Christmas 2008

Greetings from the West Coast!

This year was the culmination of the last three years of preparation and the fulfillment of Mark’s sensing God’s call to become a pastor so he could focus on a full-time ministry career.

To briefly recap the last few years; we moved to Cochrane, Alberta in August 2005 and began a Master’s of Divinity degree at the Canadian Southern Baptist Seminary. Mark won the Zondervan Greek Award the first year for having the highest grades in the Greek class. The time in seminary was an awesome time of learning much more about the Bible, the cultural and historical background it was written in and growing closer in his own walk with God.

In the summer of 2006, Lynn was asked to serve as the Children’s Minister at Bow Valley Baptist Church. Lynn and Mark worked together guiding the Grade 1 to 6 children and teachers for the next two years as well as strengthening parents through marriage Bible studies.  Lynn and Mark served together for the first time directing Children’s Ministry!  It ended up being a wonderful experience of them both doing what they love.  They had lots of fun with the children.

The highpoint of our time at Bow Valley was Mark going on his first mission trip to South Africa and Mozambique in August 2007. A team of 14 people went help the poor and orphans who had lost their parents to AIDS for a week in Mozambique and helping to lead a conference for church leaders in South Africa for the second week. 2007 was a hard year with Lynn’s Dad discovering that he had lung cancer and going to be with the Lord in September of last year.  Lynn apologizes to friends for not visiting (Boston and RI) in September 2007 when she was back and forth for her Dad’s final days.  It was hard to be so close and know that it just wasn’t the right time to be social!  But last year ended on a high note of Sarah deciding she wanted to follow Jesus in November. And in December Mark got to baptize John Mark.

As Mark entered into his last semester at seminary, we began to ask God what was next.  We asked, “Would you lead us to a place where we could be stable and make a difference?” We were contacted by a church in the Vancouver area and sensed God wanted us to pursue the opportunity.  In April we went to Vancouver to interview with the Towers Baptist Church and the church voted to call Mark as the pastor. So three weeks before Mark graduated, we knew what our next step was going to be. 

A week before Mark’s graduation, John broke his left arm with a compound fracture leaping for some monkey bars. He was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance and had surgery with 21 stitches and 3 pins to set the bone. The next day, Mark took his final exam and we spent the next three days in the hospital. But God answered prayer and there ws no nerve damage and John didn’t lose any feeling or movement in his hand. So Mark Graduated May 3rd receiving his Masters of Divinity with distinction. A week later our house sold. And at the end of May we packed up and moved out.

We had two weeks of rest and then moved to Richmond, British Columbia in mid June. After unloading the U-Haul and getting settled, we flew to Texas a week later to visit Mark’s parents and see Mark’s Dad whose health was rapidly getting worse. We had the sense that this might be the last time the children might get to see their grandfather. So, we enjoyed a week of being with grandparents, going to the Schlitterbahn water park for the first time. Mark’s mom treated Mark and Lynn to a night away from the kids in a bed and breakfast with a message and spa as an anniversary gift. Thanks Mom.

Then in July, Mark officially started as pastor of Towers Baptist Church. The kids did summer camps; Jenna did a cooking class, Sarah an Art class and John did robot camp. And in the end of August Mark and Lynn went on an Alaska cruise to celebrate their 10th anniversary. (Woo hoo!)

In October Mark’s Dad had a stroke. Mark was able to fly down and spend a day with his Dad while he was still awake and talking and Mark got to say good bye. Then the next day his Dad was unconscious and passed away two days later. God answered our prayers that he would not have to suffer long and Dad said he was at peace with God and ready to go. So we had a memorial service with family and scattered his ashes in the grove on the property of the dream house he designed and built 14 years ago. Mark shared a eulogy at the memorial service.  Finally, as this year wrapped up, Mark got to baptize three people at Towers including Sarah.

Merry Christmas!  We miss you and are grateful to FINALLY get a Christmas greeting off this year! My apologies to our Cochrane friends that you have to celebrate Christmas without us.  Surely, the Christmas cookie swaps will be wanting!!!  

We love company and Vancouver, BC is a great place to visit!  Please don’t hesitate to come!!!    Thank you for your emails and notes! Lynn will TRY to actually set up a web page this year to put pics and video (and recipes!)   Don’t worry, it will all be chocolate recipes just in case we ever have a chance to get together for dinner! 

To our friends in the Greater Boston, Rhode Island or Cochrane area thanks for giving us the chance to stay in touch via email or otherwise.  (Those still in the working and/or “many small children sleepless zone” exempted of course)  God willing, as the world seems to get smaller (and less personal) with the internet, we’ll be able to continue to be in touch and still be as crazy and personal as possible.

Truly, it is these times of connecting, even if they are brief and (snore snore-sorry!) not personal enough… that make Christmas a celebration in width not just depth.  The depth of our faith has been real and experiential.  The width has been living and encouraging because of friends like you. 

Thank you for being a part of our lives. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Love,     Mark, Lynn, John (8), Sarah (7), and Jenna (4.5)