In this season of anticipation and joy, we bring you Christmas greetings from our home in Fort Wayne.
This has been a year of transition for us as a family, filled with a plenteous supply of the stuff of life-frustration and expectation, waiting and growth, leaving the old and easing into the new, pain and joy. As we enter the Advent season, we have more reasons than ever to cling to the promise of the presence of God in the ordinary cycle of life. We anticipate the coming of Christ in the celebration of Christmas, as well as in the people with whom we share and minister, while we await the fullness of God's kingdom in his coming again. May you experience Christ's presence anew with us in this season!
Since individual milestones highlight the year, I'll share those first before a few closing comments about our family as a whole. We'll go from youngest to oldest this year.
In
our culture, the driver's license has almost become a rite of passage, a sign
of growing independence. Renita
celebrated her 16th birthday in March and in early May got her license. The
memory that will likely remain with us is Nathan celebrating his 19th birthday,
sitting in the front seat on the passenger side with his sister driving and
Nancy and I sitting in the back seat!
This summer, Renita got her first paying job, working as a server at Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza. She has kept on working Friday and Saturday nights since school began in the fall and enjoys it. She also volunteers at the library, but left her other volunteer job at the hospital. Renita continues to pursue her interests in journalism as a junior at North Side High School where she is the opinion editor of the school paper, writing about everything from school schedules to the death penalty to the common American drug of choice--caffeine. She was also informed recently that her hastily scrawled poem was one of three school winners which will be submitted to a state contest!
Nathan's 1997 transition may
have been the biggest of all of us-graduation!
After fourteen years of school, Nathan got his diploma from Snider
High School. The story of those days is a tale unto itself and
is chronicled in most detail by proud father in Four
Generations of Worry and Adventure--and Love. Nathan was also
honored by the teacher of his Career and Life Skills class with
an award for attitude and improvement! We are all very proud of
his accomplishments!
Toward the end of his school year, Nathan began a work placement at Community Harvest Food Bank with the hope that it would turn into a permanent paid job. The "permanent" part has pretty much materialized. Unfortunately, the "paid" part hasn't. Nathan continues to volunteer at the Food Bank most weekday mornings. Since graduation, he has been working with a job developer to try to find paid employment. While he has some good skills, it has been hard to find a quiet supportive environment where he can utilize his unique gifts. At times, it feels discouraging, but Nathan enjoys being at home as well as his volunteer work.
My transition has been the longest, the most
complicated, and the most frustrating. Early in the year, it became
apparent that my attempts to turn around another small urban congregation
were running aground. An offer on my part to pull back to half
time in order to attract complementary leadership gifts resulted
instead in growing dissatisfaction and increased polarization
within the congregation. Rather than I and the family becoming
the focus of the conflict, it seemed better to plan for a transition
in which the congregation could re-focus and hopefully come together
to find leadership more suited to its desires and needs. I announced
my resignation in February and the congregation gave us a gracious
send-off the last Sunday in June along with some financial support
in the transition.
By early summer, it was apparent that there would be no ministry possibilities compelling enough to take us away from Fort Wayne and our promise ("if at all possible") to let Renita graduate from high school here. During the late summer, there seemed to be two possible non-congregational ministry positions that could allow me to work from our current home. However, it took until one 24-hour period in mid-October for those to both fall through. Since then, I have considered jobs and sent resumes in numerous directions with little success.
In the meantime, I have been busier than ever doing a variety of volunteer and part-time jobs. Rather than bore you with all of the details, the bottom line is that I did start a job on December 1st and completed the two-week training on December 12. I will be among dozens of persons providing technical support for customers of a large computer manufacturer. My shift is not ideal, 2-11 p.m., but it will allow me prime morning time for things that are more important. I continue a part-time job I started in March as Director of User Services for MennoLink, the Mennonite computer network. I am also set up to offer some of the same services for non-Menno's and a few additional ones (for anyone) under the name Companion Resources. I am also chairing the Mission Commission of Indiana-Michigan Mennonite Conference, participate in local community development efforts, and preach, lead choirs, and play organ as I'm invited and able.
Nancy
had the most unexpected transition. She was supposed to be the stable one, continuing
to work in cheery and effective way for Lifelines Rehabilitation Services, helping
therapists treat residents in a local nursing home. However, when her husband
starts reading the classified ads for employment, one never knows what will
happen! To make a long story short, I came across something that looked like
it had her name written all over it. So, even though she wasn't looking to make
a career change, she went through a lengthy interview process and started in
mid-October as an adolescent group home manager for Anthony
Wayne Services. She oversees the operation of one group home with eight
medically fragile and developmentally disabled children and 20+ employees. So
far, she has found that to be quite a challenge dealing with everything from
24-hour staffing, to making sure children have the assistive devices they need,
to getting them to medical appointments, often in Indianapolis. She is on call
practically around the clock and now carries a cellular phone in her purse wherever
she goes. She really appreciates the quality program which AWS runs (a fact
which was recently confirmed by an outside accrediting agency) and puts so much
of her past experience to work in her new setting.
Total family activities are fewer but more valuable these days. Our summer highlight was time for three of us in Orlando, Florida. Nancy and I led a workshop at our biennial Mennonite convention on disabilities and I helped with another on computers in churches. Renita joined almost 5,000 others for the Youth Convention. Meanwhile, Nathan stayed with his Leichty grandparents in Goshen, Indiana and then joined the rest of us for a few days of vacationing around the Lake Erie shore.
Obviously, we are also church-(s)hopping these days. We have enjoyed the refreshing opportunity to visit with friends and relatives on weekends and worship with them. We have also been able to visit a number of churches around Fort Wayne where we have some connections. Advent-Christmas will be about as settled as we get so far as I have agreed to lead a choir for three Sundays in one church, preach one Sunday in another, and finish the year playing organ in yet another.
We look forward to many challenges and adventures in 1998. Already, we are wondering how we are going to get to all of the places we have promised ourselves and others we wanted to go on what is our 25th year of marriage. Hopefully, we will make it to Colorado for a family reunion, to North Carolina for the Sixth International Fragile X Conference, and to Pennsylvania to lead a 5-day retreat on disabilities. We hope to see as many of you as possible along the way! As always, you are always welcome at 1111 Columbia Ave.
Blessings to all at Christmas and in all of 1998!
Paul, Nancy, Nathan, & Renita
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