Chicago/Meet Me in St. Louis

Stefani made a special trip to St. Louis at the beginning of February. Her first stop was Chicago! She stayed with her cousin, John, and his wife, Sara. They hadn't seen each other since 2007! It was great to spend time together.

Stefani's second stop was St. Louis. She was very busy visiting friends, family, and former students. One highlight was attending Alyssa's 3rd birthday party. Alyssa is Christine's daughter. Christine and Stefani have been friends since freshmen year of high school.

 

 The theme was fairies/Tinkerbell, hence the wings. 

Another highlight was getting to meet Brady! Brady is the son of Stefani's cousin, Jen. He was born in April of last year. He is adorable!

 

Here he is playing with trains.

And the neatest thing that happened was having the four oldest Marrah grandchildren in the same city and in the same room at the same time! This is a RARE event. Jen, her husband, Chris, and two boys, Logan and Brady, live in Kansas City. John and his wife, Sara, live in Chicago. Mandi and her husband, Eric, live in St. Louis. We obviously live in Onaway now. The opportunity was not lost on us, so we took a picture. 

From top to bottom and left to right: Jen, John, Mandi, Stefani. 

 

Stefani's third stop was Chicago again. We enjoyed more visiting and a yummy dinner made by Sara. 

 

It was a great trip. Stefani was very grateful that the weather cooperated, which made for safe travel. 

 

God's Blessings,

Joshua and Stefani 

Christmas Ohio and Missouri

The traveling is finally over for Team Ketelsen.  We were able to make it to both Akron and St. Louis for to celebrate Christmas with our families.

Akron was up first. We left immediately after church on Sunday the 27th.  The drive went well until we neared the Michigan-Ohio border. We ran into some serious ice and then snow. Eventually, we made it to Akron safe and sound. We stayed for a couple days visiting with Joshua's mom and siblings. Then we headed back to Michigan in time for Joshua to get Sunday service ready.

St. Louis was the next week. We again left immediately after church on Sunday. The drive to St. Louis was uneventful, but LONG. While we were is St. Louis we bought a new to us car! After getting a taste of Northern Michigan winters we decided a 4 wheel drive SUV was a must. We found a 2006 Nissan Pathfinder at the car dealership Stefani's mom works for. It will suit our needs nicely.  We had a great time visiting and eating at our favorite St. Louis restaurants. 

Our 2.5 ton baby as Joshua calls it.

This is a serious car!

God's Blessings,

Joshua and Stefani

Christmas 2009-Onaway

Our first Christmas in Onaway was very low key. We had two services at church on Christmas Eve. Christmas Day was spent lounging and video chatting with family. We really enjoyed relaxing before our two weekends of traveling to visit family.

The Ketelsens on Christmas Eve at church.

The mantle at our house. The garland did not like to stay up. 

The shelves with our nativity scenes and other assorted things.

 

Our tree!

The decorations at church. Stefani helped decorate the tree on the left. 

We hope you had a Merry Christmas and that you have a Blessed New Year!

God's Blessings,

Joshua and Stefani

Christmas Letter 2009

Greetings from Northern Michigan!  Team Ketelsen has had quite the year!

This year brought the end of Seminary and everything that goes with it. In April, Joshua received his first call as sole pastor of Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Onaway, Michigan.  Joshua officially graduated from Concordia Seminary-St. Louis in May with a Masters of Divinity. Seminary was an adventure, but we were happy to begin our new adventure in Michigan.

On June 21st Stefani and Joshua celebrated their first wedding anniversary. Thanks to Stefani’s parents they were able to celebrate in Disney World! The Marrah-Ketelsen vacation was great fun.  We explored all four parks.  Everyone had a “magical” time.

In July, Joshua was ordained at his home congregation in Akron, OH. It was great to see everything come full circle. After the service there was a delicious brunch. We had a great time with his family and friends there.  Once ordination was over it was time for the big move to Onaway. We packed up our belongings, and then watched as the semi was loaded and pulled away. The next day we packed up our cars and headed north.

Two days of traveling later we arrived at our new home. The church has a parsonage for us. It has 4 bedrooms, 1 ½ baths, a full basement, and a 2 ½ car garage. The full bath and the kitchen have also been recently renovated.  The house is approximately 2 blocks from the church. We live “in town”, so we don’t have to travel far for restaurants, groceries, gas, etc. 

Holy Cross is a small, but thriving congregation with a nice blend of contemporary and traditional worship elements. Attendance averages around 75 on Sunday morning, which is a healthy size for a rural town of 900. We were warmly welcomed by the congregation, who were all eager to have fresh input and open to changes. Joshua has already performed his first funeral and wedding. At the end of December he will be performing his first baptisms. Needless to say it has been a very busy five months.

Stefani has been busy unpacking and organizing the house. She has also been hired on to substitute in the area schools. She enjoys the flexible schedule of subbing, but does miss the classroom some times.  Not only has Stefani been volunteering at church, but also she has taken on a volunteer job at the Onaway Chamber of Commerce. She is hoping to get to know the town and the people in it better through this opportunity.

We pray that you and yours have a Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year!

God’s Blessings,

Joshua and Stefani

Thanksgiving 2009

Team Ketelsen had so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. We have great family and great friends.
Stefani's parents made the drive to spend Thanksgiving weekend with us. Stefani took care of the feast with some help from Joshua.  We finally made it to Traverse City for a bit of shopping on Friday. Everyone had an enjoyable time and we can't wait to visit when the weather is warmer.

Stefani with her feast. 

 

The apple pie. The filling is made from Michigan apples and the crust is courtesy of Pillsbury.

The pumpkin pie...from a can. 

We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

God's Blessings,

Joshua and Stefani  

Half Bath Before and After

Our first project when we moved here was to redo the half bath. We were not fans of the dark paint color and fish wallpaper. We took the wallpaper down and put a fresh coat of paint on the walls. Check out the pictures.

Before:

Dark and fishy! 

After:

The blues are very complimentary.

The decorative mirror to try to get that infinite look.

No more fish! Woo Hoo!

God's Blessings,

Joshua and Stefani

Michigan District Pastors' Conference 2009

Joshua and Stefani attended their first Pastors' Conference this past week. The theme was "Growing the Kingdom in a Shrinking Economy". Joshua heard presentations about equipping volunteers and evangelism. Stefani....shopped. Ok, she did more than shop. Stefani had the opportunity to attend a lunch hosted by the wife of the newly elected Michigan district president. She also had a meet and greet with Mrs. Pat Maier (the President's wife) and the other wives that are new to the district. It was a great way to meet other Michigan district wives. The conference wasn't all lectures and lunches. We met some great couples and reconnected with some people we know from Seminary. It was a great conference and mini get away.
Stefani is looking forward to the Katie Conference in April! (For all you non-Lutherans, Katie is the wife of Martin Luther.)

God's Blessings,

Joshua and Stefani