“ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,
that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” John 3:16

We hope our annual Christmas, New Year’s, Easter letter finds you in great spirits and enjoying life. As usual Christmas arrived quicker than ever and passed before I could actually get our letter done and now a third half of the year is gone and I’m still not done. Last year found us traveling to gymnastics' meets, celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary, helping with floods in our area, scouts, soccer, surveying colleges and trips to Michigan. Here are a few highlights from our year.

2006 started with being mainly busy with kids’ activities - school, gymnastics and scouts. The girls' meets this year were all fairly close; Buffalo was the longest trip so made for an easy travel season. They both did well and enjoyed the season; John on the other hand was really glad when the season was over in April. February found us hosting a second French exchange student, Mona, for almost three weeks. We had a much easier time this go around since she was more social and spoke English very well. We had a cold snap and snow which she could enjoy since the part of France where she lives typically doesn’t get snow.

Sharon and I traveled to Alaska to celebrate our twentieth wedding anniversary the last week in May. We spent ten great days with our friends, Tim and Jan, touring and hiking. Our trip started in Anchorage, South east to Sutton to Victory bible camp, northwest to Denali and then south to Seward. Alaska has huge indescribable natural beauty. We were able to hike up several smaller peaks (4600' highest submit, 3200 feet climb) taking in the incredible views. Mount McKinley was spectacular and we were very fortunate and saw the summit five of the six days that we were within viewing range. The trip was filled with highlights too many to capture here but a few were the hikes, flying around Mount McKinley, white water rafting down the Nenana river and biking along the coastal trail seeing moose within ten feet, yes closer than you are supposed to get! After over 2500 miles in the car and 50 miles on our boots we had to say goodbye to our adventure.

Shortly after we returned, the area suffer a major flood (level could not be measured because well above equipment) destroying hundreds of properties and damaging thousands more. So much of the summer was spent with flood recovery ranging from mucking out homes to providing meals. This flooding was primarily along the Susquehanna and Chenango rivers. The area will be recovering for years so if you have a group looking for mission work we have organizations in the area that we can connect you with. If that was not enough, late November brought flash flooding due to a very wet fall coupling with 4” of rain in less than two hours. This caused the streams through the hills to surge causing major damage. Our street was especially hit hard. We were fine but several of our neighbors had flooded basements (to the first floor) and severe property damage. The normally mild creek on our street turned into rapids filling the street with water (4' in spots) and after the creek subsided some spots are now 30 – 40 feet wider than it had been. The extremely mild winter has been easy on the area allowing the creeks and roads to be continued to be repaired and people living in FMEA trailers not getting too cold.

Jessica is 17 and a senior in high school, where has the time gone?!?!? It seems like yesterday she was puking on my head when I was carrying her on my shoulders. She has completed her college applications and has applied to Hope, Houghton and Robert’s Wesleyan and has selected Hope. Her major will be art education. She is as busy as ever with youth group, gymnastics, school and bass. She is getting pretty good with her bass and was part of the praise team at the Christmas Eve service and accompanied the Vestal Jazz band in a recent competition in which they received first place with the highest level of rating of an excellant. She is now a licensed driver, so watch the roads. The remainder of the year will be interesting as she finishes high school and the changes in the house come fall.

Sarah is now 14 15 and a high school freshman. Sarah is still our most studious, quiet child (ok sneaky). She is busy with youth group, school, reading, orchestra and gymnastics. Sarah is starting to think she wants to pursue engineering as a career; her interests seem to align with that goal. She is doing the computer graphics for the contemporary service and enjoys math and science at school. With two engineering nerd parents one of the three was bound to follow in the gene pool. Sarah made the all county orchestra again for her viola. At MAD (music, arts and drama) camp she was part of the band Rockawana with the viola and actually did a little dancing as part of the worship at the conclusion of the camp. This is the third year she has went to MAD camp with her cousin Katie and friend Kelsey and they are planning to go again next summer.

John is 10 11 and finishing elementary (5th). It will be weird next year after 13 years we will no longer be at Glenwood. John's interests are around animals, reading, computer games, scouts and soccer. His animal interest was a big hit at the kick off for the fall worship. A reptile guy was there (theme was Noah’s faithfulness) and John was the first with his hand up answering all the questions; at the end, the reptile guy was offering John a job in his shop. I guess he’ll have a place to work when he’s old enough. John finished cub scouts and crossed over to boy scouts in February. It has been amazing to see the growth in the boys over the five years, both physically and mentally. Soccer is John's primary sport of interest and this winter gave basketball another try. His height (nearly as tall as Jess) worked to his advantage especially since defense was his stronger half the court. Spring is bringing baseball. John fills his spare time with computer games and reading.

Sharon and I continue to be as busy as ever between the kid’s activities, church activities and work. Sharon continues to do volunteer web design and holds a staff position of connecting ministries at the Church along with managing our busy household. The church ministry is continuing to growing and people are connecting that Jesus requires us to be actively reaching outside our church buildings, sharing Jesus’ grace and love through deepening relationships.

I continue to work at BAE, coach, scouts and started with a group called Compassion Builders. The group is through our church and is focused at helping people with fixing brokenness in people’s lives, spiritually and physically. I’ve been working coordinating the construction projects which I have found very rewarding and seeing the power of our Lord working through his arms and legs in us. Just an example of his power through us is the group remodeled a single story to a two story home adding three bedrooms and a bath, gutting most of the first floor in less than four months. God is amazing when we allow him to work.

We look forward to another busy year and our family’s continued growing in faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. We hope the joy of knowing Jesus fills your hearts and hope this year provides you with many blessings!

If you happen to find yourself in New York June 30th, we would love to have you help celebrate Jessica’s graduation with us.

Bryan, Sharon, Jessica, Sarah and John