Dear friends and family,
The month of October has been business as usual for us here
in Duerr household. We have gotten back into the swing of things as far as
school and work go, and we are enjoying the routine that it has provided.
Now that my students have begun to grasp what it means to be
Kindergarteners, I have had the opportunity to start to push their learning. We’ve
been learning about fun things like pumpkins and bones and Christopher Columbus
– this is the fun thing about Kindergarten! Pumpkin week included a donation of
pumpkins from a parent of one of my students, which meant that each child got
to explore, measure, and observe their pumpkin…and then decorate it of course!
Bone week involved having a full-sized skeleton model in the classroom (I felt
bad for the janitors who were in there each night!) and each child getting to make
a life-sized skeleton painting of themselves! This month also brought
parent-teacher conferences. Thankfully, with a year of teaching under my belt,
plus the fact that I know my students’ parents much better this year on account
of home visits, I was not nervous and really had a good time with them! It also
helps that with such a small class, I had a light load! I’m also excited to be
heading up Operation Christmas Child at OSL this year, which is a project that
has been dear to my heart since my elementary school days! It’s taken some
extra time to coordinate all that, but I think it will be well worth it when
all those shoeboxes full of gifts come in to be sent off to children around the
world! Nick and I had fun this weekend shopping to fill two shoeboxes for the
project, hopefully just the first of many times we will do this as a family!
Nick has also been busy at school. October is an interesting
month because at the beginning of the month, it is still early in the quarter, but
by the end of the month, it is crunch time before finals. He’s been enjoying
learning about writing sermons, and learning to develop his style and skill as
a homiletician. He has been writing a LOT of sermons, but seems to be
thoroughly enjoying the process and seeing growth in himself in this area. He
also had a lot of fun writing a paper on St. Nicholas, and learning about how
the myth of Santa Claus developed from the historical figure. He was saddened
to discover, however, that it is unlikely that St. Nicholas actually slapped
Arius at the Council of Nicaea.
We have been pushing our boundaries with our running this
month! At the end of September, we had just completed our first race, a 5K (3.1
miles), proud of ourselves for actually training for a month straight. Now,
another month has passed, and each week, our mileage goes up and we’re running farther
than we ever have before. Just a week ago, we set out on the same loop that we
ran (but mostly walked) at the start of all this, the big 5.5 mile loop around
Forest Park, and we ran the whole distance. That was a fun accomplishment for
us. This coming Saturday, we will be completing a 10K trail race, which will be
tricky not only because of the distance but also because it will be on dirt
paths, crossing streams, and have significant elevation changes. We are very
excited about this race though, and are happy to challenge ourselves.
Nick had a really fun opportunity at the beginning of the month.
The seminary asked him to travel to Concordia Irvine to help the seminary admissions
officer with recruiting and to give a student's perspective to college students.
It was a fun, if brief trip for him, because he got to spend time with his
family, and see some old friends and professors. It was a strange few days for
myself, as I spent a night alone in our apartment for the first time ever, but
I survived, and was very happy to have Nick back…even if he ate In-N-Out
without me.
Another big event of this month was our second pre-vicarage meeting.
In this meeting, Dr. Nielsen, the vicarage director, walked through the
interview sheet with us. Basically, he told us what we have to tell him about
our desires for our vicarage placement. This ranges from things like deciding
location preferences, ministry experiences and desires, housing needs, and
more. There are a lot of factors for him to consider in placing us for
vicarage, and we are fully trusting that God has a place for us somewhere! We
ask for your prayers as there are a lot of decisions for us to make in the next
month regarding our desires for vicarage year, especially taking Nick’s needs
as a vicar and my job at OSL into consideration. Our vicarage interview is on
December 17th, so we ask for prayers leading up to that time for
wisdom and clarity for our needs, and on that day for the words to communicate
our needs and desires to Dr. Nielsen.
We thank you again all for your prayers and financial support!
We see God’s hand in so many ways in our time here. A few weeks ago, someone
tried to break into our car. Thankfully the damage was very minimal (we didn’t
even notice it right away!), and we still have our car, but the lock was badly
messed up, so we need to get it replaced. The day I took the car into the shop
to get the assessment of the cost, we received an unexpected check from a
church that will cover the cost of the repair. For things like this, we are so
grateful, and we are especially grateful that we see God working in these
blessings, so that we don’t take them, or you, for granted. We are truly
encouraged by the loving support we receive as Nick trains for the ministry. God
bless you for all you do!
In the name of Christ our Savior,
Nick and Mikaela Duerr
