by party for him at home. We reluctantly helped Erica load a U-Haul and move to Columbus, Ohio; she currently works in an Amazon facility but is still looking for something more closely related to her food service/ inventory experience. Marcy’s daughter Megan married a great guy, Ben, in 2019, but had to postpone their big 2020 wedding reception until October of 2021… However, we just found out that she is expecting a little one in June (who will be our 6th great-grandchild), so we’ll see what kind of parties will really be planned for 2021! 

We changed church membership to Belleville First Church of the Nazarene over the summer. Shortly after we joined them the pastor resigned to take a church in Florida (NOT our fault…). We have a new pastor coming at the end of January. With this and all the COVID isolation we’re looking forward to becoming closer to this group of new friends (we shared blackberry cobbler with some on our screened porch) and to new ways of serving there.

In September we ventured out, driving to Gulf Shores, Alabama, for a couple of days of beach time to celebrate our 24th anniversary. It was good to get away, enjoying the sun and salt water and plenty of good food! 

We’re so grateful to God for keeping us healthy and supplying everything we need! We celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas by ourselves (and on family Zoom meetings), stayed well so far, and are looking forward to surviving the winter and getting a vaccine as soon as it’s our turn! Facebook has been a great place to stay in touch with people! We love hearing from you and can’t wait to take road trips again!  

Take care of each other and Happy New Year 2021!

2019 Christmas Letter

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.

2018 Christmas Letter

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It’s been a very different year for us. Dan says his denial of the aging process has been challenged (but not broken). We’re grateful to have this one behind us and are looking forward to 2019!

January: Before heading out for almost 3 months in Germany Janet was able to gain some much needed cataract surgery to clear her vision.  It was mostly successful and we were on our way.

February-April: – Back to the Eurasia Regional Office for 10 weeks of work in Germany

May 1 - When we got to the Zurich airport to return home, Dan felt tightness in his chest while heaving suitcases. He didn’t mention it until a few days later when the pressure kept increasing at home, even though it would subside every time he relaxed for a while. After a few days of this, we started out on a walk in the neighborhood; we got only 3 houses away, and Dan’s smart watch told him that his pulse was over 140! SO, we saw our Dr who ordered blood work. The lab results came back the next day (May 9); we were directed to go to an ER as soon as possible! By the 14^th, Dan underwent quadruple bypass surgery! The coronary artery blockages are hereditary; his overall health remains excellent. We’re just really grateful that he had warning signs!

June through August were full of Dan’s 3x/week cardiac physical rehab sessions, gardening, projects in the house and yard, trees and gardens. We returned to the Y several days a week for a couple of weeks….

But, Dan has had a lump on his upper right arm that has been growing over the last year, so he asked our family doctor to refer him to someone to remove it. In September, a general surgeon removed the (usually benign) fatty tumor from his upper right arm and was surprised when the lab reported it contained sarcoma cells (cancer). With the advise of a cancer specialist it took 2 more surgeries on the area to eliminate all physical evidence of the nasty critters.

October – In the meantime (you’d think I was jealous of all the attention on Dan), as I walked out the front sidewalk to get the mail, I felt my right knee *POP* painfully on the inside and I couldn’t put any weight on it, barely returning to the house. That evening, at the ER, I got X-rays and my leg was "immobilized" with a brace. The next morning, Dan went out and got me some crutches even before he made breakfast for me! The next Tuesday (same day as Dan’s #3 arm surgery), Erica spent her day off driving us around and Monica brought over 2 casseroles to last all week. The MRI showed a meniscus tear and my knee arthroscopy (3 small holes and lots of scraping inside) was on Oct. 26. It’s going to take a few months to heal but there’s progress each week!

We had planned to drive to Massachusetts to celebrate 2 granddaughters’ graduations (one with a BS in Nursing, one with an MS in social work/counseling) at the end of May, but that didn’t happen with Dan’s rehab schedule. We even missed the local granddaughter Caitlyn’s high school graduation, but we were able to watch it online while Dan was in the hospital. When we tried to reschedule a driving-to-the-East-Coast vacation for September, my knee problem surfaced!

Now, end of December, Dan is nearly finished with 30 daily, preventive, radiation treatments on his right arm and we’re SO ready for this medical stuff to be over! Hope it’s confined to 2018!

We’ve been back at the Y since early November and have stayed active at church. Looking forward to returning to the Eurasia Regional Office some time in 2019.

This certainly has not been the year we had planned by God has been faithful. In the midst of what could have been troubling physical challenges there has been a peace and as we look back and tell the story, we see his loving hand guiding in numerous ways. We pray that our friends and family also will seek and experience the same blessings.

We love hearing from you, especially at this time of year! Please let us hear what’s keeping your life busy and fulfilling! We wish you the best that God has for you in 2019!

2017 Christmas letter

Merry Christmas! We’re SO blessed to be home to spend the holidays with family again this year!  Every year, God continues to lead us to a variety of places to serve.

Home for the first 8 months of 2017, we returned to group classes at our local YMCA (sore muscles!), planted our vegetable garden, got more involved at church, and got some projects done at home. In April, we took a road trip to visit Dan’s cousins in Louisiana, to shop at Magnolia in Waco (TX), and to see Pioneer Woman’s Mercantile in Pawhuska, OK. In September, we took a 10-week volunteer assignment in our denominations Eurasia Regional Office in Büsingen, Germany.  That resulted in our being asked to join that team in a longer-term commitment on a 3-months-in-country, 3-months-at-home schedule for 2018 and maybe 2019. (See the previous post for details) Home for now, we are certainly looking forward to Christmas at home with our local family and friends.

Eurasia 2017

10/16/17 Five weeks into our 10-week assignment! We’re enjoying our jobs, keeping busy, and are very comfortable in our nice apartment in the “Pink Palace” in the charming 1500-resident village of Büsingen, Germany, on the Rhine River!

We’re here to work, even though it’s not what we’re posting on Facebook since photos of us at computers isn’t nearly as interesting. Except for one, the missionary staff is completely different from our last time here. The local staff people are the same. Dan has a long list of IT related tasks; addressing needs, investigating ‘things’ that don’t work, upgrades and improvement even before people bring him their laptops with questions.

So far, I’ve worked with the regional personnel coordinator, emailed the regional missionaries and updated spreadsheets with their current information, helped the finance guys with a couple of small projects, and inventoried the storage area (next, reorganizing and labeling!). I enjoy all the projects I get, usually connecting with lots of people and doing things I enjoy!

2016 Christmas Letter

To all our dear Family and Friends,

Merry Christmas! We’re SO blessed to be home to spend the holidays with family again this year!  Every year, God leads us to a different situation to be used. Last year at this time, we had just returned from 2 months in the Philippines serving in what was initially to be a short assignment on the campus of Asia-Pacific Nazarene Theological Seminary! 

In January, we returned to Manila and to the jobs we had been filling on an interim basis – Dan led the regions IT team, while Janet handled the role of Philippine Micronesia Field Treasurer.  Three months turned into 4 as we agreed to serve in these transitional roles through the year. We returned home to the States in early May, travelling to Marcy’s home a couple of weeks later to visit and to attend Megan’s graduation from the University of Rhode Island. On our drive home, we were thrilled to get to meet our granddaughter Tessie in Pennsylvania and her 2-year-old daughter Tatum! The rest of the summer went by too quickly as we returned again to Manila in August for 4 more months.  For our 20^th anniversary, we took a special side trip to Okinawa for a week in September. (Dan had served there as a Marine 47 years ago.)

These were truly the most challenging assignments we’ve ever tackled! God sustained and guided us through as always. We left behind many great Filipino friendships that will continue on Facebook, as well as friendships with a special group of Chinese students and the U.S. and Canadian missionaries we served with there!     

Home now, we’ve started going back to group classes at our local YMCA (sore muscles!) and are really feeling the cold weather after being accustomed to temperatures in the 80s and 90s! One Sunday morning, we cheered Erica on as she ran her first 15K and, that afternoon, we enjoyed Caitlyn’s high school choir’s madrigal dinner! We are certainly looking forward to Christmas at home with Monica, Caitlyn, Dylan, and Erica.

Family news…

Marcy is a local police officer in Fairhaven, MA. Husband John is still with Samsonite (we benefit from his samples!). Megan is in grad school at Simmons College in Boston, working on a masters program in social work. Morgan is a junior at Curry College near Boston, majoring in Nursing. Tucker is an 8^th grader enjoying life with both sisters away at school.

Monica is still enjoying her CPA job in Belleville at a local hospital, although she may relocate to a different office in the City in January. Dylan is a freshman and Caitlyn is a junior at Belleville East High School. Monica has spent lots of time training and ran a marathon this fall. Dylan is on the high school cross-country team. We love attending Caitlyn’s choir concerts and Monica’s church choir Christmas concert.

Derick and Nola live in New Jersey so Derick can work on the outsides of the skyscrapers in New York City, living his dream of “Life on a Rope” as a top-level-certified rope access technician. Nola continues to enjoy her work as a nanny for a local family. They are taking every opportunity to visit and grow in their relationship with Derick’s daughter Tessie, who lives in Pennsylvania, and her daughter Tatum, as they learn to be grandparents.

Darin still lives in Raleigh, NC, where he works to fund his passion for building custom motorcycles in his off-hours.

Adam does computer work. He and fiancée Dana Anderson (she works for Caterpillar) live in Peoria, IL.

Erica is enjoying her management position as purchaser at the Lutheran Senior Services facility where she still sometimes cooks. She moved to a cute apartment in St. Louis with her cats last year. When she’s not working, she’s been running in the large park across the street or going to St. Louis Blues hockey matches. Thankfully, she still enjoys spending time with her mom shopping or cooking.

God continues to provide rich experiences and wonderful people to work with in our retirement from paid careers. Along this pathway, there are a couple of important things we continue to learn (or relearn):

-  The special, never-ending value of family and friends like you. We are so blessed with your ongoing friendship, prayers, and support as we follow His leading. We so appreciate being able to keep in touch electronically when we can’t be with you in person!

-  “God’s Retirement Plan” is WAY better than any we might have ever dreamed of! He is keeping us active, useful, challenged, excited, and growing (see Romans 8:14-15 in The Message).

Our only plans for 2017 so far are to help with the global conventions before Nazarene General Assembly in June! We’re hoping to plant our own vegetable garden in the spring and settle into the community for a while!

May your Christmas season be blessed and your New Year filled with joy!

Dan & Janet Reinhart         

835 Autumn Rise Lane, Columbia, IL 62236       home: 618-722-5114

Reinhart47@aol.com - cell: 314-484-1898       JanetM52@aol.com - cell: 314-484-1906