A Christmas Letter

Merry Christmas from our house to yours!

What’s new with the Gilbertson household? Well, without dredging up a lot of ancient history, here’s the latest: for the past two years we’ve been living in our beautiful new home in Cave Creek, Arizona, working on staff at North Ridge Community Church, and enjoying our children as they grow toward adulthood.

Steve’s responsibilities at North Ridge include leading worship in our Coffee House Gathering, one of four Sunday morning services we offer. It features a casual, contemporary atmosphere with an acoustic style. As we lead worship, families enjoy coffee and goodies while sitting informally at tables. We like it!

In addition, Steve directs the small group ministry at our church. This fall, it included some 35 groups and nearly 400 people. Because our groups utilize a video-based curriculum written and produced in-house, there is a lot of creative design and development, something Steve particularly enjoys.

Steve’s responsibilities at North Ridge are only part-time, so a few days a week he works for one of the church members who has a pool cleaning business. That’s right: Steve’s a pool boy! It’s not something he wants to do long term, but for now it gives us an opportunity to serve in a ministry we enjoy, and stay in our home at least until Kurt finishes high school.

Speaking of our home, we’ve been here for two years, but it still feels brand new to us. (Maybe that’s because we’re still installing our own landscaping!) You may recall that Steve’s cousin, Dale, helped us to build a home in the foothills near Cave Creek. Every morning we wake up to a beautiful view of Black Mountain. We are grateful….

As for family news, Donna continues to teach water exercise classes at the Marriott resort near our home. In addition to satisfying her urge to be in the water, she especially appreciates the Marriott hotel discounts which she gobbles up as much as possible.

These have really come in handy as we have followed our son Kurt’s soccer adventures these past few years. Kurt (17) is now a senior at Cactus Shadows High School. In the past year his nationally ranked club team has been to Florida twice, New Mexico once, and to California more times than we can remember. They are looking forward to competing in the regional tournament next summer, and have hopes of making it to Nationals. In addition to this, he maintains excellent grades with an honors level school curriculum, and is looking forward to attending college next year.

As for college, our son Kyle (21) is completing his senior year at Biola University in southern California. His major is in Film, his minor is in English Literature, and his on campus job has been working for their award-winning school newspaper. This year he is the editor of the Features section of the paper. As for his plans after school, who knows?

Kyan (24) is living with two other girls in a Laguna Niguel apartment. Beautiful ocean views are a short walk away. She works in the Human Resource department for the Irvine Company in their Newport Beach headquarters, a job which she not only enjoys, but which also provides her invaluable experience for the future.

When our birthdays roll around in January, the cake will be covered with 49 candles. Hard to believe! Like everyone else, we’ve had our share of challenges: the buried dream of a thriving new church, financial difficulties exacerbated by our troubled economy, uncertainties about our ministry future, and the crotchetiness commensurate with our advanced age (just kidding about that one, sort of!).

But we have so much for which we can be thankful: good health, a loving family, kids to make any parent proud, work we care about in a place we love, and a faith which makes life purposeful and joyful. We are grateful … and thankful … and happy to wish you and yours God’s best this holiday season.

God bless you,

Steve and Donna Gilbertson