March News

Greetings from St. Louis!

We are posting about both February and March today! We wrote our blog post about February several weeks back, but in all the craziness we never posted it! (So just read our first blog post as if it’s the beginning of March)

March was a fun and adventurous month for the both of us. In the first weekend of March, Nick got the opportunity to preach at Our Savior. This is always an exciting opportunity for him, and it’s fun to watch him grow in his abilities and gain experience through this. That same weekend included both Grandparent’s Day at Our Savior and a full-day Early Childhood conference, which is a fantastic professional development opportunity for me that teaches me a lot!

High tea with my sister

This month included my spring break from school. I took my spring break to fly to South Carolina to visit my little sister, Karina, who attends college there. It had been about a year and a half since we’d seen each other last, so we had a lot of fun! It was also my first experience flying by myself, but thankfully everything went smoothly. My mom was also able to fly out to visit, so we had a fantastic girls’ week! We helped Karina and her fiancé Hunter with some wedding planning details, ate out at some delicious restaurants, went to high tea at a tea room, and overall just got to relax and spend some time together. It was a very relaxing vacation for me, since getting out of our apartment allows me to leave chores and responsibilities behind. The weather was warm and sunny, and I spent a lot of time sitting outside in the sunshine reading. As much as it was an enjoyable vacation, it was even more wonderful to return home to Nick after that time apart!

Dinner in South Carolina with family

Nick has been enjoying his classes this quarter. His full load of six classes keeps him very busy with a lot of reading and homework. So far, his favorite class is The Crusades, a history course with some very fun reading assignments. He is also taking Pastor as Educator, which has been fun for me, as he learns about writing lesson plans and various teaching methods. I helped him put together a presentation on classroom management methods, so this class has been a fun way for me to get involved in his seminary education. However, as I said, the load is very heavy, so he can definitely use your prayers this quarter, especially as the anticipation of vicarage causes a “senioritis” of sorts, leading to lower motivation to get homework done!

Easter Sunday

March also brought Holy Week and the celebration of Christ’s death and resurrection, which for a church worker, causes a lot of extra busyness. Nick helped lead four church services over the weekend (Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter sunrise, and the early Easter service), and I was recruited into the choir to sing for those services as well. Although busy, it was a fun weekend for the two of us, as we were able to enjoy being involved in the church services and the fellowship with the church members we had by being at church before, after, and in between services. We are also blessed with days off of school for this weekend, so overall, it allowed for a relaxing weekend since we had time to recover from the extra services. We celebrated Easter with our friends who stayed in town for the holiday by hosting an Easter brunch at our apartment on Saturday morning. We also got the opportunity to Facetime with our families – modern technology is an amazing way to keep us connected even from so far away!

As we move into April, we have a lot of excitement, because April holds some of the big days that we have been anticipating all year long! We have just one week until our half-marathon, which we will be running next Sunday morning. Our goal is just to finish the race, but we are definitely hoping for a time under 2 hours and 10 minutes – if we’re feeling really good, we hope to finish close to 2 hours! And of course the big event of the year is now just 23 days away – Call Day! Call Day is the day that we find out our vicarage placement for next year. If you are interested, you can watch the service on Live Stream in real time through the seminary’s website. It’s on April 26^th at 3:00 p.m. Central time (so that’s 1:00 p.m. California time). April is packed full of other events, both for fun and for work, but we will update you on how it goes in next month’s post!

We appreciate your prayers in this anxious time, as we await our placement for next year. We can use prayers for peace, comfort, and wisdom as we wait for information and then make some big decisions. We again thank you for all your support and prayers. They make a huge difference in our lives!

In the name of Christ our Savior,

Nick and Mikaela Duerr