Christmas 2005

2005 by the Numbers

2: Minutes it takes to walk to our new church
3: ‘Permanent’ addresses we had in a five-day period in August
8: Ribbons draped around Emily’s neck at graduation from Sac State
9: Gallons consumed Thanksgiving week, while Hallstens were visiting
10: Lame ideas we had to try to express our appreciation for Hillcrest with a number
11: Combined pounds we gained in our 3½ days in New Orleans in January
12: Nights Matthew slept at home in June (business trip, camping, visit to OR, …)
32: Categories in quality evaluation procedures Matthew wrote while at Health Net
52: Schools Emily called looking for work on the days teachers reported back
90?: Jars of jam produced during Emily’s visit to Grandpa and Grandma Hallstens’
191: Students Emily has in Spanish classes at Beaverton High School
223: Cloudy days in an average year in Portland (only 37.5 inches rain)
3518: Pages of required reading in Fall 2005 for Matthew

Merry Christmas! God has blessed us with another exciting year full of change and answered prayers. Emily completed her student teaching and earned her teaching credential in May. She also led a girls’ Bible Study and was a counselor one week at summer camp. Matthew moved from Customer Service to the Quality Assurance department at Health Net, which gave him lots of opportunities for professional writing, training of other employees and a business trip to Virginia. We both enjoyed participating in a small group at Hillcrest, camping in Lassen with Emily’s family, and a wonderful trip to New Orleans (just the two of us) in January.
The biggest change for us was our move from the Sacramento area to Portland, OR. After much prayer and counsel Matthew began the process of applying to seminaries. We applied to four schools in the four corners of the U.S. (New York, San Diego, South Carolina, and Portland). We prayed that God would make his choice clear, that he would provide just the right place for us to live, that he would provide Emily with a good teaching job, and that he would lead us to a church where we would be challenged and blessed.
First, by late May we were both convinced that Multnomah Biblical Seminary was the place God was calling us to. Second, upon our arrival in August, God worked out a minor miracle that enabled us to get into a wonderful on-campus townhouse even though we thought we were going to have to live off campus for the first several months. Third, Emily was still without a teaching job five days before classes started, but got a long-term sub position teaching Spanish at Beaverton High. Emily loves the school, and just received a contract through June (with benefits!) on Friday 12/16! Finally, we had given ourselves until Thanksgiving to find a new church, but by October we were sure that Central Bible Church was exactly where God wanted us. We love the strong biblical teaching, humble but bold leadership of the pastors, and intergenerational fellowship that we are enjoying there. (Being less than two blocks away is nice, too!) We look forward to building relationships and becoming more involved in ministry.
God has continued to answer our prayers and meet our needs faithfully all year long. Matthew has been challenged by his studies but counts it a great privilege to be able to dedicate himself to studying God’s word is excited about what he has been learning. Emily sees growth in her teaching on a regular basis. We both have enjoyed getting to know fellow seminary students (and spouses) and feel certain that we are in the early stages of forming lifelong friendships. We’re continually amazed at the blessing of marriage and the way God works in our lives to help us become more like Christ. We praise the Lord this Christmas as we are more aware of his goodness to us than ever and can’t wait to see what He will do in 2006!

Merry Christmas and God bless!
Love, Matthew and Emily