Monthly Archives: December 2021
Christmas Letter 2021
As this year draws to a close and we take the time to consider the past months, we’re reminded and humbled again as we consider how blessed our little family is. This year has not been without its challenges, and we are often heavy-hearted as we consider the state of the world and our nation, but God’s gifts are many and varied, and we truly don’t deserve His mercy and grace on us. We’re honored to have you join us as we consider and remember the blessings of this past year, and pray you are encouraged to remember with thankfulness God’s blessings on your life as well!
January brought us back from our Christmas trip to California to be with Aimee’s family. Shortly after arriving home, we got a call that Brian’s Grandma had passed away at age 100. So, we left again for a quick trip to Illinois for her funeral. (This trip reminded us why we don’t typically head to the Midwest in the winter weather months!) We prayerfully felt that it was important that we travel back, and God really confirmed that decision through the special and encouraging time there with Brian’s family. We enjoyed remembering and celebrating her life, and reconnecting with family after over a year since we had seen any of them.
The rest of the winter was spent with Brian continuing student and campus outreach, including working with a group of local homeschoolers, encouraging them to “Do Hard Things.” Brian has also been trying to connect with young men he has met over the past several years, hoping to do more discipleship and relationship building with these men, as well as evangelism and conversations with new people he hasn’t met previously. Brian sometimes finds the time management needed to steward the fluctuating variety of tasks to be overwhelming, and it can be discouraging to weigh the time and effort spent on various projects, wondering if we are being as effective as we hope and pray to be. But we have found it to be a regular reminder to rely on the Lord, and to lean on His daily direction, trusting Him to sovereignly bring the people and tasks across our paths.
February and March found us planning and preparing to do a major road trip combining work and vacation. We had been praying about this possibility and saw God work out the details of the schedule of this trip. This included Brian leading the Geology field trip for Jackson Hole Bible College, our family heading out to North Carolina for a family reunion with Aimee’s family, and further connections with family and friends, including ministry supporters and other churches. Early in March we received the happy news that we were no longer a family of 6, but little “Pancake” would be joining us officially in November. So we had something else to be thankful for!
It was a big challenge to get ready for such a big trip, so we were thankful and relieved when we were finally able to hit the road!
Aimee’s parents and two brothers met up with us after we were able to spend a few days together with the JHBC group in Moab, UT. They drove our camper bus with Aimee and the kids to meet up with the rest of the family in NC for a week of family reunion. This was a great time for everyone to enjoy getting reacquainted with each other – including Aimee’s Mom and Dad, the 8 siblings, 5 spouses, and the 14 grandkids! After a fun, but intense nearly two weeks for Brian being “on” as he led the students on the JHBC trip, he was able to join the group for the last few days of the reunion. We were all so thankful for this chance to be together with our big family, as we treasure these times together and wish they could be more frequent.
The next couple of weeks took us through the Smoky Mountains and up to Indiana, with several delightful visits with old friends along the way. We made it up to Illinois and visited with Aimee’s cousins, and a whirlwind visit with a few other old friends before heading to Brian’s family for a few days. Then we set out on the speaking-focused portion of the trip, and spent a busy few weeks speaking at a number of churches and VBSs in Nebraska and Kansas.
We made it back home in early June, but didn’t fully settle before we headed back out to Denver to represent Alpha Omega Institute at a homeschool conference. We have enjoyed this chance to connect with the statewide homeschool community in the past, and look forward to going again, Lord willing!
We had a hard time figuring out what season it was, after traveling in the spring, which felt like summer, summer seemed to start again! Brian enjoyed connecting with local students and other contacts periodically, and Aimee was happy to have the chance to do more home activities with the kids, and get an early start on the school year with them.
Brian is kept pretty busy at the office with social media posting, along with supporting other office staff as he is able by talking with walk-in visitors, answering phones and other support tasks. We also had the chance to work together to set up a studio stage in our AOI Office conference/meeting room to use for filming speaker presentations. It was a fun design challenge that we both enjoyed, and the staff have started putting it to use this fall!
Aimee schools the kids, which has been a life-long dream, and participates in prayer meeting, etc. at our office as she is able. We are very thankful for our little church family here, and the encouragement, support and fellowship we enjoy there.
In the fall, we were finally able to take a couple of local weekend camping trips in our bus, which was a fun blessing. Once the start of November and the baby’s due date rolled around, Aimee and the kids were ready to hunker down and stay home in effort to stay healthy for baby’s birth and afterward. We were so thankful to have Aimee’s mom come to stay with us for the weeks leading up to the birth, so she would be there to care for the other kids while we were at the hospital. Her service even allowed Mommy and Daddy to have a couple of date outings together! She ended up spending nearly a full month with us, and we so appreciate her sacrifice of time to be here with us.
Finally, early in the morning on the day before our scheduled induction (almost 2 weeks past the due date), Aimee went into labor! This in itself was an answer to prayer, as she typically has to be induced. It was a long labor, at 16 hours a full twice as long as any of Aimee’s previous labors, and hard. But many people were praying for us, and God graciously answered in the safe arrival of our big little boy! Josiah Daniel, weighing in at 11lbs. 3 oz., 22 inches long!
We pray that he would be like King Josiah of Judah, who followed the Lord with his whole heart, and returned the kingdom to following God’s word, as he treasured and obeyed it.
And like Daniel in the Bible, who faithfully prayed and determined to fear and follow God and not men in a sinful, secular culture.
“Before him (Josiah) there was no king like him, who turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses, nor did any like him arise after him.” (2 Kings 23:25 ESV)
We are quite overwhelmed at all we have to be thankful for, especially in light of a world where we see daily how difficulty and even tragedy are touching the lives of so many. We are working at intentionally practicing thankfulness, appreciating the day we have today, as today is all we have been given. We do not know what tomorrow will hold, but we do know that the Lord graciously holds tomorrow. We look at our growing kids, and our hearts burst with joy and thankfulness, but also ache, as we see these sweet days fleeting by.
This life is but a vapor, and we delight in the days that God is giving us here – even when we have to thank him in the hard times. Life is hard and it is not the way it should be – this world is broken due to sin (starting with Adam & Eve, but including our own sin). We praise God that our hope is not anchored in this life. Our hope is firmly fixed in the work of Christ, who came in the humble, messy, real birth of a real baby, fully human and fully God. He lived a real earthly life, and is our sufficient Savior, who died in our place. He paid the debt we are completely unable and insufficient to pay for our sins and through no works of our own, His work enables us to be justified before our holy God.
“Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.” (Romans 10:9-10)
Have you confessed and believed? Let’s consider this together and stand in awe of the Majesty on display in the stable, on the cross, now seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven!
“And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,
‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!’” (Luke 2:10-14)
“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Phil. 2:5-11)
“Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man.” (Heb. 8:1-2)
Merry Christmas! Praise God for how He has worked this year and for the hope of a New Year!
With Love, Brian, Aimee & Family
Adventures in Faith 