Every year we like to take a couple of minutes to rewind to see how incredible our year was. It is a nice break before we fast forward and look to the future and planning of this year. This past year was definitely a growing and stretching year for us all. In February our lead pastors left to begin another ministry position in California. This made for an interesting year as we saw over half of our church staff leave & disappear into other ministry opportunities. At the same time, we saw this as an exciting time in the life of our church. It became a growing and stretching time for us, as a family, and church family. As I write this blog, just 18 hours ago our church membership voted in at 100% our new lead pastors. We are excited to work with this new couple and their family, and see many great days ahead for our team & church.
Here is an update on our fam:
Audrey, 3-in a few days, has continued to make us all laugh with her silly comments and expressions. She has become quite the little chick, and enjoys playing with her dolls, watching her shows, playing with her friends, and dancing. She has many friends and even has a few beau's she refers to as "my-Scott" & "my-Ben". Already a heart breaker! She also acts as our alarm clock, as she arrives bright and early everyday to tell us its time to get up. Audrey is learning to keep up with her brother and sister and even puts them in their place at times. Audrey has been most excited this year about her new bunk beds and the fact that she wears big girl panties now. We said so-long to diapers and gave ourselves a raise-temporarily, until she starts asking for designer jeans and shoes. She loves to play on her iPhone, which really is an old phone that we had back in the day.
Ella, 6, is in Kindergarten this year and doing amazing. Her sweet spirit and genuine heart is contagious. She enjoyed gymnastics this past year and was selected to participate on "Team". This was a select group of young girls who would participate in competition. We are so proud of her. This year she also started swimming and her coach told us that she would be a great diver with her flexibility and gymnastics background. She enjoyed swimming so much, she decided to make that her sport and pursue diving in the years to come. Ella is instant fun and her smile and sweet spirit continues to make the boys blush. Ella enjoys playing with friends. As a matter of fact, outside of school and the neighborhood, all of Ella's friends are 2-3 years older than her. She is 6 going on 16 sometimes. She is a cute chick with an edge for fashion. She is also very artistic, which she obviously gets from her father.
Luke, 8, is in 3rd grade. He continues to excel in school and loves reading. Recently, he picked up a leadership book his dad was reading, and started in on it. He enjoys a challenge and his perfectionist ways keeps him driving hard to make sure all is good. He is a people person extraordinaire. Sometimes we have to tell him to stop talking to give other people a chance to talk-he gets that from his dad, at least that is what we've been told. This summer he decided to raise $1,000 for missions. He is on his way to completing that goal in the months ahead, by working hard earning commissions. The monies will go to help kids in Africa get Bibles & to help provide kids involved in sexual slavery in India, a safe place. This all came about after he felt God tell him to raise that much. Luke is our resident soccer and basketball star. This year Luke cruised to another fantastic year of basketball, and is already practicing for his new league which starts in a few weeks. His soccer season ended with him dominating on the goal count and helping his team to a strong finish. He spends his days playing football and basketball outside, rain or shine, with the neighborhood boys. He continues to grow and is already wearing a shoe bigger than Jenelle's.
Jenelle continues to go at lighting speed, tackling anything thrown in front of her. She is very involved in ministry at ECC. This year she sang on the worship team and has become a key leader in the Women's ministries. Jenelle taught on the women's teaching team and will continue to do that in the year to come. Jenelle also continued to grow her business, Wilson Bookkeeping Services. She maxed out her clientele load, and has helped numerous companies keep their books straight and in line. She also maintains a full schedule of transporting kids and keeping a clean house. How she does it? No one knows-it is one of those super power or supernatural type of things. She is amazing.
Phil continues to thrive in his role as Community Life & Connections Pastor. This year was a great growth year for him in many ways. Opportunities to lead and expand his skill set beyond leadership and speaking, presented themselves many times over. In transition of pastoral leadership, Phil became the glue for those who were involved in the church. With a smile on his face and a pretty positive outlook on life, he continues to encounter, engage, encourage, and equip people and teams. He continues to run and play basketball. His favorite things to do is spend time with Jenelle and play with the kids.
This year we had some great times as a family and with friends. We were able to travel to Hawaii this last Spring, which was long overdue and much needed. We also took a vacation with some of our closest friends as we headed to California to spend time with them roaming San Diego and So. Cal.
We wrapped up the year with a new addition, in the form of a dog. His name is Tucker, he is a Bishon/Pekingese mix, and was a rescue from a shelter. He is already trained and acclimated to a house full of three little munchkins who love him.
As we wrap up this year, it was quite crazy at time, but we always rest assured that God is good...all the time! We hope that this coming year will bring many opportunities and stretching experiences for you-as we have found in these times, we rely on God, family, friends, and each other more than when things seem to be operating normal.
As we wrap this up, be intentional about having a great 2011, because you only have 2011 to make 2011 awesome.
