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A Nativity scene created from Habitat and CHRPA
scrap materials! |
CHRISTMAS
GREETINGS!
The
Christmas season has arrived and we are busy getting ready. Grandma Mac is here for the holidays, Luke is
still working here in town, and Jed will be arriving after he posts grades for
his classes.
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| Doctoral graduation celebration! |
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| Brothers! |
It has been quite a year for
Jed. On Christmas Eve day last year he
experienced appendicitis. Our local
hospital didn’t have a surgeon on call because of the holiday, so we had to
drive him 45 miles to the La Grande hospital.
Once in surgery, they discovered that it had ruptured, resulting in a
week stay from Christmas to New Year’s!
We spent the week going back and forth visiting Jed! He recovered fully and returned to his
Post-Doc job working with the 2.5m telescope atop Magdalena Ridge outside of Socorro,
NM. One week after walking in the May
graduation ceremony, Jed received a call from Willamette University, a D-3
school in Salem, OR. They needed a
visiting Physics professor! So in
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| One happy graduate! |
July,
Luke flew to Albuquerque, and they loaded Jed’s gear in a rental truck and road
tripped through Baker City to Salem. Jed
has Intro to Physics classes and labs this semester and next spring will also
be teaching Classical Physics. He is
loving teaching, being back in Oregon, and having many friends nearby. He is hoping Willamette will ask him to
return next year to fill an opening!
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| A typical pose for Luke...hiking in the Elkhorns! |
Luke remains the youth director at our Presbyterian church here in Baker City. He will finish his contract in June. His girlfriend, Kady, will return from a 27-month Peace Corps assignment in Indonesia in May. After an extended vacation together, they will decide where the next chapter leads. Luke is in Indonesia now visiting Kady, after spending four days with our exchange son, Jack, in Taiwan. With his commitments with the national church including trips to New York and Alabama, the boy gets around! He has loved youth work and is curious as to what God has in mind next.
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Hugs for Grandma R during moving
stop in Baker City |
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Thanksgiving in Bandon with Mom Mac and
Ginger's brother, Mac |
Our moms
are doing well. Mom Mac celebrated her
96th birthday the beginning of December. She still loves her small town of Bandon and
her home on the ocean bluff. Mom R was
here for the month of July. She still
resides in Albuquerque and enjoys visits with her first great-grandson!
We continue to love our
life of volunteer travel in the spring and fall seasons. Last spring we were working in Tucson, AZ,
with CHRPA home repair, then to Libby and Kalispell, Montana, in June working
with Habitat. We squeezed family trips
to
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| Zip Lining in Whitefish, Montana! |
Bandon and Fairbanks in-between! We
were back in Kalispell in September for a month, with a side trip through
Waterton National Park, Canada. Next
spring will find us cruising across the southeast after a visit with Mom R in
Albuquerque. We have Habitat stops in
Mason, TX, and Tuscalosa, AL, scheduled.
Then we’ll attend our nephew’s wedding in May in North Carolina! June will find us back in Kalispell. Whew!
We log many highway miles, but we love it! Summer and winter we stay busy in Baker City
with hobbies, chores, hikes, church, and trips to the coast to visit Mom
Mac.
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| Group photo of a typical crazy Habitat CAV crew! |
One special trip this year for Ginger was a trek to her
hometown of Sacramento with sister Liz and Mom Mac to celebrate the 60th
Anniversary of the church Dad Mac organized in 1955. What a wonderful 8 days of sister time (we
stayed with sister Marg), old friends, and lots of memories!
It seems
each year brings plenty of new adventures and surprises! May we continue to receive the PRESENT of God’s
PRESENCE with us at Christmas and throughout the year. Christmas Blessings!
Rick and Ginger
elkhornrandg@gmail.com
If you need updated address or phone numbers, please email us. (Nothing has changed since last year!)
The remaining photographs give a glimpse of our Habitat/CHRPA work for those interested, plus few samples of the prayer artwork Ginger has created this year.
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| Out in the desert west of Tucson, Rick and I built a solar hot water heater! |
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| At CHRPA in March, with Allie and Hanbyeol, Presbyterian YAVs with whom we worked. |
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| I painted Habitat Logo Rocks for everyone in the CAV group! |
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| Rick nails down the siding on another pre-made wall. The last week in Kalispell we laid out and assembled all the exterior walls for the next house to be built. Whew! |
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| Ginger added masonry to her skills list this year! |
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| Rick is up on a roof again in Libby, MT! |
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| Ginger puts finishing paint touches on siding after installing with a Libby volunteer. |
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| In Kalispell during two different builds, we took a house from foundation pouring in May.... |
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....to this stage by the end of September's build. The interior is still unfinished and waiting for
the cold days of winter to work inside! |
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| Foundation work.....it was hot and dirty! |
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| Rick works the vibrator during the foundation pour. |
The rest are illustrations from my prayer drawings....I did a whole alphabet series during the summer months and frequently find inspiration in flowers!
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Today's prayer picture...Dec. 7...a drawing rendition of the new Habitat Nativity that now joins the 75+ other nativities in our living room and beyond!
MERRY CHRISTMAS! |
