Hello friends and family! We are terribly sorry that we have not updated sooner but we have been swamped like crazy! But anyway . . . MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(our festive water tower)

We have been enjoying a very relaxing Christmas break up here in the winter wonderland of Montana! Winter took its time coming this year as we lived in the balmy 40 degree weather and frequent rainstorms! We were afraid that snow would never arrive! But finally, the week before Christmas, it started dumping! And it hasn’t stopped since! You can always tell it is going to be a cold when you find ice crystals growing on the inside of your windows!

(brrrrrrr)

So, Josh and I have both successfully passed the first quarter of the School of Biblical Studies (SBS) with flying colors! Woo hoo!!! We have read through and charted 18 books of the Bible so far as well as giving our own inductive Bible studies on 2nd Timothy! We have learned all sorts of New Testament history, learned about the life of Jesus, and followed Paul through all of his journeys! It has been a trip to say the least! It is so amazing to be able to read the Bible this way! It feels like it is a totally different book than what I grew up reading! All the characters and stories have come to life and make more sense to me as we look at the text through the eyes of the original readers and authors, and finally apply it to out own lives!!! So now that the first quarter is done, only 2 more to go!

(my “color coded” Bible)

We also had the great privilege to volunteer with our local Salvation Army this December! Each year they gather boxes of toys that have been donated and set them up in shopping mall style! Then, families can come into the shopping area and pick out 1-3 toys for each of their children for Christmas presents! We were able to set up the thousands upon thousands of donated toys and inventory all of them to make the workload of the Salvation Army staff a bit lighter! It was so much fun and so amazing to see the generosity of our community and how much they give to make sure that everyone can enjoy the holiday season! If you haven’t donated to Salvation Army yet this year, I highly recommend that you do! They are an amazing ministry!!!!

Prayer requests =

Please be keeping us in prayer as we start the second quarter of SBS on January 5th! We will be heading into some more challenging assignments than we have had so far! We have gone through most of the New Testament and will be starting the Old Testament within a couple weeks of starting again! Please be praying for us as we approach the bigger books, that we take one day at a time and don’t get overwhelmed with the workload!!! Other prayer requests include:

1. That we would continue to enjoy the school work that we are given

2. That we don’t get burned out with the work but stay refreshed

3. That God would continue to keep us afloat financially

4. for our school staff, that they would be refreshed daily as their workload is much bigger than ours!!!

(What a “chart” looks like)

We hope you all have had a beautiful Christmas and pray that this new year would bring many blessings to all of you!!!! Thanks again, so much, for your constant prayers and support!!!!

Emily and Josh