Saturday, December 1, 2012

December 1


December 1!  Doesn't that give you chills?  It does me - time flies and I just can't fathom how we are already in December and we have almost been on Catalina Island for 2 years!  Some of you have been following and supporting us all along and we sure are grateful.

Some interesting things have transpired this month.  We found out that our landlord is selling the condo we currently live in, so we are on the lookout for some new place to move our home.  It's VERY challenging to find housing here in Avalon, especially with 3 bedrooms that allows pets.  This is another opportunity for God to stretch our faith for sure.  We appreciate your prayers with us on this matter!

Thanksgiving was a special family time for our family this year!  We created a new memory by camping at the Isthmus for 2 days.  We had chicken kabobs on the grill along with several other semi-traditional sides (sweet potato fries, sweet hawaiian rolls, chocolate chip cookie smores, etc.) for our Thanksgiving Dinner.  It was quiet and stress-free, a lovely little break from crazy schedules and "to-do's".  We hope your Thanksgiving day was special too!

Now on to Christmas.  We had the tree up, lights strung, decorations out and Christmas music blaring before Thanksgiving day this year.  I guess you could say we are a little excited about this festive time of year!  The greatest thing we are looking forward to this Christmas is Alex coming home for 2 weeks - hooray!  We miss him so badly!

Ministry is going strong and God continues to teach us so much.  About patience, unconditional love, missional ministry and His faithfulness through the good times and the hard times.  We find ourselves saying to each other a quote from the movie Facing the Giants - "if we win we praise Him, if we lose we praise Him."  Not that we feel like we are ever really losing, since we know that Jesus is the Victor, but some days are just tougher than others.  Again we say, "thank you for your prayers, letters, financial support and encouragement - we couldn't do this "mission" without you!!"

Merry Christmas!
Shelli, Andrew, Alex, Maddi, Harrison, and Grace