As I write this blog, I am sitting in a coffee shop bundled up in my winter clothes. Looking outside the window, the snow is falling and the sun is, somewhat, out :) Winter is upon us and in full effect. Apparently, last year was the first white Christmas in a long time, and from the looks of it, this year is headed in the same direction. At the moment, it is 26 degrees farenheit. Saying that it is cold is an understatement.

I recently started an advent reading, courtesy of TyingVines, called NEAR. This advent reading plan is going through a chapter of Matthew a day for December. So far, the devotions have looked at the Gift of Jesus' Life, Jesus' life Being Spared, Jesus' Life being Prepared, Jesus' being Called, and Jesus' being Obedient. These readings have really prepared my heart this holiday season. I am just so encouraged this month of Advent, as we "wait" for this little baby boy. I hope that you have found yourself entering this season as well. Jesus has come! The king has arrived to deliver us. I don't know about you, but it has been a year of CHANGE for us. Yet, we can find great shelter in Christ. Go to the manger :) He has come to deliver us and bring Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love!

p.s. my favorite lyric this year is from Mary, Did You Know? where it says "This child that you delivered, will soon deliver you." SO POWERFUL

The month of November was great! Lots of things are going on. First things first, the youth ministry is going well. We really feel that the students have committed to coming to the youth group. They have been more engaged in the teaching and time together. Our boy's Saturday meeting is great! We have built such a tight brotherhood. I mean, can you imagine that six high school boys wake up at 9am on Saturday mornings to come to meet with little ol me! That is unreal, if you know high school boys, and yet, the Lord has brought it to fruition. They are growing in their desire for discipleship and I am just so STOKED for it. The girls study is going well. Heidi took the one student through a study book and the book of James. It has been great to see my wife crush being a mom, discipler, and my best friend! All in all, GRATEFUL.

One neat thing that we got to do this month is prepare Operation Christmas Child boxes. This is a tradition that we are all familiar with and served as a great opportunity to give back. Our church aimed to pack 200 boxes this year. In the end, we packed 240 boxes!! Whoohoo. I am most proud of the fact that the youth packed 25% of those boxes. It was a sweet moment where we all got to pray over them in the end. It was a special moment that I am grateful for.

Please welcome Alvin and Elsa into our Family :) Yes, we have adopted two bunnies into our family. Random, right? Well, we promised Noah that we would find some sort of pet for him after putting Bruno up for adoption in the States. There were many options (Iguana, Bunnies, Hamster, etc.) but we settled on the bunnies. The bunnies are four years old. They were performance bunnies (they competed in jumping competitions). We are grateful for them and still getting use to them and vise versa.

Lukas is ONE YEAR OLD! Oh my, how this year has gone by so fast. "Baby Bukas," as Noah would say, is no longer a baby. He is a walking, babbling, four tooth bunny terrorizer. :) Seriously, they don't like him.

We are grateful for Life. To quote the bible "Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward." We thank the Lord for these two boys and celebrate Lukas. Happy Birthday son.

During the season of Thanksgiving, I found myself being homesick. My family faithfully celebrated Thanksgiving. I don't think I have ever missed one of our thanksgiving meals until this year. It was always a special moment of seeing all of my siblings and enjoying Moma Byrd's delicious cooking. I mean, she would wake up at 4 am to prepare. It was tradition...

So, I was pretty sad to miss, but a few friends and I got to celebrate together. It was great to have people from the church come around and bring a piece of American culture to our family. The interesting thing about it is I now have to somehow recreate the magic of delicious food that my mom gave us year in and year out. I decided to bake a ham :) It was good, but it wasn't Moma Byrd good :) Miss you all and I hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving.

As you all know, I am in the process of getting my Masters in Theological Studies at Agricola Theological Seminary. I am coming up at the end of the first two classes of my first semester. The final portion of our grade consists of writing a 6000-word paper in reference to six books and six articles. So yes, if you have done your math, I have TWO of these to write, 12,000 words, referencing twelve books, and twelve articles. It had been a huge project. Outside the bible, this might honestly be the most I have ever read.

My first paper is on the motif of the Image of God throughout the Biblical Canon. That is a fancy way of saying; what does the whole bible have to say about humankind being created in the Image of God? As you can probably guess, a lot. While I won't make you suffer by reading it all, I will say that God has made us for a specific reason: His glory. The culture has a lot to say about what they think we were created for, but our ultimate identity is found in what our creator says. Here are some sweet words from the Triune God in Genesis chapter 1. "Let us make man in OUR image, after OUR Likeness." Later on, the bible says, "So God created man in his OWN image, in the image of God HE created him, male and female HE created them."

Friends, you don't have to wonder where you come from. He couldn't be any more clear. You are made after His image and likeness for his good purposes (verse 31 if you don't believe me). Are you lost today in wondering who you are? YOU ARE HIS! I encourage you, as you read this, go find a quiet place and commune with your creator. He is waiting :)

The people here grow up on ice skates. I have heard it said that people even start their kids skating at the age of 2 for hockey preparation! Every youth has ice skates. On the other hand, I have ice skated ONCE at the Galleria for about 10 minutes. I have very little experience with it.

I took the youth group to an ice skating rink before youth and was mindblown. These kids were just incredible. Then there was me... I fell at least three times, the last being right in front of the whole group. It made for a funny time and was just one of those classic youth pastor moments. Nonetheless, how cool it is that we can just up and go skate for free :) Time to purchase a hockey stick I guess... :)

Finnish mothers "don't play" when it comes to the winter weather. They know how to bundle their kids!! The kids here are all in one piece suits and multiple layers. It is an art honestly. :)

It was my turn to take the kids to an event. In my wisdom, I dress the kids as best as I could. As mentioned before, most people travel by public transportation. We were headed to our destination in the snow by bus and walking. Half way to the destination, Noah yells that he is super cold. I couldn't believe it. I put him on a hoodie, pants, gloves, beanie, and his body suit. We hurry to the location, where I start to take off Lukas' winter clothes. He hands were almost purple and freezing. I am just so lost so I call Heidi. Apparently , I forgot to put Noah on an "underlayer" and Lukas a second pair of gloves. My goodness, I was out of my league haha. It was a total fail.