“We don’t have a box I can check for that…I guess we’ll just mark it down as a ‘playground activity’.”
Now at first glance you are probably wondering what happened to one of our girls. No, no, the girls are fine—it’s Daddy who got that evaluation from the triage nurse. Not much for Black Friday shopping, and dealing with stir-crazy kids, we decided to take an outing to one of the local elementary school playgrounds. Kevin in his zeal to catch Hannah forgot that there are safety bars above the slides and higher levels at elementary school jungle gyms.
Full sprint + Power leap (factor in one bar)
= Concussion.
A CT scan cleared concerns of any bleeding on the brain and skull fractures. We are working through the fallout of his condition still…and may be for up to a full year according to the doc. Headaches, fuzzy thinking, short-term memory complications, and increased drowsiness are all part of the package. The good news is that as the days go on, the symptoms fade and we see the “old Kevin” come back to life.
The Season’s Best
Despite Kevin being a bit out of his right (and left!) mind, we had a wonderful Christmas:
o Visiting Bentleyville—a huge Christmas lights display right on the Lake Superior waterfront
o Sledding with friends (we somehow found enough snow!)
o Meeting at a waterpark hotel for Christmas with the Gamradt Family—9 kids 7 and under along with their adults!
o Time off from school, more time together
o Celebrating Maureen’s 35th
birthday
From Lessons in Church Horticulture…
In a few short weeks Kevin and our lead pastor head over to England for the European Church Planting Conference. Vineyard churches from all across Europe, including Ireland/Northern Ireland, will be represented. Kevin and Pastor Ryan will be a part of sessions aimed specifically at the dynamics of planting a (Vineyard) church in Europe—what works, what doesn’t, successes and failures. The hope is to see where and how the church community is moving and working in Europe and how we might fit into that.
…To “Where Love is Real…and God Isn’t Crazy”
From there, they will fly on to Amsterdam where Pastor Ryan will be sharing the Vineyard Church plant. This church started as 15 people meeting in the City Centre and has now evolved into a core 120 attendees.
In Prayer
· Safety for Kevin and Pastor Ryan on the European trip
· Grace for Maureen and the Curlz while they “rough it” without Kevin
· HEALING! Kevin still finds it hard to multi-task and focus for long periods of time—a challenge especially with his classes starting again
· Increased vision/confirmation concerning IR and possible church planting there
· Wisdom about how we spend our time in Duluth…that we would enjoy the blessings here w/o losing sight of the “big picture”
· A girl from the Ireland youth group (call her “Ann”) is really in need of a God intervention. The not so great choices she is making now will seriously impact the rest of her life.
We can continue on this current journey because of you. For all of you who faithfully support us in prayer and finances, we are ever grateful.
Blessings in Him,
The Gamradts
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