2017 Christmas Letter: Already and Not Yet

Merry Christmas from Kevin, Rachel, Naomi, Johnathan, Ezra and Abby!  Thank you for stopping by to catch up with our year.  2017 marks our second year back in Colorado, and it has been a full one!

Kevin and Rachel celebrated their 16th anniversary this year, and we were blessed with a trip to Tennessee by PastorServe, where we thoroughly enjoyed a couple days of relaxing in the beautiful countryside near Knoxville.

Kevin is still teaching PE for kindergarten through 2nd grade, but this year he is only there 3 days a week as the responsibilities with Incline Church increase. We launched Incline in January, so it has been an exciting year of church planting. He also got to go fly fishing in Montana with a group through PastorServe - definitely a "bucket list" trip for him (and it happened to be during his birthday)!

Rachel spends a lot of time in the family car taking kids to and from school, and in between carpools, she volunteers at the kids' school, runs errands, and helps with administration for the kids ministries at Incline.  She discovered she really enjoys running this year, and she tried a couple 5K races and a 10K this summer. She also got to climb Mt. Lindsey with her dad - it had been a LONG time since they got to do that together!

Naomi is now 13 (We still can't believe we have a teenager!!).  She moved to the junior high at The Classical Academy and loves it there. She sings in the choir at school, started a Bible study with a few friends at that meets during lunch at school, and still loves helping with setup and in the nursery at Incline, as well as being part of Incline's wonderful youth group. She is now a certified babysitter, so feel free to call her for all your babysitting needs!

Johnathan is now 11 and in the 5th grade.  He continues to develop his many creative skills, including drawing, building, and creating games, he devours books at astonishing rates, and he is a faithful setup volunteer at Incline. On the verge of being old enough for youth group next year, he's enjoyed having a discipleship group with his 5th grade buddy at Incline.

Ezra is 7 and charging through 1st grade.  He continues to love birds of prey and all things science, so when we went on our first family camping trip in Colorado this summer, he was in his element hiking, birdwatching, and exploring! He's excited to be able to read books on his own now and is a budding artist, too.

Abby started kindergarten this year!  She attends The Classical Academy's half day program, so she still helps Mommy and keeps her company every afternoon.  She loves singing, going to the library, the park, the Y, or the grocery store - it's all a fun adventure to her! She can frequently be seen in all these placed wearing her princess tiara and super fancy dress coat.

This is the second full year of our church planting adventure, and what a year it has been!  After a year of residency at Cathedral Rock Church and months of gathering and planning, we launched to meeting weekly this January.  In the last 12 months we've navigated the many adjustments as we figured out mobile set-up at the elementary school that allows us to use their facility, music and sound, children's ministry, Gospel community groups, community parties in the neighborhood park, and so much more.

We are regularly asked, "How is it going at Incline?"  Our answer is that we are so very, very grateful for the team of partners God has provided as well as all the ways He's provided for our church financially.  We're amazed at all the ways He's allowed us to connect with people and for everything we're learning in the process. And at the same time, we can also see many milestones still to come in order to become an established, self-sustaining church.




So we rejoice in what God has already done, and continue in hope for what has not yet happened.  And we are so thankful for the prayer, encouragement, and support that you have given us!  Thank you for catching up with our family's news and we hope you have a Christmas season full of the joy that can only come from Jesus!

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.  Philippians 3:12