The Year in Review
Here is the grocery list, abridged, downsized, bite-sized, Cliff Notes, easy on the stomach and the eyes version of our year:
2003: Constant Change is Here to Stay!
2003 has been a year marked by change. We have changed jobs, changed states, changed churches, changed homes, changed climates, and changed diapers. And in the midst of all of the change, Jesus Christ has not changed. He is our firm foundation, our wonderful Savior, our Prince of Peace. In our weakness and ignorance and sin, He is our great High Priest who meets us in our weakness, transforms our minds, and covers our sin with His own blood. 2003 has been a precious year for us, marked not only by change, but also by the overwhelming faithfulness of our King who has given us mercy and grace in our times of need. Our God has been so kind to us!
Maryland?!?
So how did we wind up in Gaithersburg, Maryland? The long answer requires an evening meal, dessert, and several cups of coffee for full impact. But we'll give you the short answer.
It all started in April when Jeremy ran across a copy of How Can I Change? by C.J. Mahaney and Robin Boisvert in the bookstore at a Family Life Marriage Conference. We were very impressed by the doctrinal emphasis and the pastoral and relational elements in the book, and went looking for other books in the series. What we found was Sovereign Grace Ministries. We were amazed to find a group of churches that were "essentially reformed, with a significant charismatic dimension." (If putting charismatic and reformed together blows your mind, or if the lingo doesn't make sense to you, look around at the Sovereign Grace site and stay tuned to our website in the coming year...) We started soaking up preaching tapes, worship music, and articles from Sovereign Grace, and what we found was amazing! We started to look at several Sovereign Grace churches, and we decided to visit Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg.
God worked mightily in our June trip to visit Covenant Life Church. As we saw the church, God allowed us to understand the winding path that brought us to that place and be so thankful for it! What we found was a church that resonated with our deepest convictions about what the "normal" church should look like. As we looked at Covenant Life Church, all of our past experiences in, out of, and around the church for the past decade came together to point to Covenant Life Church as the place we needed to be. All of our doctrinal and practical convictions were demonstrated there. The passion, zeal, and humility of the people overwhelmed us. The wonderful, Biblical pastoral care and leadership blessed us. We were challenged. We were filled with hope. We were humbled. We were amazed by God's grace.
We were home.
Nate Mayhew: Renaissance Boy
When we observe Nate, we see so much of his dad in him! He is loving Legos and building toys right now, as well as
playing with castles, swords, and other knightly rigging. We have been reading King Arthur and the Knights of the
Round Table, a 19th century children's novel called Titus, Companion of the Cross, and a
biography of Jim Elliot. The latter has a lot to do with his current comments on what he wants to do when he grows up:
"I want to be a missionary so I can travel all around and tell people about Jesus in other languages."
Lela Mayhew: Daddy's Little Princess
Lela is all pink frills and batting eyelashes these days. Just a look melts ol' Dad's heart. Lela's favorite things
right now are princesses, playing mommy, and doing whatever big brother is doing. She loves to sit and look at books,
and she has a strange affinity to spend long periods thumbing through a Bible with no pictures that she cannot read yet.
She loves singing and we so enjoy listening to her little voice making up songs as we drive around town. She is
fascinated by our church meeting, and almost every night as we put her to bed, she asks "Can we talk
about our church?"
Justin Mayhew: Toddler of Steel
Justin is our husky little toddler tank. He inherited his mom's high pain threshold, and he has no fear. He will
climb anything, touch anything, grab anything, and jump off of anything (usually much to the chagrin of his parents, siblings,
or the family dog). Justin likes to pass his days running continuous laps through every room in the house. He doesn't
usually pay much attention to Nate and Lela's videos, but Finding Nemo is the exception (or "MEE-MOHHH" as he calls it).
And much to our delight, he still looks like the Gerber baby, only cuter.
Changing Jobs More Often than Socks Jeremy has been contracting this year, and it has been quite a year of change for him. He started out the year at Rockwell Collins in Richardson, TX working on military battlefield radios. After a short stint there, he was off to Direct Access Financial Corp to build stock market software. Then it was back to Rockwell Collins to work as an integration lead for battlefield radios again. And finally in September, he started at Innovative Concepts in Tysons Corner, VA where he is currently working on packet data systems for the Apache heliopter platform.
The Adventure Begins. In October we began our homeschooling adventure with Nate. (Of course, Lela is right in there with him wanting to do everything he is doing) Nate is soaking up phonics, and he has read his first primer, "Pan and the Fat Man." He is moving quickly in math and the whole family is studying Bible together. Mindy is a real servant to the kids, working hard to teach them in the midst of all the other adjustments that we have been making.
Treasures in Heaven As a family we have received tremendous blessing this year from our pastors' teaching. A prime example is the series C.J. Mahaney and Josh Harris taught from I Timothy 6:17-19. This sermon series revolutionized our thinking about money and our approach to finances. We commend this series to you, as well as two books on the topic: Money, Possessions, and Eternity and The Treasure Principle by Randy Alcorn. We dare you to read these books or listen to these sermons!
Oh my sin! What a Savior!
If there were an overarching theme for us this year, it would be found in I Corinthians 15:3-4:
"For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance
with the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures."
We are more grieved by the sin that pervades our hearts than we have ever been in our walks with Christ, and we
are more confident in our great Savior, Jesus Christ, who is the lamb who takes away the sins of the world. We are
sinners, and Christ bore God's wrath in our place, crucified upon a cross. May this good news be our theme every year,
and in the words of our pastor, may we "never let the message of the cross slide into second or third place in your
life. Never lay it aside. Never move on."
Maryland: A Great Place to Visit... We have already been blessed with many visitors in our new home. In addition to all of our new friends in Maryland, we have had several folks drop in from out of State. Luke and Gabriel Newton, of North Carolina by way of Texas, were our first official out of town guests in our apartment. Mindy's dad, as well as her aunt and uncle have also been able to drop by for a visit. Also, Jim & Karen Hummel from Dallas dropped in to go to church with us. We are looking forward to many visits in the coming year too. In February, Mindy's sister Sonya and her husband T.J. will be coming to stay with us, and we will have Mindy's cousin Kellie come to stay with us for a couple of weeks in the summer. Jeremy's dad is bound to drop in while he is traveling to Pennsylvania for business as well. And if anyone else wants to soak up the sights in the greater DC Metro area along with some East Coast Texan hospitality, you are welcome! Y'all come!
A Family Tradition It has been a family tradition since 1997. Every odd numbered year we would get to announce a brand new Mayhew arriving soon in our Christmas letter. Well, this year we have to break that tradition. We don't have any news here for you. No surprise announcements. So just tune in here next year and see what the Lord has in store!
Hurricanes, Tornadoes, Snowstorms, and Earthquakes We have had quite an introduction to East Coast natural phenomena since arriving in Maryland. We weathered out our first hurricane when Isabel moved through in September. We didn't suffer any damage, but there were lots of folks without power, flooding and uprooted trees. We got a reminder of Texas weather when a tornado and high winds tore through Gaithersburg in November. We have also experienced our first 14+ inch snowfall of the year. What would have been classified as a state of emergency in Texas is just business as usual around here. Then there was the unique experience of our first earthquake! Virginia experienced a 4.5 quake in December that jarred Jeremy in his office.
Now Accepting Frequent Flier Mile Donations The hardest thing about the move to Maryland was definitely our precious family that we left behind in Texas. We will be wearing a rut between Maryland and Texas in the coming years! Jeremy took his first trip back to Texas in December. He was able to shock his sister Joni with a completely surprise visit for her graduation from Wayland Baptist University. We are anticipating lots of air travel in the upcoming year as we visit family and friends back in Texas. Our first family trek will be in January, when Nate, Lela, and Justin get their own frequent flier cards. Pray for Mindy, as she will be completing the first leg of this trip without Jeremy, who will be joining later in the trip.
