2015 Christmas Letter

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of my friends and family. This has been quite a year for us and the adventure seems that it will continue.

Just over a year ago Jeannie and I moved into our newly acquired 5^th wheel trailer. We stayed for a couple of months near Medford so we could get used to the whole RV lifestyle a little at a time. There were some pretty serious adjustments right off the bat. Jeannie had filled a 3 bedroom house with furniture and, well, stuff. We got rid of a lot of the aforementioned stuff, etc. I also had a shed that was pretty full of stuff. Much of that had to go as well. What didn’t fit in the 5^th wheel went to storage. That was a shock for both of us.

Moving into the RV precipitated a very different life style. In cold weather, frequent trips to buy propane, emptying black water weekly or more often, and completely rearranging our ideas about shopping for groceries; Our food storage is about 1/3 what it was before. Just a lot of stuff and we were really thankful to be so close to Walmart.

In February we hooked up and moved to a little/big town in western Arizona. Quartzsite is a snowbird town ranging from under 20,000 in the summer to over 300,000 between October and April. There are lots of temporary shops there and just about every craft imaginable. We had a very pleasant time there and Jeannie found that she enjoys making jewelry. Check out her pendants at dramamamajewelry on etsy.com.

In May we hooked up again and moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma. Our youngest daughter Bethel and her family live there. For the last several years Jeannie has been going there to do child care during the summer. Our granddaughter turned 12 this year so this will be our last year for that. But we enjoyed time with them and we got reconnected with a dear friend from college. We also had a nice visit with Jeannie’s cousin and his wife.

Then late in August it was time to move again. This time to Springfield Ohio, my home town. I have a lot of family there but mostly our son and his family live not too far away in Cincinnati. They have a fairly new son that we haven’t seen nearly enough of. We have gone down there or they have come up nearly every week and we have really enjoyed being together with them. We also have family and friends in and around Springfield that we have really enjoyed seeing again.

There are many others here that I would have loved to see if I had just managed our time better, but alas it is about time to pack up again and roll back to Arizona. We did have a lovely Christmas time with our son and his family and our kids from Oklahoma came up and we had a very pleasant 4 days all together.

After a hopefully restful time in Arizona we hope to head back to Oregon for a long stay, after they get pretty well done with winter.

The first year of our Roamin’ adventure has been pretty enjoyable all around. After my being on the road and gone for most of 12 years we are learning to get along again. A 5^th wheel as a lovely way to travel and a nice way to live although sometimes it’s a little extra cozy. We are getting a little better at it each day.

At the beginning of the year I had some grand ideas about how I might encourage some people and be a blessing to many. I hope I have been an encouragement to some. Discipleship is something that I was hoping to encourage many to become active in. I even completed the first of a series (I think) of discipleship studies. I believe I am supposed to continue working on that because my calling is to be a disciple. I have been able to write several articles for my blog and it seems like some are looking at it so I am encouraged to continue.

I am sure that the blessings of God are absolute and I pray that you will consider them as you step into the New Year.

·         Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

·         Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

·         Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

·         Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

·         Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

·         Blessed are the peace makers, for they shall be called the Sons of God.

Be among the blessed.