Greetings friends and family!
It’s hard to believe that almost 2 months have passed since
I last wrote a blog post, but time flies these days! In the past few weeks, our
lives have been filled with the excitement of the wrap up of a school year (for
me) and the anticipation of what is to come! It is fun to have this excitement
and anticipation to break up the normal routines of our lives.
I’m going to back up a little and start with when our lives
were still pretty routine, going about the normal school year, back in April. Nick
and I were both kept busy with Holy Week services, with his assisting or
preaching at each service that week, and my singing with the choir in many of
those services as well. I always appreciate the few days that I have off of
school in order to spend that time at church and catching up on sleep after a
long day of Easter services. A family in the congregation was kind enough to
invite us over for Easter dinner. It was fun to enjoy their company and the
freedom from having to cook a holiday meal for just the two of us
After Easter, things got pretty busy for a few weeks. School
kept me busy through extra meetings and preparation for the school musical,
which I am in charge of. It’s always pretty hectic in that last week as we try
and get the last practices finished and those last details taken care of, but
it is one of the most worthwhile experiences of my school year every year. Being
able to hear the children sing, act, and proclaim the message of Christ to
those who come watch them, and hearing the excitement from the parents and
grandparents after the performance, are some of my favorite memories of each
school year. This year, it was made extra special by the fact that Nick’s
family was here to watch it and see the product of my work.
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| At the seminary's commencement service wit h Mark |
Speaking of that, we got a visit from Nick’s family in late
April, for an even more exciting day (for his brother, Mark), Call Day! They
flew in late on a Tuesday night, arriving at our house after we had gone to
sleep. Wednesday evening after school, I joined the whole family at Mark’s
house and we went to the seminary for the call service. It is always an
exciting service, especially since we had many friends getting their calls –
some expected, some totally out of the blue, and some very, very exciting.
After Call Day on Wednesday, a birthday dinner for Nick’s mom, Cathy, on
Thursday, and the school musical on Friday, we were very ready for the weekend!
It was a short visit, but very nice to be able to get some family time.
We’ve also been fortunate to see some other wonderful
friends over the course of April and May, which was so much fun. Our group of
friends from seminary was scattered all over the country for vicarage, but we’ve
gotten to see most of them in the last few months! Several of our friends are
working from home while on vicarage, while still based in St. Louis, so they
have to make work trips back to St. Louis on occasion. This meant that in
April, my friend Ashley (also on local vicarage) and I got to spend time with
several of our friends when they were in town, which is always a wonderfully
refreshing and enjoyable time. In May, Nick and I were excited to see some
other friends when they came to St. Louis for commencement at the Seminary – some
of our friends because they were graduating from the deaconess program, and
some who came to celebrate graduation with others. It’s been an exciting time,
because we’re all gearing up to return to St. Louis for our last year of
seminary, making plans for where we will live and when we will move. Graduation
day was actually the day that on-campus housing sent out housing assignments,
so we were excited to talk about how close we will be living to each other!
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| A visit from some wonderful friends! |
Back to the last week of April – it was an extremely busy
week, so on Saturday, I was thankful for a day to rest and have some friends
over in the evening. It was also a very stormy day, with thunderstorms backed
up one behind another. We woke up, ready to go for a run, and when we heard
thunder, we thought, “Well, we can wait until this passes.” Then we looked at
the weather radar and realized the storm wouldn’t be passing anytime soon. Sure
enough, it rained and stormed all day, pretty much keeping us home from any
errands we could run. But it was enjoyable and we kept the doors open to enjoy
the sound and smell of the rain. I didn’t realize how extreme the storms had
been until I drove to school on Monday morning. For a little background
information, I take three highways to get to my school. Highway 100 takes me
about 10 miles pretty much from our house straight southeast to Highway 44.
Highway 44 takes me about 25 miles east toward St. Louis. Then, I exit onto
Highway 141, which I follow for just about a mile or two until I get to my
school. On that Monday morning, I started driving to work, probably listening
to Hamilton (apparently I should’ve been
listening to the news), and when I approached my exit to 141, I saw signs
saying the exit was closed due to flooding. Thankfully, I could easily drive
past that exit and to the next exit and get to school no problem, but many
people trying to go the other way were stuck in traffic for an hour or more.
Upon arriving at school, the concern of the other teachers at my commute
prompted me to look at the news – it turns out that the flooding was only
getting worse (apparently that’s how it works) as the river crested, and that
there were plans to close Highway 44 as well. That put a huge damper on my
already 45-minute long commute. Thankfully, I got home Monday night before they
closed the highway, but I had to make plans for the next day and the possibility
of getting stuck in hours of traffic on the alternate route (after the ice
storm in December and getting stuck for 3 hours, I was prepared for something
like that again). So I made plans for a sub in the morning in case I couldn’t
get there in time for the start of school, packed a bag that night, and planned
to stay the night at another teacher’s house on Tuesday, as the river was not
expected to crest until Wednesday, and we knew there would be road closures for
the rest of the week. Tuesday morning, I woke up early and left the house by
6:00, making it to school in time for devotions at about 7:40. I had to take a
long alternate route that was clogged up with everyone else doing the same
thing, but it could’ve been worse. Thankfully, with the planned road closures
that MODOT was updating throughout the day on Tuesday, before the end of the school
day, our principal decided to close school for the next two days because too
many teachers and students would not be able to get to school. So I rushed out
of school that afternoon, and got home about 2 hours later, and then didn’t
leave the house for two more days! On Friday morning, school was open again,
and Highway 44 was opened up before my commute that morning, so I was able to
make that drive in a decent amount of time. By Tuesday the next week, 141 was
open again, and I was never so thankful for a normal commute! We are thankful
that many communities were better prepared for the flooding this time around,
but we know that some people are still struggling to recover their homes and
businesses, even a month later.
After that week, May ran like a normal May. I had the
anticipation and work for getting ready for the end of the school year –
graduation, field trips, field day, packing up and cleaning out everything! It’s
always a fun time of year, even though it can be very tiring. It’s still hard
to believe it was only a few weeks ago that I spent the last day with my kids
and that I will be welcoming a new group soon! Nick has kept extremely busy
with preaching – preaching most of the Sundays in May, as well as leading Bible
studies as usual, and working to plan for VBS and a summer basketball camp that
he is in charge of. He also organized another event for the young adults
ministry, which is growing and thriving! We are praying that it continues to
grow even as the next vicar steps in and starts bringing new people into the
community of the church.
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| RiverTown Run - Nick ran the half marathon, I ran the 5K |
During May, Nick accomplished a really impressive personal
goal – to run a half marathon by himself. We have run several half marathons
together over the last few years, and it has been a really fun way for us to
spend time together. However, I chose not to run the half marathon that was
coming up in Washington in May. Nick decided he still wanted to do it. So he
trained by himself (running up to 12 miles each week alone!), running in the
afternoons before I got home from work, and eventually, finished the half marathon
in a great time, at about 2 hours and 2 minutes! This beat our first half
marathon time of 2:05, which is extremely impressive considering he was running
without a buddy and having to conquer all of Washington’s hills on top of that!
I joined in the fun by running the 5K race that day.
We are enjoying what June has brought us. Even though I
finished up school two weeks ago, the time since then has been busy with
teacher meetings and cleaning up and wrapping up the year. I have kept busy
this week between doing some teaching at our school’s summer camp, as well as
trying to work ahead to get ready for next school year. I know it’s a bit crazy
to be working ahead this early, but between the vacation we are planning in
late July and having to move back to the seminary in August, I know that this
is my best time to start preparing for the new school year. Next week will be
VBS at Immanuel, which Nick and I are both helping with, and then another week
of summer camp and working in my classroom while Nick prepares for the time
that Pastor will be out of town and for his basketball camp.
Even in the midst of the work, however, we have been
enjoying summer. Even though we’ve both been keeping pretty regular hours at
work, we are enjoying the flexibility of summer, meaning sleeping in a little bit,
and enjoying more relaxed afternoons and evenings. We’ve been spending time
with friends in the evenings, as well as enjoying our most recent purchase –
some new lawn chairs and a table so we can more easily spend time out on the
back porch during those beautiful evening hours. We actually just enjoyed a
nice dinner outside, chatting and observing the wildlife in our backyard.
Some exciting news that recently came about is that we have
officially paid off the loan that we had on our car! We purchased this car
three years ago, before getting married and moving to St. Louis, with the help
of my dad, and we are so excited to have paid off the loan two years early! We
are now down to only one debt left, which are Nick’s student loans. Thankfully,
his loans have not been accruing interest, since they are all subsidized and
have been deferred as he has been in school full time since graduating college.
In addition, we haven’t had to take out any new loans to cover the cost of
seminary, so we are currently accomplishing our goal of leaving seminary with
less debt than we entered with. We are even hoping to leave seminary debt free!
It is a lofty goal, but God has shown us over the last few years that He is
capable of so much more than we ever thought possible, and with the generous
gifts that we have received, we have paid off large debts in just a few short
years.
Well, three pages later and I think I’ve got you all pretty
up-to-date on what’s going on here in Missouri. Watch the next few months for
updates from vacations and our move back to the seminary!
In the name of Christ our Savior,
Nick and Mikaela Duerr
