January was a relatively calm month for Mikaela and I, so
most of it doesn’t make for good novelization on a blog post, mainly because we
spent the month going about our regular jobs without too much exciting going
on. Mostly prep for stuff happening later. The month began with the close of
Christmas break, when Mikaela had her last few days of freedom, or so it
seemed. School began again for her on the 4th, which meant her first
week back was a half week. Her second week was supposed to be a full week, and
then her third week began with Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, and so was
supposed to be a day short. Except that is not how things happened. On Friday,
the 13th (yes, the irony is not lost on us; in fact, it was a full
moon that evening too) after much anticipation that week, school was canceled
because of a large ice storm. So on top of having a full four day weekend at
home without obligations, other than church obviously, Mikaela’s first full
week of school was the last week of January. Of course, after having a large
ice storm but a week or two prior, we had such warm weather that I saw an ice
cream truck drive by. So on top of having a wonky school schedule, the weather
has been all over the place, and rather confusing.
One fun thing that happened was that Concordia Publishing House
held an event discussing all of their VBS materials for this summer. Mikaela
and I went with the group from Immanuel to see what was what. It was a fun
morning of learning some of the dances and songs, acting out some of the
stories, and experimenting with some of the crafts. It really whet our appetite
for VBS this summer, and we are really excited to be a part of it. Later that
evening, Mikaela went to a fundraiser at Our Savior to help put on the event.
What was really fun about the fundraiser, though, was that as a part of the
silent auction, each class creates some sort of project to sell, that all of
the kids mark in some way. Well Mikaela got creative this year and instead of
just buying a plate from a paint-your-own ceramics place and having the kids
handprint it, she decided to get a little more constructive. She commissioned
me to build an approximately two-by-three foot wooden frame for a chalkboard.
When the frame was finished, the kids put their handprints on it and wrote
their names, after which I attached the chalkboard to the frame. At the spaghetti
dinner auction, it went for $275, so I was pretty proud of my work. (Though I
do realize that the parents were bidding for the kids’ handprints and not for
my moderate quality woodwork.)
And speaking of my moderate quality woodwork, I took some of
my time off this month and decided to make some things for the house that Mikaela
and I had wanted but had never purchased. So I set out to build a mail
organizer to sort all of the mail that had been left on the counter. It took
about a week, but at the end, I was able to hang it up in the living room and
sort all of the mail, clearing it off of the counter. And while I could point
out to you all of the places where things aren’t quite right, it has held up to
a couple weeks of strenuous mail holding.
And finally, I want to talk about an upcoming event I am
putting on and am really excited about. Part of what the seminary requires for
vicarage is that I begin or expand a program at the church to further their
evangelism efforts. Part of my expectations at Immanuel is that I would begin
some sort of young adult ministry. So I decided to merge those two and begin an
evangelistic young adult ministry. The first event will be held shortly, so I
have begun to do a lot of the legwork for the event, making sure I have
everything that I need, and that everything is ready to go. Hopefully next
month’s blog post will be full of tales of success, but I guess I should wait
until then to get too excited.
In any case, January has presented us with some unique
challenges as well as some great times, but February looks like it will be
quite the fun month. We already have something planned for every weekend, as
well as for a significant number of weeknights, so hopefully next month’s blog
post will be full of tales of our adventures. You’ll just have to wait until
then to hear about them.
For now we want to say thank you to all of you who have been
supporting us with your love and prayers. We can see God working in our lives,
and while sometimes we aren’t happy with some of His decisions, we are glad to
see that he has a plan which we are striving to follow. And we pray that He
would work as clearly and lovingly in all of your lives as well.
In the name of Christ our Savior,
Nicholas and Mikaela Duerr
