2008 in Review

Christmas 2008
Dear Family and Friends,
Greetings in the wonderful Name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who’s birth we prepare to celebrate once again! It is so hard to believe that yet another year is almost gone. Since we cannot be with you, we wanted to give you just a little update on our lives this past year.

Michael and I have had a very busy year at Allen, and since we moved to our new building in Oct. 2007 we have seen tremendous growth. Many people have given their hearts to Jesus and people are being radically changed and transformed, and this is why we do what we do! We hosted a cell conference here in October with Joel Comiskey, the “guru” of cell church movement, and Michael has become one of Joel’s leading “go-to” people for pastors wishing to transition their congregations to a cell church model. This is not only here in the States, but globally, and as a result, Michael, myself and two others from our congregation are going to Hyderabad, India in March 2009 for two weeks to train a pastor there and his eight house churches in the cell church model and to encourage the body of believers there. We are so excited! We will also hopefully be going to Pakistan in either late 2009 or some time in 2010 to do the same with another pastor in Faisalabad that Michael is mentoring in cell church development.

Michael and I are now very proud grandparents of three grandchildren with another one on the way. Daniel and Stephanie’s son, Daniel Wayne, was born on Aug. 10th; Chris and Alma’s daughter, Evangeline Elizabeth was born on Sept. 11th, and our first grandbaby, Audrey Elizabeth, is already 16 months old and Mark and Callie are expecting their second in May. We were able to spend a week in Ohio in late October and stayed with Mark, Callie and Audrey. We had a fantastic time spoiling the grandbabies with early Christmas presents, and seeing all five of Michael’s sons, his mom and step-dad and his dad and step-mom, as well as Tom, Stephanie, Jen, Nick, Aubrey and Alexis. It was so wonderful to be with family again!

We took three days and went to up-state New York to visit Daniel and Stephanie two weeks after “Baby Dan” was born and that was such a treat! We also spent a fabulous and very relaxing week in Ninety-Six, SC with Michael’s dad and step-mom in their beautiful new home on a really neat golf course that runs along Greenwood Lake. They tired of the hurricanes in Naples, FL and relocated to South Carolina, and we are glad that they are much closer to us now.

I wish we had been able to see Doug, Denise and Erika, but there just wasn’t enough time or
days off to go to Connecticut this year. I sure miss my “baby brother!” Douglas Bradford is a freshman at New Mexico Highlands University and hoping to play football. He wants to get into law enforcement after college unless he makes a pro-football team, which would not surprise me at all! We also got to do two weekend getaways with our dear friends, Kip and Sharon, to Lancaster County, PA and of course did some major damage in the Amish furniture department! We are already planning to go back again next year.

I hate to admit it, but Michael and I have become “Wii” fanatics too! And much to Michael’s chagrin, I remain undefeated in Wii golf. He has tied me twice, but that is the closest he has gotten to beating me. Now Tiger Woods is another matter—I can barely get the ball off the tee with that game! Our next Wii purchase will be the Wii Fit, which we tried out on Thanksgiving at Kip and Sharon’s house. We are hooked big time! It is great exercise when you are stuck in the house during the cold winter days!

We have had a wonderful year, full of life, love and blessings on the Lower Eastern Shore of
Maryland! We pray that you have a peace-filled, Jesus-filled and joyous Christmas Season and we wish you much love and best wishes for a prosperous and healthy 2009.