In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. The Word became
flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the
One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. From the
fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. John 1
The Word became flesh and
dwelt among us. This Christmas season we celebrate the most wondrous gift of
all. God came and lived with us. From the beginning of the book of John, every word, every phrase is very powerful. I stand in amazement
that God loved us so much that he came and dwelt with us. From the fullness of
his grace we have all truly received one blessing after another. It is our
prayer that you may experience God’s richest blessings in the coming year.
Here are few of our blessings:
My health is the best it has
been in years. Words cannot say how thankful we are for this improvement. I see the doctor every three months. I am
continuing with treatment and my numbers have shown improvement each time. It
is so exciting to pick up lab results and see numbers in the normal range. This
last time I didn’t even have a lab report stamped with the words “Critical
value reported to doctor within 5 minutes”. How awesome is that!
I started my sixth year at
Oskaloosa Elementary this fall. We have six special kids in our room, the
smallest number since I began. This year I went back to teaching one-on-one
which has been challenging at times yet very rewarding. We made some changes in
our room and set up stations which each student visits individually. This year
we also introduced field trips into our room. We’ve been on a hayride and a
hike, visited the Neil Smith Wildlife Center, petted llamas and goats and fed
chickens. This week we will be bell ringers at Hy-Vee and do some other fun
things. It has been fun to get out and a good experience for our students. We
pack up our lunches and disappear for a day. I am glad to work with awesome
people who are always available to help.
Matthew is a senior this year
so we’ve been thinking about college and scholarships. He debated between Iowa
State and Dordt for Engineering but has settled on Dordt. He was able to get
some hands-on experience in the labs at Dordt and also enjoyed visiting with
professors and students. (I think his Uncle Alan convinced the professors they
had to make a great impression on Matthew).
Micah is a sophomore at Dordt in accounting. Both boys continue in their
summer roofing jobs. Joshua and Casey live near Osceola. Joshua works for Farm
Service and Casey is the activities director for Homestead Assisted Living. We
try to have supper together every month or so.
This summer we celebrated my
parent’s 50th wedding anniversary. They still live and work on the
farm near Oskaloosa. We also did a family day at Adventureland. Despite the
heat, we had a lot of fun together, mostly in the water park. And we continued
our tradition of working on Derby cars. The cars always receive modifications
and improvements when the grandkids are home and then we go for test drives.
Royce continues to preach
frequently in various churches around central Iowa. He is also an elder which
keeps him plenty busy. In order to keep his blood pressure under control, he
took up biking. It has returned to the normal range and a much better choice than
medication. Now that the weather is colder we try to get out and walk
frequently.
Last but not least we are
excited as we just learned that we will be hosting an international student
this coming semester. Our information is sketchy at best at this point in time
but we know that he is a 10th grader from China and arrives on
January 7. I had turned Joshua’s old room into a craft/sewing room so now I’m
trying to find a place for all my stuff.
We wish you a very Merry
Christmas and a Blessed New Year.
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