Hey everybody! I hope this email finds all of you happy and healthy… I thought I’d send a quick note updating you on what has been happening here in St. Peters, MO.
Emily Grace is such a riot. She surprises me with something new almost on a daily basis now. One day she put her backpack on and said that she was going to work. (Just like her parents!) Other days she will put her pack on and wait by the door. When we ask what she is doing… she’ll say that she is waiting for the bus. For some reason, her new big thing since Christmas is trains. Specially, Thomas the Train: which might be one of the more boring children’s series out there right now. But she just adores any type of train. There are train tracks close to where we live and everytime she hears the horn… she gets all excited and starts yelling: Chooo chooooo. Choooo choooo.
She has recently started doing this cool thing where she comes up to you and kisses both of your cheeks… one after another. I’m not sure where she picked that up. But it’s nice to be the recepient of it!
Melissa is doing pretty good. She has been really busy lately. She still likes her work, but some of the parents that she works with are terrible. Thankfully, she works for a VERY supportive principle and she has made some good connections with her fellow teachers. She has been getting a lot of ‘side jobs’ lately. She’s been doing a lot of tutoring, trying to make a few extra dollars so that we can get some of loans paid down a little bit. I am proud to say that Melissa’s schooling is officially paid for! It only took us six years… but hey, it’s done.
She has been helping me with our children’s midweek program. She is in charge of the crafts and snacks activity center. The kids really like going to her room. I think they like hers better than mine, even! (Probably because it’s more structured… and better prepared.) We have been averaging 29 kids since we started this… it has been a blessing as we have made connections with new kids… and starting to make contact with their parents as well.
Ministry has been going well for me. Obviously, there are always mountains and valleys. It seems like the church, in general, is going through good time. We just hosted a connection party and we had 12 newer attendees come and get to know the pastors and some other key people in the church. It was a very encouraging time. We have seen about eight or nine new families begin attending and actually ‘stick’ over the past year. We are starting to make up for the several families that left the church in our ‘great exodus’ of 2004.
On a personal note… I am excited because I scored two U2 tickets last Saturday morning for their upcoming ‘Vertigo’ tour. I will be seeing them live at the United Center on May 10th! This will only be the second time I’ve seen them live. It should be a pretty good concert!
I would love to hear from any of you! I hope you are doing well!
Your friends,
Josh, Melissa, and Emily Howard
P.S. If you are ever bored… and online: check out my blog: http://joshhoward.blogspot.com (It has a little bit of everything on there!)
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