Busy Schedules and Cool Weather

Hello!

Stirring apple butter

Our last update left off with Karina's wedding, but honestly, that was only the start of a long few weeks. After returning from the wedding, I had one day in the office to take care of business before I left with Immanuel's 7th grade class for their annual retreat. It was a fun but exhausting couple of days playing games, being very active, and most importantly understanding what it means to be claimed by Christ. Before we returned Pastor Bangert had left on a much needed week-and-a-half long vacation with his family, leaving me in charge of many more things than I am used to, including a hospital visit, as well as running Sunday services solo... two weeks in a row. During that time adult bible classes started, which meant I had to begin planning my 9-10 week study of the book of Revelation. And add to that doing devotions at several special events, confirmation, and calls throughout the week, it was rather tiring. But as exhausting as it was, it was also very rewarding to spend time doing what I enjoy, and having many opportunities to lead people in worship. After that things began to quiet down a bit, until Apple Butter, a school fundraiser, began. Apple Butter is a four-day endeavor in which 110 bushels of apples were turned into 204 gallons of apple butter that were then sold. The church was bustling with activity during those four days, and smelled delicious for quite a while after.

Throughout this time, Mikaela patiently put up with me, and continued teaching her large class of kindergartners. She really began to feel comfortable with the two big adjustments of the year, first having fourteen students rather than six was extremely challenging just because it was quite the growth in class size for her. The second change was having an aide who could help out with the students. Mikaela figured out how to divide the labor between the two of them so that they were being most efficient with their time and therefore best able to help their students. Not to mention that having an aide has afforded her more breaks, and has allowed one-on-one time with students, for things like assessments, to be handled in a better way. Now with a couple months under her belt, Mikaela has seen a lot of improvement in her class, not just with her own adjustments, but also with the student's adjustments to being in class full time. Overall, September has been a much better month than August.

One other exciting event in September was my mom flying out to visit us. She arrived shortly before the second weekend of preaching I had, and so was able to hear me preach and attend my Bible study. While she was here we were also able to go wine tasting at one of the local wineries, she was able to go with Mikaela to school one day, and she came in to work with me on another and helped core apples for Apple Butter. And on the Friday before she left Mikaela had a professional development event in Saint Louis, so we went in with her and spent the day around the city, going to chapel at the seminary with Mark, visiting the zoo, and, after picking up Mikaela, visiting a little specialty shop called Hot Box Cookies. It was an extremely fun week, and great to spend time with family.

Sunday afternoon date at a local winery

Mikaela and I have really been having a great time in Washington, living in a house, and enjoying the small town atmosphere. All of the little shops and restaurants give it a fun feel, and the people are always very friendly. We have been fortunate to have time to socialize with new friends at the church as well as old friends from the seminary. We have also been spending our time running and preparing for a second half marathon. We are enjoying the coming of cooler weather which allows us to enjoy our time outside.
But mostly we are enjoying having each other, and getting to continue our adventure together. 

One practical note to conclude, if you are interested in listening to any of my sermons, they are all posted online on Immanuel's web site. If you go to imlutheran.org, on the left side of the page it says, "Sermons Online." That link will pull up a good number of sermons, and mine are all the ones labeled "Vicar Nick."

In the name of Christ our Savior,

Nicholas and Mikaela Duerr