Leingangs' Christmas Letter: December 2007

12/5/07

Camping on the Columbia River.That was a great trip. We almost lost the boat but luckily it was tied to shore

Look it's SNOWING! It snowed the first day of December.

Youth Retreat.

I went to a youth retreat and while I was there it snowed.

Our tree house.

We have been working on it for a long time but it will be worth it.

Falls at the rain forest

The Hoh Rainforest.
It was so cool to see all the moss.

Fourth of July.

The Fourth of July is great because of all the fireworks.

Mountain Mans' retreat.
It is great! You get to shoot lots of guns and see freinds.

Multnomah Falls.

When you get to the top you are very high.

Lower South Falls.

Silver Falls was a great place to hike and it was very beautiful.

Backpacking.
It is very fun to go backpacking but carrying all the stuff is hard.

The beach.
We spent two days at the beach. we built huge sand castles.

My birthday.

I had a bunch of friends over and we slept outside in tents, and played lots of video games.

Carrie's Favorites of 2007

When looking back at our calendar for 2007, it was really hard to pick what my favorite things were but I think I have narrowed it down to...

Disneyland: Chris and I went to Disneyland for 3 days in January. It was so pretty because it was still decorated for Christmas and the weather was warm. We had a great time! I even went on a loopty-loop roller coaster. Although if the 8-year-old in front of us in line hadn't said it was "so fun" I probably wouldn't have gone.

Homeschool Co-op: We had another great year of co-op this year. In the spring I co-taught a Lewis and Clark/Oregon trail class with a friend, and also a class called "Growing Up Where Jesus Lived". In the fall I taught the same classes as last fall (Medieval history and Science for Fun) and enjoyed it just as much the second time around.The boys like it as well and we especially enjoy all the friends we have made there!

Newfoundlands came to visit our Lewis and Clark class

field trip to Fort Clatsop

Growing Up Where Jesus Lived display

Medieval feast

Mom's Craft Day: Last fall, my friend Deborah decided to host a monthly gathering for homeschooling moms to come and work on craft projects. We have it on the first Saturday of each month at our church. I love it and look forward to it every month. I have been able to finish a lot of projects thanks to having a day that I can work uninterrupted (well, except for all the chatting). :o)

Crafts: Speaking of craft day... this year I have made some of my favorite quilts and started a new hobby as well. My friend Emily Davis inspired me to try making purses and I love it! I still get to use some of those fabrics that I really like and it takes a lot less time than a quilt.

I also had fun teaching my friend Susie to quilt this year, too. Now that she got a new sewing machine, we will have lots of projects we can try together!

my favorite quilt

JD's Noah's Ark quilt

my first purse

trying out beads

Annual Convention: I loved going to convention this year because I got to go, but wasn't a delegate. That meant I got to spend more time visiting with friends. It was so fun just to catch up with people that I hadn't seen in so long! I was also excited because they had a last-minute session just for us pastors' wives that was really great, too! The fellowship was AWESOME and I know that God used it to help me get through the summer craziness that was about to begin...

Block Party and VBS: This summer was our second annual Community Block Party followed by a week of VBS. I was especially blessed this summer because I had a wonderful team to work with and Renee took over as VBS director. Yeah! It is amazing how much smoother things go when you have done them before. We had much better turn outs and saw lots of new faces at both our Block Party and at VBS. We were also very blessed by a team of youth from Marysville who came and helped out again this year with all the canvassing and at the Block Party.

my 4th-6th grade class of SonForce Kids agents

despite the forecast, it didn't rain on our Block Party (PTL)

New windows: We got our new windows in this summer! Now I can sit on the living room couch without feeling like I am actually sitting outdoors! Thanks so much to Chris, Zack and Walt for all the work they did!

Olympic Penninsula: I have never been to the rainforest before so when we thought about where to go on our vacation this summer we chose the Olympic National Park. We picked up Chris' mom, rented a cabin and spend a lovely weekend (but not long enough) exploring the park. I can't wait to go back again!

swimming in the Sol Duc river near our cabin - it was SO COLD!!!

Women's Retreat: This fall our church helped, along with the church in Portland, to put on the PNW district's Women's Retreat. It was lots of work but God answered our prayers in ways we couldn't have imagined. It was very powerful and God really spoke to us all through our speakers and through our fellowship. It really helped me to see what kind of woman God is shaping me to be.

Harvest Party: We also had our 2nd annual Harvest Party this fall. We had lots of games, candy, food, a Bible lesson, a pumpkin carving contest, trunk-r-treating and fun! Lots of families from the neighborhood came this year, which was a real encouragment for us. We even had one of the families come to worship service on Sunday! Pray that God would use this contact as a way to reach out to families in our community.

JD's baptism: Being asked to be our friends' son's godparents was a real honor and highlight of my year. It is such a privilege to be part of JD's spiritual growth. We look forward to what God will have for him in the future.

Family and friends: This year I have been especially blessed by being close to family and friends. It is so fun to be able to watch Maggie and Charlie (my niece and nephew) grow up, have family parties and get-togethers, have supper after soccer with the McMurrys, having coffee or crafting with girlfriends. But most of all, it has been a pleasure watching to see what the Lord has been doing in the lives of Zack, Andy and Will. They are growing into wonderful young men!

I thank God for all the people He has brought around me to bring such joy into our lives.

Psalm 37:3-7a: This verse was the theme of our Women's Retreat and it has been very meaningful for me in 2007.

Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him and He will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun. Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him...

12/4/07

The Year in Review by Chris

I have to admit that when I was asked to write about my favorite things of 2007 I wasn't very excited. It's not that I didn't have a great year and/or have great memories from the year. It's just that, for me, looking back takes away from the time I prefer to spend looking forward. That's my nature, to look forward; to create, to plan, to scheme... they all require looking forward. With that said, I do realize that there is value in looking back both for nostalgic purposes and more importantly for learning opportunities. So as I share with you, the esteemed, and if your still reading, patient reader some of my 2007 I would like to present with it the lessons I learned along the way.

This past January I had the opportunity to learn again the immense value of a husband and wife spending time alone together. Since Carrie and I were rather

Carrie and Chris Help Buzz Lightyear Battle Emperor Zurg

young when we married and had our first child in the first year we never really had the chance to experience "just the two of us." To help compensate each year we would leave the kids with Grandparents and take a vacation, just the two of us. Unfortunately when God called us to relocate to Phoenix, and later to Fergus Falls, that tradition was lost. With the move back to the PNW we had the opportunity to revive it. And since we had two plane tickets that were about to expire we decided to resurrect the tradition and head off to Disneyland by ourselves. We love our boys, and

missed them too, but we had a great time of simply being with one another. As a Pastor every so often I have the opportunity to offer pre-marital advice and I always share how positive our "Vacation for Two" has been for our relationship. And anything that is good for our relationship with one another is good for the whole family! I thank God for the wonderful wife he has given me, and the incredible love that I have for her. Since God IS love, and the Giver of all good things I know that she is a precious gift to me.

Not long after we returned from our trip our long time friend and former pastor Forrest Erickson came into town and officiated at my Ordination

service. Being ordained into the ministry is a great honor and blessing by God, but I also found it very humbling and found myself rather nervous, not for the event, but for the significance of the calling it symbolized. Being surrounded by many pastors and elders from our district, feeling their hands and hearing their prayers for me, left me with a great sense of awe. These were regular, ordinary men.

Men I knew, many of whom I was good friends with and God had used each one of them in significant ways to bless, lead and minister in the church. Could my ministry ever compare to those standing around me? It was a sobering and humbling thought. With great relief I recognize, and regularly confess, that it is not my ministry, but God's and I am but His servant. I hope, pray, and work to be faithful to the calling He has given me, and trust that He will work was is pleasing to Him both in my life and in the ministry He gives me. To Him be the glory!

Along with February comes a birthday. At my age, a birthday is always a cause to pause; the problem is that the older I get the harder it is to get going once I stop, so I prefer to zip right past this event without giving it much thought at all. I don't need birthdays to tell me I've gotten older, my age becomes obvious every time I stand up after sharing with the children during our Sunday morning worship service.

This year was a big year for home projects.

The boys and I finished a drainage ditch,

installed a whole bunch of windows
and a woodstove

and worked with Grandpa Rohrer to build a treehouse fort in the woods behind our house.
It seems that I'm a pretty handy guy to have around after all. Who would of known?!

Finally, with the fall came the opportunity to coach soccer to a bunch of homeschooled kids that had basically NO soccer experience at all. I was nervous about how it would go (my last coaching experience wasn't necessarily positive). It turned out to be a wonderful time, a great experience, and the kids were great! The hardest part of coaching is standing on the sidelines.

Perhaps the most important part of 2007 was the blessing of sharing many moments, both memorable and mundane, with family and friends. So here are MY favorite memories from 2007: