Christmas 2006

As I look back, a lot of things happened this year, so I guess it is good to stop, reflect and realize how much is contained in a year that flies by.

Some notable milestones:

In late spring I accepted a different position at Moody Bible Institute. I became facilities manager, which means that instead of grappling with educational ideas and technology, I’m grappling with buildings, landscaping, worker safety, campus police, heating and cooling technology. It’s a larger group of people than I managed previously, so that means more personnel issues to be solved.

Lucinda also shifted job duties. She became Director of Operations at the Christian Working Woman, the same place she has worked for the past three years, but now doing all of the day-to-day management of the ministry. In addition, she returned to east Africa with her boss for three weeks of ministry there.

In August, while Lucinda was in Africa, Gabe and I met up and spent a week in the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York. We did an overnight hike into the high peaks and canoed the lakes and had a great time.

We said goodbye to Shaelagh, Jeremiah and Annalise in September as they left for mission service in France. They’re involved in full time language study now. You can read all about their experiences at http://www.missionpages.org/. We miss them, but especially Annalise, who’s growing up quickly without us. We hope to go visit them next spring.

Gabe continues to play with the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C. She’s had some great opportunities to play for some interesting free-lance projects as well, including a Christian outreach CD with a friend and doing background music for a PBS “Nature” show called “Christmas in Yellowstone”. You can see a preview of the program and hear Gabe’s horn at :
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/yellowstone/video3.html

We’re thankful for those of you who stay in touch. May you have the peace of Christ this Christmas.