You can count on us! We don’t need snow, or mistletoe, although presents under the tree are always appreciated!
We have been working diligently over the weekend: shopping, wrapping, cleaning, packing, and getting ready for a week at home for the holidays! We leave tomorrow evening, and will be reaching Springfield early Wednesday afternoon. See? We are ready!
Let me share with you some of what we’ve been up to this past month. It’ll give you something to read while we travel.
Thanksgiving came and went. We were invited over to share Thanksgiving with another seminary family. He’s retired Army, and they have two young kids. We had a great time eating and getting to know them better.
We had a booth at the 1st Annual SWBTS Craft Bazaar. Jessi spent 2 weeks making, making, making! I made five different flavors of popcorn and three different kinds of nuts. The turnout wasn’t quite what we or any of the other vendors had hoped for, but I still sold about $110 worth of food. All the money has gone towards my mission fund.
We survived the fall semester! Both of us are now out of class until late January, and we are so enjoying time to work on projects and read whatever we want! Guy made A’s in both his classes, and Jessi made 3 A’s and one B. We are so appreciative of your thoughts and prayers during the semester. When the homework really bogs down and we feel we can’t cram one more fact into our noggins, we know that your prayers help sustain us.
Guy is working hard as usual at his job, trying to get everything done before we leave to come home. He’s enjoying reading books for fun, and has pulled out his fly-tying materials. He’s planning to do some hiking and fishing while home, so that’s keeping him motivated, I think.
Guy is now a Sunday School teacher! He was asked to substitute for 5th grade boys for one Sunday in November. While teaching, he was then asked if he’d be willing to teach all month… then the day or so after asked if he wanted to teach full-time! He is now teaching a class of about 10 boys each week. I can see where this is really stretching him and hopefully helping him see where God may be directing him in his vocation.
We also had a small scare with Guy the Sunday before Thanksgiving. We had gone to the store because we needed charcoal and ingredients for making the brine for the turkey (he smoked it – it was so good!). As we were putting groceries into the car, he inadvertently slammed the door on his finger hard enough that the door latched. We wound up with an unexpected ER visit. Thankfully, he didn’t break the finger, but he’s still dealing with some stiffness, pain, altered sensation, and bruising to the joint.
Jessi is almost through the training stages of her new job as a dispatcher for campus security. I have my final training day tomorrow (12/23), and should be cleared to work solo after that. I will go to commissioning school in January.
Jessi has raised $409 so far towards the trip to Romania, July 18-25. The total cost is projected at $2200, so that means I am 18.6% there. I’ve been acting as a “Baker-for-Hire”, baking various things for people in return for money towards the trip. So far, I’ve had the proceeds from the craft bazaar, a coconut cream pie, a pineapple upside-down cake, a Bulgarian Christmas bread, and 10 apple pies for a wedding. I plan to advertise my services more aggressively once I get back home from our visit to Missouri. Here’s some pics of all of those pies!
We are attempting again to work with a doctor to see about the possibility of us having children. We have had only one appointment so far, and need to get some testing done, but the doctor seems hopeful that we can get pregnant.
Prayer Requests:
* Safe travels to and from Missouri
* Funds for Romania trip
* Some decisions regarding studies for both Guy and Jessi
* Infertility workup and treatment; sanity and peace during the process
Seminary Journey 