January and everything after

I didn't quite get the one update a month that I was hoping to do in January, so I'll try to fill in the blanks as I go this month. Picking up where we left off last, we had a good Christmas break. Family dinners were tasty and fun, and the week in Seattle was pretty relaxing. The weather wasn't too rainy and we spent a lot of time walking along the beach in front of the house Michael's parents were staying in, and doing other family Christmas traditions.

Some of the biggest news is that Michael started a new job about a month ago. He is working for a non-profit company called Docent Group that provides research for pastors. What this means is that Michael is basically a research assistant to a pastor, collecting useful background information and scholarly research for the pastor to think about as he prepares his weekly sermon. It's not too many hours a week and closely related to Michael's school work, so it is pretty ideal so far.

In other news, Michael has been cheering for the Bears for about the last 20 years, and they've been pretty horrible. Out of some freak cosmic accident, the Bears suddenly got good and ended up in the Super Bowl the very same year that the Tigers (Michael's other historically favorite but downtrodden team) went to the World Series. What a year! He was very grateful to be in the States this year to follow both during their fantastic seasons. But, unfortunately they both ended up the same way, not showing up with their best game when it counted the most. Oh well, there's always next year. And if that doesn't work, Michael's looking forward to 2026...

Finally, Rachel is making more progress in planning the mission trip to Guatemala. She is tracking down lots of her old contacts, and planning a well rounded trip that should involve a decent amount of Latino and Mayan culture in their special chaotic, Guatemalan mix. If you are interested in more of Rachel's thoughts about the trip and details, visit the New Wilmington Mission Conference website and view her Summer Service blog.

Most recently, this weekend we took one of our few "nights out on the town" in Pittsburgh so far. We went to a comedy club at one of the big Pittsburgh malls with some of Rachel's teacher friends. It was a lot of fun and nice for Michael to get to meet some of Rachel's co-workers. I doubt we'll ever do the comedy club thing again, but it was quite an experience to have. Hope everything is well with ya'll,
peace,
Michael and Rachel