Well I tell you what, I have not had the greatest weekend, so you might say that 2011 is leaving me with a bad taste in my mouth. But to try and sum up the whole year in terms of it ending badly would not particularly be honest. In fact, 2011 is like most years, I suspect. There have been challenges, ups and downs, blessings, and difficulties, things to rejoice about, and things to mourn.
In 2011 our seminary class from Concordia, St. Louis celebrated 10 years in the ministry. We also lost several of our colleageus-who are now with our Lord enjoying eternal life with Christ. In my own ministry-the Lord has blessed us this year with a DCE intern. This was my first venture into being an internship supervisor. It has been both challenging and rewarding--not to mention a huge blessing for our youth at Peace Lutheran. Ministry continues to be challenging and rewarding as well--though I can't think of another thing that I would want to do. I certainly do enjoy being a pastor, even at the most difficult and frustrating times. Because in the end, I get to feed people with God's Word, and help them to get to know Christ Jesus and the love that God has for them.
This year also saw the death of my grandmother--Ruth Joost. She had been battling Alzheimer's disease for a very long time. We were saddened by her death, but know that she is no longer suffering, and is with our Lord. It was also good to get to see everyone again, even if for such a short time, and at a funeral. I am very thankful for my church family at Peace, who made the trip home possible.
In happier news, 2011 was the year that my wife Amy and I were finally both able to go to Disney World. But we were both mostly thankful that we were able to take our children there to experience it in their youth. Though I have to say, I felt like a kid again a few times while we were there. There are so many people to thank for us being able to have such a great experience and wonderful vacation, that I would probably leave too many people out if I made a list--so I will thank EVERYONE who helped us have an awesome vacation, but especially Jenna Nagel and the Nagel family.
The very end of this year has not been the greatest, as I already mentioned. I won't go into detail, but I will just say that dispite the difficulties, I recognize that God will be using these things for the good of His purposes--though we might not always know what those might be, especially not right away.
All in all, I guess 2011 wasn't so bad. As I mentioned, it is probably like most years with lots of ups and downs. I certainly have learned a lot this past year from both good and bad experiences. I hope that you have to. And I will take with me what I have learned into this new year. I praise God for all of the expereinces that He has given me, and I look foreward to what 2012 will bring.
God's continued blessings to you all in 2012. Happy New Year everyody, and thanks for reading!
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