Merry Christmas from the Merrys!!
2013
We hope you are truly blessed this
season and know the love of our Savior, whose birth we celebrate! Thank you for your friendship and for
sharing your lives with us!
Here’s a brief run-down on
everyone, beginning with the littlest:
Iva – is becoming quite adept at
walking! You will often see her pushing her
walker around or playing with the big kids. She is probably our best singer so far – maybe not in tune,
but in persistence and frequency.
The older kids take good care of her and do well at entertaining
her. They are even teaching her
some phonics!
Lucie – clearly the most nurturing
of the Fantastic Four. If you ever
are looking for her, you just look for the stuffed “efflunt” (elephant) she
carries around, which is twice her size!
Lucie loves to do schoolwork, read books and play games. She takes great care of her two baby
dolls and loves to tell you how their day is going.
Silas – has taken up a new interest
in engineering! He loves to fix
anything that is broken, or take it apart just to figure out how it works. He is doing great at gymnastics and
frequently shows off his abilities at home. When it comes to schoolwork, Math is by far his favorite
topic.
Maggie – is becoming a young
lady. She has especially grown in
the area of diligence when the challenges come (chores, schoolwork). This fall, she and Todd started taking
a Latin class together. She has
proved that younger minds are much more flexible! We really appreciate Maggie’s influence on us all. She helps us out so much and loves her
little sisters (and brother!)
Molly- Is honestly loving be a mom
of 4 kids and takes great delight both in her babies and in her rest day when
they go to Grandma Melquist’s once a week. ;-) She loves keeping up with friends and community group,
journaling, traveling when possible, and has recently begun to write again,
which has been extremely satisfying.
She has been apprenticing with a Women’s Bible Study at Mars Hill and us
looking forward to co-leading early next year.
Todd – has enjoyed taking on some
added responsibilities at church.
He’s blessed to work with some great Community Group Leaders in the
Renton area. He continues to love
his job at King County Medic One and his role in helping others. This year of homeschooling has proved
to be more challenging – but also more fruitful. He feels blessed to be so involved in this.
As usual, we had a busy year. We’d love to share some highlights with
you. Both Maggie and Silas were
baptized this year. Maggie was
happy to be baptized Christmas Sunday of last year and Silas was thrilled to be
baptized this summer. We love
watching our kids say yes to Jesus and on their own, express desire to follow
him. Both of us were able to go
through Redemption Group at our church and loved hearing from the Holy Spirit
and receiving His grace, correction and power in our lives.
Maggie and Silas are busy with fun
classes. Maggie is taking piano,
and also did tap dance and art with some of her girlfriends this year. Grandma Merry brings Silas to a weekly
gymnastics class which he loves!
He also enjoyed playing coach-pitch baseball this year. We love attending Mars Hill church, and
Community Group as a family every week and being involved in Bible Studies
throughout the year.
In March, we were able to get away
in Seaside for our anniversary (12 years!). With Iva, we were able to enjoy some walks on the beach and
hiking on Tillamook Head. In
April, we visited Gran and Molly’s extended family in Pomeroy, WA. These trips are becoming such a
highlight as our kids always look forward to playing with the cousins! In May, Molly and Iva were able to go
up to BC, Canada for a conference with Lisa Bevere. Later in May, we spent a few days in Leavenworth. This was an especially fun trip, as we
saw Rocky Reach Dam, Ohme Gardens and hiked along Icicle Creek. And of course, we couldn’t leave
without going to the Applets and Cotlets factory!
July was a highlight, as we all
returned to Seaside, OR for the Fourth of July! The weather was amazing and shooting fireworks off at the
beach was memorable for everyone.
We camped at Maggie Lake a few times through the summer as well. On our second trip, we enjoyed having
Todd’s cousin Doug, Tay and their boys join us. Thanks to Richard’s (Todd’s Dad) ingenuity, we were able to
build a staircase down to the lake for a family project. At the end of July, we returned to Warm
Beach Camp for family camp. This
is always a highlight. The kids
love the activities and we love the teaching! In August, Todd and Silas went on their first annual manly
man’s campout up at Deception Pass.
Silas couldn’t stop talking about that for weeks!
In November, we were able to go to
the Resurgence conference at Bellevue Mars Hill. This December we were blessed to go to Hawaii for 8 days
thanks to the generosity of some friends there who let us use their house and
car. And a huge shout-out to all
the grandparents who took care of the kids! It was a wonderful time of rest, refreshment and seeing the
beauties of Oahu. In addition to
rest, it was wonderful for our marriage!
We are looking forward to taking the oldest two to Disneyland for the
first time in January of 2014 as well.
This year Jesus has been teaching
us more about keeping the gospel the main thing and how He wants to be involved
in every bit of our lives, making the gospel relevant in all areas….
Molly: He has been showing me about
how He speaks to us and reveals to us “good news” of Himself and wants us then
in turn to share that with others, in the area of salvation, but also in
speaking life into others - giving them faith and vision for what He has for
them. The two most important
events in history, He revealed to women.
Women are especially good at sharing news. While the negative side of this is gossip, the positive side
of this is that women of all people should be especially excited about the
gospel. We need to use this
strength to speak life into others.
This Christmas season has been especially meaningful knowing that both
Mary, Jesus mother and Mary Magdalene both received “good news” that the Holy
Spirit wanted them to share with others. I want to share His good news too!
I have also been studying joy. When Jesus
tells us to have joy, it is not just a choice or an attitude adjustment. The
fruit of the Holy Spirit so much more than that. Joy is actually real and
experiential, not just going through a trial and trying to have a good attitude
about it. An attitude adjustment may be
a small part of joy, but if that's all you've got, it’s less than Jesus intends
for you. Jesus has so much more in mind that the Holy Spirit brings. Joy is a fruit of Himself. Joy is
in experiencing Jesus Himself, not your own ability to change your
circumstances or even your attitude. When
Jesus says have joy it is not just a command to change, but a hope that change
is possible - even experientially and emotionally. When we don't "feel" joy we don't have to feel shame. Jesus still sorrowed and "despised the shame" of His circumstances, but he went through them for the "joy" set before Him". And we can do the same. Not as a pat answer, but trusting that because of His character, He has something more for us. He wants us to be happy – not just circumstantially,
but in HIM. Let Him change you. Joy to
the world - the Lord IS come!
Todd – has enjoyed some great
reading this year. Some highlights
are: According to Plan by G. Goldsworthy, The Crucified God by J.
Moltmann, Community by D. Bonhoeffer, and Every Good Endeavor by
T. Keller. This year has been a
tremendous year of growth in the area of one-on-one discipleship. Every week he is blessed to meet, love
and walk with different Community Group leaders. While he at times misses having a Community Group of his own
to shepherd, he has really come to love the one-on-one role with other leaders.
We’ll leave you with a quote from
Jurgen Moltmann: “…God himself
died in Jesus for us. God is on
the cross of Jesus ‘for us’, and through that becomes God and Father of the
godless and the godforsaken. He
took upon himself the unforgivable sin and the guilt for which there is no
atonement, together with the rejection and anger that cannot be turned away, so
that in Christ we might become his righteousness in the world. Taken to its final consequence, that
means that God died that we might live.
God became the crucified God so that we might become free sons of
God.” The Crucified God p. 192
We would love to hear from
you! We pray this season is
especially joy-filled for you and that the true meaning of Christmas isn’t lost
in all the festivities. We hope
the story of Christ’s birth, death and resurrection will never grow old. We love you all and thank you for being
part of our lives!
