Hello friends and family!
Mikaela here to tell you about our October! I know it’s only
been a few weeks since our September post (we’ve been getting behind on our
blog posts), but I’m going to try and get this one posted on time! October has
been a wonderful month, filled with wonderful time with friends, wonderful
weather, and some awesome accomplishments in our lives!
October is a wonderful month in St. Louis – the humidity
goes away, the air is crisp, and the sunshine is pleasant rather than oppressive.
October is also the season for Oktoberfests, sausage suppers, and races! One of
the benefits of a semi-local vicarage is that we are able to attend some
seminary events, so early in the month, we drove into St. Louis on a Friday
evening and spent the evening at Oktoberfest eating brats, listening to polka
music, and catching up with lots of friends who have returned from vicarage. That same weekend, I got to spend time doing
just about the same thing at Our Savior’s Fall Festival/Sausage Supper. We had the
opportunity to spend time with some new friends from Immanuel, which is fun
because we are getting to know the people of the congregation and making new
friendships! This weekend, we drove into St. Louis again to go to a Halloween
party at the house of some friends who are here on a local vicarage as well,
and it was so wonderful and refreshing to spend time with them!
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| Halloween Party |
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| Early morning trail run |
We have loved taking advantage of the beautiful weather and
the beneficial impact it has on our running! We spent one of our Saturday morning
runs on the Katy Trail, running through farmland and enjoying the crisp air and
sunshine. We also had fun running in a 5K that Immanuel’s 8th
graders put on as a fundraiser for their class trip. Being a small race, I
placed first for overall women and Nick placed first in his age group for men
(but that was by default since he was the only 20-29 year-old male to run the
race). One of our big accomplishments this month was running our second half marathon!
One of the fun parts about this race was that as a Halloween race, we of course
had to dress up in costumes! This was also one of the challenging parts of the
race, as finding a costume that is comfortable to run 13.1 miles in is not
easy. We finally decided on costumes….three days before the race…and Nick spent
all day Friday shopping for all the pieces of our costumes. In the end, it
worked out great, and we were a comfortable Han Solo and Princess Leia for our
second half marathon! The other important part of the race was our goal time –
after running our last race in about 2 hours and 5 minutes, our goal was to
complete this race in under 2 hours. As the weather got cooler, our times got
faster, and we knew we were on track to meet our goal. On race day at the
starting line, we made sure to move up closer to our pace group (the people
running to meet close to our same goal time), since at our last race, we
started so far back that we spent several miles weaving through and passing people.
It was a beautiful day, not too cold and nice and sunny, and it ended up being
a beautiful 13 miles to run. We got to run past the newly-renovated area around
the Gateway Arch and other beautiful St. Louis landmarks. In the end, even
after Nick battled an awful side cramp in mile 8, we crossed the finish line at
1 hour and 52 minutes! We were very happy and celebrated by eating a big
breakfast and taking naps on the couch.
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| Immanuel's Dash to DC 5K |
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| After our half marathon |
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| Halloween half marathon costumes - Han Solo and Princess Leia |
Another major accomplishment in our lives this month is that
WE PAID OFF MY STUDENT LOANS!!!!! Yes, this deserves all caps! We made the
first payment on my loans back in November 2014. These federal loans are on a
10 year repayment plan, and through budgeting, extra payments, and extreme
generosity from churches and individual donors, we were able to make the final
payment on my loans two weeks ago. This means that we paid off about $30,000 in
loans in less than 2 years! We are so incredibly amazed at God’s blessings and
provision in our lives and thankful for all the people who have given to us so
generously. We are so excited to be free from this debt and we are excited for
what it means in our lives. Now, we move on to paying off the loan we have on
our car, and after that, to Nick’s student loans from his undergraduate degree.
However, we did take a little bit of money to celebrate with a nice dinner out
that night.
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| Our "We paid off my student loans" celebration dinner |
On the work front, I am enjoying my time with my students. I
got a new student in my class a few weeks ago, bringing my count up to 15
students, and we are constantly busy! Although it brings about the stress
involved with teaching, working with Kindergarteners is a constant lesson in grace,
and their love and willingness to forgive is such an amazing blessing to me.
This month brought parent-teacher conferences, which, while they take extra
time and writing report cards consumed me for a week, are also an amazing
blessing. I love hearing what the students convey to parents and how the
parents are seeing their learning and growth at home, and sometimes we just
have lots of laughs at what their children say and do.
Nick has been enjoying life as Vicar. He got another chance
to preach this month, and continues to assist in Sunday services, teach
confirmation and Bible study, and go on visits to homebound members. He had to
spend a week walking to work this month after a little trouble getting his car
started, but thankfully after a few trips to the mechanic, it was a quick and
inexpensive fix and he is back to driving to work again.
We have finished off October by celebrating my birthday today. We got to participate in a beautiful church service for Reformation Sunday this morning, with Nick leading liturgy and me singing in the choir. After church, we ate a delicious lunch on a rooftop patio right next to the river and picked up some local wine and homemade pie from local shops. The afternoon consisted of long naps with the fire going and lots of birthday wishes from friends and family! It was a perfect day and I am blessed and excited for what this next year of life will bring!
Thank you again for all your love, support, and prayers. We
are so blessed to be in this place with so much support and we constantly feel
God’s blessings being showered upon us.
In the name of Christ our Savior,
Nick and Mikaela Duerr
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