Our Family Christmas Letter

Hello everyone!

We hope this letter finds each one of you doing well and rejoicing in the blessings of the Lord! Seeing how it is the time of year for the exchange of Christmas greetings, we certainly want you to know that we are thinking of you all with fondness! On behalf of our family, I (Katrina) also wanted to include a newsletter with this year’s Christmas greetings. I just love receiving newsletters from other people in our Christmas mail, and so I thought it was only fair to write one myself. :) Therefore, without further ado, sit back, relax, and enjoy an update from Texas!

Dad is still greatly enjoying his position as Procurement Manager for Stallion Oilfield Services. He does a wonderful job handling the company’s purchasing of the equipment, vehicles, and housing accommodations needed to outfit each oil rig they service. Working with a mutli-million dollar budget requires a great deal of integrity, and Dad certainly fits the bill on this note! On the weekends, when he’s not engaged with a family activity, Dad can be found working in the yard or tackling another home improvement project. Some of his accomplishments from this past year include landscaping the backyard, rebuilding the deck, and doing some intensive tree trimming in the wake of Hurricane Ike. We are all so grateful for Dad’s hard work! Mom never has to write him a “honey-do” list because he writes them all himself! :-) Dad also serves as a deacon at our new church where his servant/leadership qualities are a blessing to everyone.

Mom continues to excel at her position as Director of Home Affairs and is the one who keeps our household running smoothly in the midst of busy lives. We all greatly appreciate the loving care Mom constantly demonstrates in so many ways. In addition to keeping us well fed and wearing clean, pressed clothes :), Mom is engaged in several ministries with women and children. She oversees the organization of donated items at a local crisis pregnancy center as well as helps with one of the client Bible study groups. She also runs the children’s Sunday school program at church, where they’ve lately been working hard on a Christmas production of the story of Jesus’ birth. Mom definitely lives out that Scripture verse about women being “adorned with good works.” In her *spare* time, it seems she is always making a meal for someone in need, providing childcare for a busy mama, or giving counsel to a friend on the telephone. I am so grateful for her example!

Katelin’s year has been a busy one in many ways. Since last January, she’s been working full time as a nanny for a home school family whose mother died of cancer. With four little children to care for, ages 10, 5, 3, and 1, Katelin’s days overflow with activity! In addition to making the long commute to and from work each day, she cooks meals, cleans house, teaches school, changes diapers, and engages in all manner of child training. Though her job is not easy, Katelin loves the children dearly and they likewise adore her! A two-month mission trip to Ukraine this past summer provided her a welcome break from work as well as the opportunity to observe ministry in another country. Katelin greatly enjoyed her experiences with our missionary friends, the Steeles, and would love to return to Ukraine some day! Meanwhile, she continues to bring much joy to our family with her hilarious stories around the dinner table and energetic love for others.

On a personal note, I continue to enjoy teaching piano, counseling at the pregnancy center, and chipping away at my Bible college studies in rare moments of free time. :) A huge part of my year has been dedicated to Maiden’s Quest Ministries, a retreat ministry for teenage girls and their mothers that a friend and I started back in 2007. Though we only intended the ministry to be a one-time event, God had other plans and we’ve now seen a total of eight retreats take place from west coast to east coast and all across Texas! Five of those conferences happened this year, averaging between 100-200 attendees at each. While it’s been a lot of work to run the ministry, it’s been such a thrill to watch God at work in the hearts of so many young ladies! Now that Maiden’s Quest Ministries has come to a close, at least for the time being, I am hoping to turn my attention this next year toward orphanage ministry of some sort…but we shall see what God has in store!

Despite the fact that our family often runs in four different directions, we still love to work together, play together, and minister together. God has blessed us with many opportunities for such “togetherness” this year, and we are so grateful for the delightful memories made along the way!

Maiden’s Quest itself was a family endeavor in every way! Katelin was not only my assistant along the journey, but she also served as a musician and elective class teacher for each retreat. Mom and Dad helped out with countless preparations ahead of time, and often ran the kitchen during the elegant banquets that were a part of the retreat. They taught or assisted with electives, set up tables and chairs, and tended to all sorts of behind-the-scenes details. My family truly gave of themselves to make the ministry possible, and I could not have done it without them! :)

We also continue to participate as a family in the American Chinese Fellowship downtown every Friday night. Mom and Dad lead adult Bible studies, Katelin often assists with the children’s class, and I teach the junior high/senior high girls’ Bible study. It’s been very exciting to witness many Chinese friends become Christians as a result of the teachings of God’s Word!

Just recently in November, the Lord blessed us with a wonderful, much-needed vacation on the east coast. We stopped off first for an afternoon in Annapolis where the fall colors were absolutely brilliant! Then, we spent several days touring Washington D.C., Mt. Vernon, and Colonial Williamsburg before finishing the trip with a visit to dear friends in Virginia. It was a whirlwind vacation, for sure, but definitely rewarding! Getting to travel to each of these historic places together after having studied them throughout our home school years was a dream come true! Enclosed is a photo collage of snapshots from our travels. Clockwise from the top left you see our family at: 1) the White House, 2) the Capitol, 3) Annapolis marina, 4) the Lincoln Memorial, 5) St. John’s College in Annapolis, 6) Mt. Vernon, 7) Arlington National Cemetery, 8) Warner Hall in Gloucester, Virginia.

As we close out the 2008 edition of the family newsletter, our prayer for you this Christmas season and in the coming new year is that you would be “filled with the knowledge of [God’s] will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding: that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God: strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness…” (Colossians 1:9-11)

May God help us all keep our focus on Jesus the Lord, whose birthday we celebrate! It is Him, after all, “who hath delivered us from the power of darkness…in Whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins: Who is the image of the invisible God.” (Colossians 1:13-15)

We send much love from Texas!
Dan, Patricia, Katrina, and Katelin