I’ll be flying to Texas to lead a Deacon Wives training at Englewood Baptist Church in the Dallas area.  Please pray that God will use me to encourage those wonderful ladies.

Steve (my husband) will have appointments all day on Thursday with students at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, so pray that God will lead in using some of them in ministry in our state of Indiana.

AND I’ll get to visit with my Mom and Bruce, and family members there in Fort Worth on Saturday and Monday. Always look forward to days of enjoying my brothers and sisters-in-law and nephews!

     CHRISTMAS 2009 

For those of you who are personal friends, I’ve posted our little family Christmas note below. Merry Christmas to you all!

 Here we are in snowy Indy, sending our warmest Christmas greetings to you. I’m sending family news, and, as usual, we’re anxious to hear about your life, too.  Email us anytime, and be assured that we love you and pray for you faithfully.

       We’ve lived in Indiana 6+ years now. Steve loves working with our 420 churches, and we travel our state regularly. It’s such a great mission field. Pray for God’s work here. We’re excited about simultaneous tip-offs planned in each association this March as we participate in North American Mission Board’s GPS plan for knocking on every door in the state. In spite of the economy, our churches set giving records through the Cooperative Program and special missions offerings, and we’ve begun sixteen new church plants.

What a blessed year! Steve taught in Ukraine at Kiev Theological Seminary & I got to go to my sister’s Mexico home.  We’ve traveled to 12 states for speaking engagements and three other states for meetings. We’ll lead Kentucky’s 2010 state retreat for pastors/ deacons/wives. I finished my Masters degree, and my book, Deacon Wives, released in June. I still write a column for Baptist Press & several state Baptist papers, Let’s Worship magazine and Deacon Magazine, and I’m excited to get to write devotionals for Open Windows next year.

Autumn married Yale Wall in January! It was a beautiful time of celebration, and we loved seeing so many friends. You won’t believe it—Autumn and Yale have relocated to INDIANAPOLIS! Yale is the Media Specialist for the Indiana Baptist convention, doing layout and design for the Indiana Baptist, the state’s website (www.scbi.org), all the audio/video/ media for state work & events. He has such a great heart for ministry to go along with his amazing techy skills. Autumn is Steve’s administrative assistant, and has already organized his office and ministry. You can imagine what a huge help they are and how delighted Steve is to have them. They’re a darling newlywed couple, involved in their church, have a great apartment ministry where they live, an American Eskimo pup named Toughy, and even find time to visit their in-laws!   

       Justin’s still teaching business strategy and entrepreneurial business at Ohio University in Athens OH. He taught last spring in Pau France and just finished a class with executives from Brazil. He will teach in Denmark this spring. He spends lots of time in research writing but has plenty of time for all his other interests. He’s such a great guy.

        Tylor moved to Athens Ohio to live with Justin! He’s still able to work for his uncle’s advertising business (www.bullseyeballoons.com) via internet. Justin and Tylor are really enjoying living together, and always seem to have a golf game, cookout, ball league or something going on. Athens is just 4 hours from Indy, so we love that! 

         We all spent a week in Colorado together this summer, and everyone came for Thanksgiving, along with Justin’s friend, Aunt June & Uncle Ferris and all 3 dogs.  Can’t wait for Christmas!

Especially during Christmas, we’re so thankful for all God’s blessings – health, joy, work, ministry, family, friends. Thank you for being one of those blessings.Hope your Christmas is joyful!  

Love, Steve & Diana

My husband had a big round-number birthday. We celebrated that day with our daughter and son-in-law, watching the Colts football game on television. The celebration at his office was a little more animated! 

We’d planned for all the staff to arrive at work with canes, walkers, etc. 

They decorated a birthday chair (wheelchair) for Steve, and he used it all day–even conducted staff meeting from it! 

The birthday cake had over 100 candles on it (don’t tell Steve), and after he spent several minutes trying to light them all, a “fireman” arrived to stop the safety hazard!

It was a fun day, and at the end of it, he’s one day older. 

Happy birthday, Steve.

My husband can cook a mean pot of chili! He made chili for the whole crowd at the Crossroads Baptist Association’s annual meeting this week. Here’s a photo of him and the pastor’s wife, Kelly, who cooked white bean chicken chili for the event.

Doesn’t the apron make him look adorable? (Kelly’d just removed hers.) 

Here’s a small idea you might use at your church:

 If your church has a Wednesday night church dinner or a special church-wide dinner event,  why not add aprons?  Deacons at our church served Wednesday night dinners, and they wore personalized aprons each week.  Oh, they were quite a sight, wearing those aprons, and they had a blast chatting with church members as they served them.  Another church has printed several dozen matching aprons with their church logo on the front. Any event looks more “official” when those working in the kitchen are attired like that! 

Just returned from vacation in Colorado. Here’s a fun photo of my husband (right), son-in-law (left) and three adult children — all headed out for a day of fishing in the mountains.  We had a wonderful time together, and enjoyed the beauty of our great God’s creation.

Today I’ve been driving with my sister through New Mexico, then Arizona, then Mexico…just in awe of the mountains. Tonight I’m digging through dozens of Scriptures that mention mountains. Here’s a favorite:

The LORD is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer, my God, my mountain where I seek refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation,  my stronghold.  Psalm 18:2

What a strong, magnificent, creative God we serve!

You’re going to LOVE this story. It’s a follow-up on that last post about our daughter and son-in-law moving to Indianapolis. I’m just in awe of how God continues to put this all together. I pasted Autumn’s post on Facebook below. Enjoy!

——————

I am feeling so blessed. My daughter and new son-in-law are moving to Indianapolis! They’ll be here this weekend to find an apartment, and will be moving in just a few weeks. If you know Autumn and Yale, you understand what a delight it will be to have them nearby. What a miracle! What a blessing!  Isn’t God good?

If you missed my “occasional” newsletter this month, click below:

May 2009 Update Newsletter

Memorial Day weekend:

It’s a parade worth attending. The Indianapolis 500 parade is such a fun event! My sons came from Ohio and Fort Worth to watch it with me this year!

Actually, I think  they came for the golf with their dad!

Hope your Memorial Day celebration is great!