To all of our family and friends… Merry Christmas!

One of the things that I enjoy most at this time of year is being able to sit and reflect on all that God has done for us and through us over this past year and wanted to share a few of our highlights with you all!

WINTER INTO SPRING: THE UNKNOWNS

The beginning of 2018 started the same way that 2017 ended… a bit rough. I had been sick with an unknown issue with sinuses and a lump near my eye that doctors weren’t really able to figure out, so there were a lot weeks of feeling really gross and staying home and more meds than I would have liked. I wore my glasses a LOT more than usual in the beginning of 2018, and Eric was ever so patient with me as we tried to figure out what was going on. By early spring, it mostly cleared up, but not really due to medicine and not really with any explanation as to what it was, why it showed up, or why it went away. While we had lots of unexpected doctor’s bills, we were thankful for good health coverage and for a good budgeting system that we started in 2017!

SUMMER: MINISTRY TRIPS

One of the greatest things that we get to do with our job is to travel on missions trips with some of our students and leaders in our ministry! We love most the chance to get to see up close how God is working in the lives of students and leaders as he takes them out of their comfort zones and challenges them to see other people and cultures in a new way, up close and personal. This year Eric had the chance to lead a group of our high school students on a brand new trip to Washington, DC. We both walked into this trip excited about something new, but not completely sure what to expect, but walked away from this trip in awe of how God brought a bunch of students together for the same purpose and we loved seeing these students connect outside of this trip once we returned home!

We also had the chance to return to Sunderland, UK with a new group of students and pick up with the same ministry from last year! It was so great to connect again with the pastors and churches in Sunderland and see how God has been moving in that community. And as always, it was a great joy to be able to be a small part of how God was working and do whatever was needed of us throughout that week at New Springs City Church!

SUMMER: VACATION & REST

Is it terrible that one of the highlights of our year is always the time that we are able to get away and rest? We find high value is being able to take an extended time away from work to rest… physically, emotionally and spiritually. We feel so honored and privileged to have friends who are willing to rent us their home near the beach and enjoyed being able to spend time together, just the two of us, and take it easy relaxing in the sunshine and warm weather!

We also had our first Gregory family vacation this summer, as well! (At least, my first!) It was such a joy to spend time away with all of the family and spend some extended time with our niece and nephews as well!

and let’s not forget about that Liverpool game that we took Eric’s dad to during family vacation! (read more about that here!)

FALL: STAFF CHANGES

This fall was met with both sadness and joy as we watched several of our close friends step out of their ministry roles at our church to move into new ministry roles in another state. While it was sad to see friends moving away and know that those relationships will not be able to grow in the same way, we also loved seeing God moving and found great joy in seeing these friends following after God’s calling in their lives! With our roles in ministry, this is not unexpected, and even for ourselves we are often evaluating where God has us currently and hope and pray that we are continuing to ask God to show us that we are right where he wants us!

WINTER: ATTIC RENOVATIONS

This fall into winter has had us busy with some great updates to our attic space! We feel very blessed and privileged to have great landlords that were willing to let us paint the deep yellow attic to a bright white to update that space! We have known to months that we would have several guests visiting with us over the month of December, and the attic being the largest room in the house made the most sense to figure out how to turn it into a guest room. And with the unexpected blessing of a new projector, we had the bonus opportunity to figure out how to make sure the attic could be both a lounge space for watching movies with groups of friends or change around into a guest room when guests are in town. We’re pretty excited with how it turned out, despite some challenges and frustration with painting and decorating. We are eager to see how God can continue to allow us to use this house and the space we have to invite others into our lives and care for them with what we have been given!

LOOKING AHEAD TO 2019…

We have several exciting opportunities coming up in 2019 that we are eager about, to see how God continues to use us in our ministry roles and how He has gifted us, and would appreciate prayer moving into some of these new roles! Stay on the lookout for our next blog post at the beginning of the new year, as we share about Eric’s opportunities for teaching at Lancaster Bible College, continuing in his pursuit of his master’s degree, and Jen’s continued investment in the discipleship of women within student ministries!

If you actually took the time to read through this entire post - thank you! Thank you for being a part of our lives and your investment in us this past year, whether through your friendship, caring for us in person, or holding us up in prayer!

Merry Christmas!
- Eric + Jen Gregory