We hope your Christmas season is
filled with joy, love, and peace as you look forward to a fulfilling 2014. 2013
has been a year of immense change for our family. After five incredible years
of teaching full time at Northwest University in Kirkland, Washington, and
eighteen years of church ministry in Washington State, we sensed God’s clear
calling to move to the opposite corner of the country, where Alan is now
serving as the Dean of Christian Ministries and Religion at Southeastern
University in Lakeland, Florida. In his new role, Alan oversees twenty full
time faculty, several adjunct professors, six undergraduate and two graduate
degree programs, and over 700 students (*whew!*). Under the
leadership of Dr. Kent Ingle and the outstanding leadership team, faculty, and
staff, Southeastern has grown to be the largest university in the Assemblies of
God system and is currently celebrating the highest attendance in its 78-year history! We’re
simply in awe of the honor and privilege we’ve had to serve with outstanding
and gifted friends and colleagues (and students) in the great Northwest, and now to have
embarked on this new adventure serving with and getting to know some
outstanding and gifted new friends, colleagues, and students here in sunny
Florida at Southeastern. We have been
humbled at the constant goodness of God and His faithful leading and help!
After accepting and receiving the “green
light” on Alan’s current position at SEU, we began moving forward, making plans
to move to this side of the country with both of our children; however, Hannah
changed plans just before graduating with her Bachelor’s degree in
Intracultural Studies from Northwest University in May. Upon applying for and receiving a job teaching
English as a second language, she began her dream of living in Japan a little
earlier than we expected. She has truly
enjoyed her new home in the city of Hiroshima, and a great variety of new
students, as well as her roommate Bryony, who is from New Zealand, and shares
many of the same interests as her. We’re
happy she is off to a good start after “spreading her wings” and beginning her
own new adventure. She has a very FULL
schedule and works very hard but really enjoys teaching people of all ages
(especially those she affectionately calls her “Japanese grandmas”). She has also recently received some modeling opportunity,
which has been very exciting for her, and is another of her passions. Again, God is faithful in His calling and
leading! We were glad we got to enjoy
five days here together as a family, unpacking, doing Disney World, and
settling in just a little before putting Hannah on the plane to Japan!
Stephen truly stepped up and
helped Alan load the seemingly endless boxes and furniture in our move, and endured
the summer muggy heat and thunderstorms with us, since we arrived during the “dog
days” of summer here in FL—we’ve never had the privilege of having a pool
before, but he and Alan made very good use of ours after much pod packing and
unpacking. Ultimately, after making a
number of attempts the last few months at finding employment in Florida and
acclimating here, he decided to return to Washington in November. It was very difficult to send him off with his
car packed about as full as a car can be packed, and to trust and pray for his
safety and well-being on an increasingly cold journey back to the Northwest,
but God IS faithful, and we have trusted His hand of protection and leading for
Stephen throughout his life, and on his new adventure as well. He celebrated his 22nd birthday,
apart from us for the first time. This was also our first Thanksgiving and will
be our first Christmas without either of our children. We continue to pray the best for him in his
job search out there in the great PNW, and KNOW that God is, and will continue
to be, faithful in His care for and leading Stephen. We miss both our children greatly, and pray
for them earnestly and continually—we are grateful for the immense blessing
they are to us and many others, and could not love them more—we’re also very
aware that they were and are a gift from God, and ultimately His, and that is
as it should be. God is forever loving
and faithful in our lives and theirs.
We are very grateful for the many
new friends we’re finding here in Florida: Southeastern colleagues and students, church
leaders throughout the region, and fellow bicyclists, of course, as well as
some really wonderful new neighbors—not to sound like a broken record, but God
is TRULY FAITHFUL, and we are so blessed by His loving care and leading!
(Sensing a theme here, perhaps?)
Keira has been hard at work
setting up our household and is becoming quite the landscaper (mostly out of necessity,
since there are a LOT of plantings around the house and yard), as well as enjoying
traveling with Alan to visit many churches/pastors/leaders throughout the
region. Although it was definitely not
an easy move and we truly miss ALL of our longtime Washington friends in every
area of life there (Keira is still feeling the loss of time spent with many
recreational cycling and bike-racing friends, and our training routine),
Lakeland is starting to feel much more like home and we are overwhelmed and grateful
for the privilege of living and serving here. It’s really different, but we’re also getting
used to 80 degrees and sunshine at Christmastime! (As one of our new friends pointed out, it
probably wasn’t freezing and snowing on the very first Christmas either—good point!)
Please know that you all are very
dear to us, and we are very grateful to have you in our lives. We pray that the
very real presence, power, and grace of Jesus Christ our Savior, whose birth we
celebrate, will be with you this Christmas and throughout the coming year. He loves each one of you, and He is, and
always will be, faithful in His love and leading in your lives—both when you
understand, and when you don’t. May you
truly be blessed at Christmastime, and in the coming year.
Alan and Keira Ehler
