Bethlehem’s Blog

 8/22/07- Received from Heather McCoy

Hello everyone,
We are settled into St. Louis and are really enjoying all the city has to offer.  We’re continuing to make friends with other seminary families and I’ve made some friends through work.  Kaitlyn has a couple new tricks up her sleeve now.  I’ll start with the physical stuff - she can climb up on the couch, then the back of the couch all by herself, climb up and down stairs with little and sometimes no help.  Kaitlyn has mastered “I wa da” (I want that) when she wants something, Mommy and Daddy (we hear “Hi Daddy” a lot), “Aww Baby” every time she sees a picture of a baby or a baby - and sometimes a small child, “doggy, uff uff”, “kitty, mow”, “ear”, “mou” (mouth), “eye”, “wieeahpooh” (winnie the pooh), “tigger”, “eeyore”, “hep” (help) and “owsye” (outside).  Needless to say, she talks all day long and communicates her wants very clear.  She also takes our hand and drags us around the house if she doesn’t have a word for what she wants yet - like when she’s hungry, she’ll take us to the fridge .  She’s huge - I don’t know how huge, but her clothes are tighter and she can reach things she couldn’t a couple weeks ago.  Kaitlyn also got her first haircut and did a great job.  The St. Louis Zoo is free admission, so we’ve been a bunch of times.  On a recent trip, we found the fish tank and Kaitlyn loves it!  She points, makes faces and waves at the fish.  It’s adorable.  She also likes the giraffe and ostrich but the apes scared her a little.
 
I went back to work full time this week.  The people I work with are very nice and I get along with a number of them already.  I met one of the teachers I will co teach Biology with, and all I can say right now is that it will be an interesting experience.  I don’t have a classroom but share an office with two other women - both are very cool.  Sean will take a very intensive Greek class for the first quarter then have a variety next quarter.  According to the other guys, it’s either a breeze or the most difficult class he’ll ever take in his entire life.  There doesn’t seem to be a gray area on that one. 
 
Over all we’re doing really well.  We’re not as homesick, and St. Louis is starting to feel like home.  Please continue to pray for us - specifically guidance, patience and trust in God and let us know how we can pray for you.  We hope you are all doing well, and look forward to hearing how things are going with you!
 
God Bless,
Heather, Sean and Kaitlyn

9/4/07 - received from Sean

First off - for anybody who has emailed me at my seminary email address lately (within the last few weeks), there were some issues with the sem’s portal access and have just been resolved - so I will be responding to the emails that I have gotten very soon!
Things here in St. Louis are going very well.  I have just finished my first official day of class.  This quarter I am only taking Greek - which is a 12 unit class, so I will be QUITE busy for the next 10 weeks.  The first day of sem has been pretty awesome.  The class is split into two daily sessions - after the first session, we break so that we can go to chapel for a brief worship service and devotional.  It was pretty cool to be able to have that time with the entire seminary community in the middle of the day just to pray and praise God.
Heather is settling into her job at one of the local high schools and Kaitlyn is keeping us both on our toes.  She’s learning new words every day - but our favorite thing so far is how she folds her hands when we pray (sometimes with a little help) and will loudly say something close to “AMEN” when we’re done praying (sometimes in the middle if the prayer is a long one). 
We miss our Bethlehem family very much and are extremely thankful for the emails and letters we’ve been getting.  We love you all and keep you in our prayers.

 9/6/07- submitted by Rochelle Egan

The Great Tastes of the World, Food and Wine Tasting occurred on Saturday August 18th and was a great success.  Steve and Julie Sturgeon graciously opened their home to close to 100 people for a fabulous evening.  The food team did an amazing job of providing finger foods from Italy, South America, California and France.  The food selections exceeded everyone’s expectations, and the presentation was beautiful.  An amazing feast was enjoyed by all the guests and topped off with some truly wonderful dessert items, including a chocolate fountain.  We think there are some amazing women who missed their calling! A big Thank You to Cindy Walker, Linda Fox, Brenda Johnson, Lana Bartley, Gilda Park, Shannon Hritz and Tammy Kawashima, for an awesome job with the food from all over the world!  Our attendance at this fundraiser more than doubled from last years Afternoon at the Vineyard, including many friends of members, which was really fun.  The wine tasting was provided by The Loose Goose Wines and many people enjoyed trying the different types of wines with the different foods available.  We also had a tremendous response to the auction and had 35 baskets, services or gift certificates to bid on.  All in all this was a fabulous fundraiser and raised more money for Follow The Star…to Bethlehem 2007 than all the fundraisers we had last year!  We want to thank everyone who participated in any way, and hope that you all enjoyed yourself.  This community outreach called Follow The Star…to Bethlehem couldn’t happen without all the support from our members and friends.  Many Blessings to all, see you in December!

 10/1/07 - Submitted by Heather McCoy

Hello everyone,

This month has just flown by.  I can’t believe it’s already time to pull out the Halloween decorations!  Everyone seems to be curious about the weather here.  It’s still warm, but it’s cooling off.  We have a high in the low 80s most of the time right now, but the majority of the day is the upper 70s.  It’s supposed to move into a high of the mid to low 70s in a couple weeks. 

We were assigned our field work church a couple weeks ago.  They worship about 150 a week, and don’t have a large population of the younger crowd.  They have 3 and 4 year old preschool rooms, but not a nursery.  They do have a cry room, so I bring a bag of toys and listen to the sermon through a PA system.  When Sean is not helping (there are 2 other fieldwork guys so they rotate) he hangs out with us in there so we can worship as a family.  They have two services, but both are traditional.  No drums and guitars for us . 

Sean is hanging in there with Greek.  He has a stack of flashcards that will rival any kindergarden classroom.  His midterm is on Thursday morning, so keep him in your prayers!  My job is going very well.  I’ve settled in quite nicely with my co teachers, and have developed a very productive working relationship.  Sean and I are taking advantage of the activities at the seminary.  We went to a family dinner night last Tuesday.  They have a small buffet, where the men pay a small fee, and the women and children eat for free!  It’s a great deal.  We enjoyed dinner with one of Sean’s classmate’s family.  They have a 2 year old son who is smitten with Kaitlyn.  He followed her around, and wanted to eat whatever she was eating.  It was adorable.  I have a Monday night class that’s more of a support group for people to deal with the emotions of relocating.  A faculty wife leads the class, and a number of women attend.  It’s been a great opportunity to explore my feelings as well as bond with other women. 

Kaitlyn is doing great and growing like a weed.  She’s about 32″ tall now and is just about out of her size 5 sandals. It’s a good thing she won’t need them much longer!  She’s learning some new tricks too.  My current favorite is when she climbs on the dining room chair, sits down, folds her hands, mumbles a prayer and yells Amen (which was meme, then memen and is now evolved to ahme).  I can ask her to bring me various things, and she’s able to find the item (usually her shoe or pluggie) and bring it to me.  She’s also saying her own version of milk, love you, and pluggie, and has added a very weird frog sound to her repretoire of animal noises.  My other favorite is when she tells me what she has in her diaper.  Potty training is just around the corner!  Kaitlyn is doing a great job making little friends and playing with the little girls around the sem.  She was intimidated by little girls before, but she’s over that now. 

All in all St. Louis is turning out to be a great place for us.  We continue to miss everyone at home - especially when we go to our fieldwork church - but it doesn’t bring as many tears anymore. 

Hello everyone,

Sorry I’m a little late with my pictures.  I wanted to wait until Sean took his Greek qualifier.  Sean passed Greek with a 97% on his qualifier yesterday.  He celebrated by going on the Anheuser-Busch Brewery tour with a couple of his friends.  We had a little get together at our house tonight, and everyone had a nice time.  Sean is now looking forward to his two week break between quarters.

Hi everyone,

5/9/08 - From Heather McCoy.

Hi Everyone,
After a long cold winter we’re finally able to celebrate Spring!  God has blessed us with beautiful flowering trees and plants all over the place!  It is so pretty we don’t mind the runny noses. 

We really enjoyed our quick visit that we were gifted with to California.  Our only regret is that we couldn’t spend more time there.  So for all of you who we weren’t able to see, we hope to see you next time we can make it out there, and for all that we did visit with - it was wonderful!

We had snow on Easter, so Kaitlyn had to wear a sweater and tights with her Easter dress.  She was very excited to see the snow though!  A very nice family at our field work church organized an inside egg hunt for the kids that she had a great time with.  She gave those older kids a run for their money!

Kaitlyn’s birthday was a blast.  It was cold that day - 45 degrees cold - so we had a good number of people inside.  She had a great time playing with her friends and getting pinata candy.

Our most exciting news is that Kaitlyn has officially started potty training.  As of today she has gone “pee pee on the potty” three times!  We are all very excited, and Kaitlyn is quite proud of herself. 

School is plugging along for Sean and I.  We were thrilled when he passed his Hebrew class.  It is a tough language but he made it!  Thank you to all who prayed for him and our family through that class.  He has one more week left in his Spring quarter, then will have two weeks off until Summer quarter starts.  Sean also recently got a job as a checker at the grocery store around the corner from our house.  It’s been a bit challenging to fit study time, class time, family time and work time all on one calendar, but we’re starting to get the hang of it.  We could use some prayers in our process of juggling our hats.

I have two and a half more weeks until my school year is over, and I’m ready!  God has blessed me with a substitute teaching position for summer school that should keep me busy.  My boss said that I will work a lot.  Not too shabby!

Transition time is here at the seminary.  We have friends moving away to their first calls and vicarage, and new ones arriving.  So we’re looking forward to another summer of new friends!

I hope you are all doing well, and please let us know how we can pray for you.  We miss our California friends, and it would be great to stay connected through prayer.God Bless!Heather, Sean and Kaitlyn

5/12/08 -From Wendi Lancy at Hunger Defense Fund-
Thank you so much for inviting me and allowing me to share information about HDF. It was my pleasure to be in the company of so many Christian women! You did a wonderful job putting on such a nice event! Your attendees donated 352 personal care items and 5 food items! If you have any way to share with them our sincere thanks, please do so. So many families will be blessed by these generous donations!!
I’m glad to hear that more people offered to help with the community wide food drive on May 31st. I truly do appreciate the support and exposure you give us! We appreciate your partnership in serving our community!
Have a blessed day!