Jeff
did retire in August from First Baptist Church in Galena, Kansas after serving
as their Pastor for 10 years. It was
hard to say goodbye. We love the church
family there and are so thankful we were able to serve alongside them for those
years. They sent us off with a wonderful
retirement/going away party AND a cruise to Alaska (that we will
enjoy in July of 2020). Thank you FBC!! Jeff
and I always thought we would move to Northwest Arkansas when we retired, as
all our kids lived there. But one by
one, our kids moved away. So after much
prayer, we felt we needed to move to Conway, AR where we had lived for 8 years
(16+ years ago), had many friends, and would be centrally located
between our kids. Also, it was also decided
the first of the year, that Mom would move to Conway in May to live in a new
Senior Adult facility (my younger sister, Kaye and husband Rob live in
Conway). Jeff and I had just planned
to rent a house – we felt at 66 years of age, we were too old to go into debt
for a home. However, rent is so high in
Conway and God divinely led us to a builder here who told us he could build us
a small home that would be within our budget (and cheaper than rent!). We
have lived in a couple brand new homes, but never had built a home! Consequently, a new experience for us! So in June, we signed a contract to have a 1600
sq. ft. home built. We moved to Conway
on August 19, put our stuff in 2 storage units and lived with my Mom in her 3
bedroom “cottage” for 3-1/2 months while our retirement home was being
built. That was a blessing and we are so
grateful for Mom letting us stay with her and now for our new home. We feel so unworthy – to be retired and have
a new home! We closed on the house on November 27th and moved on December 2nd.
God has been so good to
us!
💖Yep, a red door and I love it!💖
And splashes of red in my kitchen!
I asked Rachel to put up my tree on the day we moved in. She graciously did!💓
We were so blessed to celebrate our 47th anniversary on December 22nd! Thank you, Lord!
We are really enjoying life here….we love
our church, Antioch Baptist and all her staff including our wonderful Senior
Pastor Jason & his wife Toya Aultman (friends over 33 years), our Sunday
School class and the excellent teacher, Larry Martin, and our Connect Group (home
group that meets on Wednesday nights in the home of some dear friends, Paul and
Glo Jensen). After 45 years of full-time
ministry and being at the “forefront” – it’s very refreshing just to be
a church member and to be able to “soak in” for a little while. Thank you to all our Antioch friends for your
warm reception!
An
update on our children/grandchildren:
Josh,
Michelle, Avi and Saylor still live in a suburb of Nashville, TN and are doing
well there. Josh got a large promotion
recently and is very busy at work and also works at their church, The Bridge
Fellowship (SBC), in the audio dept.
He still does a few “stints” with the musical group Journey. Michelle continues to work for a medical
clinic as their office manager. Avi is
now 15 years old – wow! Such a pretty
girl. Saylor is 20 months old, active as
can be and so much fun! They are too far
away but we anticipate visiting them as often as we can.
In
February of this year, Andy, Carman, Laine, Ellie, Shep and Mack moved to Ft.
Worth, Texas where Andy became Senior Pastor of “The Mount” (formerly
Mt. Lebanon Baptist Church) located in Keller, TX. They bought a pretty home there and have all
transitioned well. The church is
approximately 4 times larger than the church in NWA with numerous staff. We visited the church/services in November (and
saw Ellie be baptized!) and found them to be a loving, friendly church composed
of all ages who have been very supportive to our kids. We are so grateful! Carman stays very busy
homeschooling the girls, being a wife, mother and Pastor’s wife. Laine is now
9; Ellie 7; Shep 4 and Mack is almost 19 months; all are delightful children.
They are a long way from us as well but thankful to see them whenever we can.
In
April, Rachel, Jonathan, Copeland, Eisley, Gideon and Kipling moved to Little
Rock, AR. Jonathan is working for Blue
Cross/Blue Shield in downtown LR. They
bought a large beautiful home in the Otter Creek subdivision of west LR. Rachel homeschools Copeland and Eisley and
has a very busy, thriving cookie business!
She is so creative and talented (you can check out her FB page: Rock
City Cookies)! They are active
members of Epoch Church (Southern Baptist) located in downtown LR. One of the Pastors is a professor at
Ouachita Baptist University where Jonathan graduated from. There are also a couple of his former
classmates who attend there. They co-lead a small group and Jonathan is a part
of the Praise and Worship ministry. We
are loving being 45 minutes away from them. It’s the closest we have ever lived from
Rachel in her adult life. Such a blessing!
Copeland is now 6; Eisley 5; Gideon 2 and baby Kipling is 14 months. We are enjoying being involved in their
precious lives on an almost weekly basis now.
We
were all together for Thanksgiving. Rachel
graciously hosted all of us as we were not moved into our new home yet. We had a wonderful time together and, of course, got some family pictures:
With Mom included:
We were not all together for Christmas this year. However, Josh’s family came thru the weekend before Christmas on their way to Michelle’s parents, so we were blessed to celebrate Christmas with them
then (and will be back through on Jan. 2nd on their way home). Rachel’s family came over
Christmas Eve for a meal and fun gift exchange and a trip to downtown Conway to see the big Christmas tree and then we went to their house Christmas afternoon to see what Santa brought the kids. Later this week, we will head to Texas and
spend a few days with Andy’s family to celebrate the holiday!
Jeff
will once again be doing the Antioch Senior Adult conference Jan. 5-7. He is thankful for the opportunity and it’s
always a good time with some great folks.
Mom
is adjusting to her “new” life in Arkansas. The first time in her 90+ years of life to
live outside of Kansas. It’s been a sad
year for her as she lost several family members: Uncle Wayne (Dad’s brother), Aunt
Mildred (Mom’s sister), Uncle Harry (Mom’s brother) and recently
Aunt Betty (Mom’s sister-in-law).
We appreciate your prayers for her.
If you would like our new address, etc., please post in the comments here with your email address and I'll send to you.
We
are praying for God’s richest blessings upon you and your family!
Merry, Merry
Christmas!!
Sending
our love,
Jeff
and Debbie
I’m
behind on updating my blog but hope to do that soon with all of October, November and December highlights!
(Jan. 2) This is an added collage I created for Facebook after the holidays with each family.....
HAPPY NEW YEAR AND MAY GOD RICHLY BLESS YOU IN 2020!!!
