2016 Family Letter

Happy New Year!

It has been 1.5 years since we moved to Glendive, MT!  Compared to last year, this winter has been much colder (many days below 0 deg F) and we've had much more snow (8 inches on Christmas and 8 more inches coming on New Year's).  Despite the weather, we are getting more and more settled into our community.  We really enjoy small town Montana life.  After moving back to America from Kenya over 2 years ago, we thought life would eventually calm down or perhaps become steady, but we are quickly realizing life is a constant state of transition.

Daneen was working for the college in Recruiting and Admissions for a year and left that position in July so that she could be more flexible for parenting children.  She is now working part-time from home for Christ’s Gift Academy, the organization we served with in Kenya.  She does admin work including online fundraisers, newsletters, social media, and other sponsor and public relations communication. One of her large goals for 2017 will be to increase funding for the organization to help meet the general budget and fund many needed capital improvements, and also to support her own monthly stipend.  Daneen is thoroughly enjoying this role and it's an answer to prayer; a flexible schedule, working from home and serving an international non-profit she's passionate about. She also does some substitute teaching in the local schools to help supplement our income.

The biggest change in our lives in the past year is that we have become foster parents.  Our journey started with respite care for a 14 year old girl for a few days and then a newborn baby for a few days. However, our lives dramatically changed when we accepted 3 siblings; twin 7 year old girls and their 8 year old brother.  It happened to be the first day of basketball season, November 2^nd; the start of the busiest time of the year for Joe.  During school days, we only get a short time with them in the morning and a couple hours at night.  They have brought a lot of life to our home over the past couple of months.  They are Pendo’s new best friends and so good with her. We do a lot of reading together to help them catch up to their grade-level.  One of our best times together was traveling with the DCC basketball team to Casper, Wyoming for a Thanksgiving tournament.  They loved hanging out with the players on the bus, at meals, during shoot-arounds at the gym and especially in the swimming pool.  Some of our proudest moments have been during prayer and Bible story time. It’s a blessing to hear their genuine, child-like prayers and seeing them grow in their understanding of who God is. We don’t know how long they will stay with us, but it will likely not be long-term. We are trying to do the best job we can while we have them, knowing that some day they will hopefully be able to go back and live with their mom or dad.

Pendo has grown to be a well-behaved doggie; most of the time. :-) She brings us lots of joy and smiles. She is so great with the kids; a natural "kid's dog". Yet, she occasionally seeks out a quiet place in the house when the kids are home all day. We love her so much!

Joe is thriving in his roles as Athletic Director and Men’s Basketball Coach at Dawson Community College.  Last season, 2015-2016, the team greatly improved throughout the season, finishing 2^nd in the conference and reaching the Regional Championship Game before losing a close game that would have sent them to Nationals.  This season, they have gotten off to a better start and are currently 9-7 at the halfway point.  The team has had to deal with several injuries to key players, but has still managed to compete hard and has been in every game they’ve played, except one.  He enjoys the daily interaction with his players, teaching the game of basketball along with life lessons and, of course, he loves the competition.  His team is very diverse with about half of the team from Montana/Wyoming and other players from Colorado, Louisiana, Canada, Bahamas, Costa Rica and Australia. If you'd like to follow the season or even watch a livestream of one of their home games, check out the Dawson Buc's website.

One of the highlights from this past year was going on a 7 day cruise to Cozumel, Honduras and Belize with Joe’s family to celebrate his parent’s 50^th anniversary.  It was a special time to be with family and enjoy a new experience (1^st cruise) and seeing new places.  After the cruise we were also able to travel to Pennsylvania to visit Daneen’s family for a week.

We are both still serving as advisors for the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship on campus.  The regular attendance has been pretty low on a weekly basis, yet on the monthly meal nights and other special events, we typically attract 20-40 students (out of the 120 who live on campus). Despite being frustrated by the low numbers we know that many students have heard the Gospel in various forms.  We are trusting that God will help us identify and raise up leaders who will take initiative in reaching their campus for Christ this coming semester and next year.

We are not sure what is in store for us in 2017, but we expect there to be more changes and transitions; especially in our family life as we journey through foster care!  We continue to trust God to lead and guide us.

It seems like a long time since we have seen most of you! That's kind of a side effect of living in the middle of nowhere Eastern Montana. :-) Even if we haven’t seen you (or talked to you) in a while, please know that we love you, miss you and pray for many of you regularly.

God’s blessings to you in 2017! We hope the new year is filled with joy in your heart and that your hope is in Jesus our Lord!

Much love,
Joe and Daneen Peterson

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13