Pictures

Awesome pastor to be, and his wife.  Just graduated from the PM program at Hesston.  We miss you guys!

Sled riding the big man made hill at Hesston.

Crazy fun place.

Piling on the fun with the cousins.

It looks like they are ready to sleep, but looks are deceiving.  I don't think anybody actually slept in these locations by the time they fell asleep.

Sermon from Sunday

I was given the humble opportunity to preach a sermon on Sunday at Hope Community Church in Mt. Eaton.  This is the church that Suzanne's sister and family are heavily involved at.  They have gone through some tough transitions and losses over the year.  I appreciated the opportunity to worship with them and preach what God had laid on my heart.

For those of you who were praying, I feel it went really well.  There was a lot of seemingly heartfelt thanks and praise (praise doesn't sound like the right word, but...)

May God bless the hard work that they have ahead of them, seeking God's leading for their church.

I mentioned that we had some car work done.  My sermon was from Matthew 6:19-24 on Treasures, Eyes, and Masters.  My focus was on generosity and holding stuff loosely.  I had a number of opportunities to practice what I was preaching through our car, and some other things of this world.

May God be glorified through our lives and teaching.

We are still here

Finally a new post.  We have had more sporadic online access for the last week or so.  We have also been making family and friend time a priority.  But I have a down time that I can listne to the girls play and read some blogs.

We are making our 4th move during the last week and a half.  Family has been very hospitable and gracious.   Thank you so much.  We are trying to feel at home as much as is possible, when living out of 2 duffel bags;  two very large duffel bags for 5 people.  Each move makes it harder for me to find my clothes.  Suzanne's keep taking over more of the duffel bag:)  I love Suzanne.  I realize how much more this is true as the days roll by.

We needed a couple repairs on our car while in Ohio.  Nothing serious.  Thank you whomever, for what you did.  You know who you are and hopefully you know how appreciative we are.  It is hard to express in words.

I am just getting reved up.  More posts to come.

We made it

Actually yesterday. A very good trip. We left at 9:30pm on Friday and drove through the night. Being a college student, allowed me to drive till 3:30am, and then get 45 minutes of sleep and drive till noon. We stopped at Tony and Rhonda Doerhmann's for a very hospitable visit in Belfontaine, and then drove the last 2+ hours to Suzanne's parents arriving at 5:15pm on Saturday. The girls did awesome. They slept all night till 4am. Stopped for potty and then slept till 6am, when we ate breakfast on the road. Emberlynn slept somemore throughout the morning, but Alyssa and Courtney stayed awake mostly and they all were mostly fuss free. They did awesome!
Suzanne was also fun to travel with! She kept me awake a couple times through the we hours of the morning. Our conversations kept me alert and made the trip go fast. As fast as 18 hours can be.
Blessings to everyone and the people that you are with.

Cold finals

This is according to a local forcast:

"The arctic air that brought a more than 25-degree temperature drop Sunday will stay in place the next few days in the Wichita area.

And while there may be a few flurries, the forecast through Tuesday does not call for any significant moisture, according to the National Weather Service."

Sunday morning at 6am it was 52, then by church time it was 33, finally by mid afternoon it was 16, overnight in the single digits.  I walked to school this morning and it was a bit cold (currently 3), but not windy so it was bearable.  Last night I walked to Pizza Hut, about 1.25 miles in 14 degrees, but walking into the wind of 30+ mph.  That was cold.  But the weird thing is, when you set your mind to something being doable, it actually becomes doable.  Other than not being able to feel the area around my eyes for a little while, it really wasn't that bad.  On the way home, the wind was at my back nearly pushing me home.  I got home to realize that I didn't have keys with me, and Suzanne and the girls weren't home yet.  Thank goodness for semi-warm garages.

Finals week to go!

This semester has one more day before finals.  Behold it comes quickly.  We are looking forward to spending time with family and friends in Ohio over Christmas break.  For those that want to know, our tentative schedule is to arrive in Ohio on the 20th.

Stay overnight 4 nights at Suzanne's parents.

Stay overnight 4 nights at my parents.

Stay overnight 1 night at Suzanne's sisters.

Then, we'll regroup and see if anyone still wants us:)  I jest.  I would be very surprised to have our parents let us sleep out in the cold.  Suzanne said we should bring our tent along, just in case.

We need to be back out here the first Saturday or Sunday of January 2009.

That's the schedule.  It will be here before you know it, and of course it will be gone before you know it too.

Take time to value family, and worship the Christ of Christmas.  That's our plan.

Sacred Space

For those of you looking for another way to practice "daily devotions" try sacred space.  One of my professors of Faith and Discipleship has used this in class.  I have found it to be a good tool to help me place myself in a position to meet with God.

Thankful to the near end

We had good time with Family and Friends for Thanksgiving.  Here is a sampling of our fun:

The girls, my Parents, and I went on a luminary walk at the Arboretum.  It was beautiful with the thousands of lights.  About half way through they had some fires and smores, which were a hit as you can tell.

This was towards the end of the luminary walk.  The girls were enjoying it much more than their faces show.  We have taken a couple pictures on this bench during the time that we have  been here in Hesston.

Suzanne and I ran in the Howard Hustle.  It is a 2 mile race named after the current President of Hesston College.  I have a special shirt on with a lightning bolt on the back.  I am "Nolt Bolt".  (Back in 95/96 I won the then current races)  Anybody that beat me got their name put in a drawing for a free pizza.  I came in about 12th place overall under 13 minutes and 3rd in my age group.  Suzanne came in under 18:30 in 90th place and 3rd in her age group.  She also beat Dave Greiser, who came in 2nd in his age group.  Well Done DAVE!

We had a good time with the Pastoral Ministry families at the stutzman retreat center.  Here are all but one of the children, notice the strong gender bias toward female.  The newborn not in the picture is also female.

Here are most of the PM'ers and families at our weekly carry-in meal at the Lark's Nest at HC.  As Mennonites, we are big on food and fellowship.