In His Hands

Dear family and friends,

For the last few weeks you may have heard bits and pieces of things about our lives being a little crazy and caught on that things aren't going well here. Nathan and I are fine as are our children. The week before Christmas the principal/5th-6th grade teacher of our school resigned for personal reasons. The reason is very bad and effects our entire congregation in a very big way. Nathan has stepped up and is now principal in the middle of a huge mess and with little direction. Our congregation has been working on a building project which is near complete so all the classrooms were getting moved over Christmas break along with several other rooms in the building. We made the decision to stay here for Christmas vacation so Nathan could work at school. Nathan's sister, Joanna, came to stay with us for the last week to watch the kids so I could help Nathan at school and sort out the classroom stuff in the 5-6 grade room to get them ready for the new teacher. Thankfully this all exploded the day before mid-year graduation at MLC so we have been assigned a capable, excited graduate. Things are going to get harder before they get easier here but this congregation has been abundantly blessed by God in countless ways in the past. God will not abandon His people but will bless them though this too. If you have prayers to spare we could still use them in the months to come.

In the midst of this we didn't make it home to see our families at Christmas but Joanna and Nathan's parents came out to see us. We only had the weekend with them but it was wonderful. On the 28th of December my grandpa passed away. My grandparents winter in TX so that has been a bit of an ordeal for my mom and my family dealing with cremation, getting Grandma moved out of TX and back to MN, and planning the memorial service. On January 2 my brother and sister-in-law had a baby (a beautiful boy names Ethan James) of which we are god parents. We are planning on the kids and I going home for a week and Nathan for a weekend so we can be there for baptism and to have Davis family Christmas which they were able to just pause until we could join them.

I know it will all work out according to God's purpose. Thanks for the flood of encouragement and prayers.

Our love,

Jenny & Nathan

Evan, Hans, & Lydia