Recent Messelt News
Here are some news highlights for the Messelts of Tumwater:
- January 2007
- Eric attends for-credit seminar taught by Millard Erickson: "Current Issues in
Evangelical Theology"
- Yet another power failure!
- Barb buys a scooter to better enjoy motorcycling
- Eric starts a new semester:
- Loving God and Other - Randal Roberts
- Communicating Christ in Culture - John Branner
- Mentored Field Ministry - Art Azurdia
- Bible Survey: Psalms through Gospels - Carl Laney
- Coaching
- Irene gets accepted to Biola University!
- More snow, frozen hoses, icy streets
- February 2007
- Super Bowl - actually entertaining this year
- Marian does driving lessons
- Eric learns about an open pastoral position in Rainier and begins application process
- Theo finishes up his basketball season
- Repairs to Irene's car are estimated and too much - have to let it go
- Eric is licensed to the Gospel Ministry from Emmanuel Baptist Church
- Family gets word that a good friend from California, Mark Etzen, has been diagnosed
with pancreatic cancer
- Eric takes Theo to school with him and Theo has a great time.
- We sell Irene's car
- Marian buys a Buick Park Avenue from Black Lake Bible Camp
- Theo gets a birthday present from God - it snows!
- Irene's friend, Geoff Prozora, commits suicide - devastating
- March 2007
- We attend Geoff's memorial and family is showing grief reactions
- Eric starts driving Marian's car to school
- Barb and Eric see the movie, "Amazing Grace"
- Eric travels to SoCal to see his friend Mark for the last time (until
The Day); sees lots of old friends; has a great time with Mark (learning a
couple of fishing tips)
- Eric begins a pre-marital counseling relationship with Mark Rouse and
Juanita Hawthorne
- Barb is technical lead for the Girlz Getaway
- Our church debates disassociation from CBNW and name change
- Irene is 18 and gets a laptop and tickets for a local production of
"Pirates of Penzance" for her B-day
- Barb, Theo, and Eric take a day trip to Spokane for Barb's B-day to
help Theo get some information for a school report
- April 2007
- Irene gets financial-aid award letter from Biola: all those years of hard
school work pay off!
- We have guests over for Easter
- Irene goes to school with her dad
- Barb, her friend Kathleen, Theo, and 'Zander all go to the Seattle
Science Center
- Eric delivers a devotional for the Olympia Light Riders as part of a
class assignment
- Irene is accepted to the Biola honors program, Torrey
Institute - yippee!
- Barb and Eric take Irene to "Pirates of Penzance"
- Eric and Barb enjoy Olympia's Arts Walk
- Eric works as student help for Western Seminary's commencement
- May 2007
- Eric participates in Day of Prayer on the Capitol Steps
- Eric and Barb ride in Run
For The Son with Christian Motorcyclist Association
- Bill Smith comes over and helps us get the Honda 750 running better
- Eric begins summer school
- Irene goes to the prom with Jacob Goodin
- For Mother's Day, Barb goes out to the Wooden Ships with her gal-friends
- Eric chaperone's a field trip for Theo's class to the museum district and
completes his paper on the obscure prophet, Obadiah
- enjoy
- Barb and Eric get away for their 25th wedding anniversary: Port Angeles (Hidden
Haven B&B - VERY nice!) and Victoria (The
Empress); BTW, we enthusiastically recommend the Hidden Haven B&B
- Received news that our friend, Mark Etzen had passed away
- June 2007
- Marian works another summer at Black
Lake Bible Camp
- Irene gets job working for Safeway as gasoline attendant
- Eric takes "Theology of Money" taught by Randy
Alcorn and based on his book
- Irene graduates from high school - big day!
- Father's Day - Eric gets a Vinyl-to-USB turntable: very much fun
- Barb's nephew, Mark Milnor, comes out to visit us for his vacation
- Irene goes with Emmanuel Mission Team to help clean up after Hurricane
Katrina
- We take nephew Mark to see Mt. St. Helens
- July 2007
- Eric takes Theology of Man course from Greg Allison
- Our church suffers a casualty in the Iraq war - Scott Oswell dies
piloting a helicopter
- Marian's car dies while Eric is driving it from school
- Irene comes home from her time in Louisiana
- Marian sprains her ankle
- Eric takes Theology of Old Testament from Ray Lubeck
- Marian's B-day!
- Eric and Theo ride The Classic with Christian Motorcyclist Association
- Eric and some folks from church distribute water at Lakefair
- Eric, Barb, and Irene go to a local Biola University event and Barb
re-connects with an old friend, Becky Gerlach - much reminiscing
- Theo does VBS at two churches this summer: Emmanuel Bible Fellowship and
Hope Community
- August 2007
- Eric and Barb take Irene to college - road trip! Able to see old friends
and get up-to-date; take Irene to Biola, get her registered, room, and
resourced; more visiting with friends and then back on the road
- Eric and Barb have lunch with Barb's sister Patty in Santa Maria
- Elliot, the family cat, weakens - we determine it might be related to
food allergies
- We 'repurpose' Irene's old bedroom
- Eric gets Theo up in the middle of the morning to see the lunar eclipse
- September 2007
- Last summer lightning storm
- Eric begins serious search for ministry position
- Eric begins seminary
- Functional Greek
- Functional Hebrew
- Hermeneutics
- Stories of college life come trickling in from Irene
- Eric starts coaching a failing church plant
- Eric gets invite to do pulpit supply for friend's church
- We buy a used Honda CRV for Eric's use
- October 2007
- Eric takes Theo out on a nature walk through McLaren Creek park
- Eric does a facilitation at the church plant
- Marian sells the Buick and buys a Plymouth Neon
- Our friends near San Diego tell us another fire has broken out
- Eric preaches on "Isaiah 40 - Comfort;" which you can listen to
here
- Eric sells the Goldwing motorcycle
- November 2007
- Eric's friend, Doug
Humphreys, comes to the Northwest for his doctoral program and visits
with us
- Eric has changed is degree program to Master of Arts in Exegetical
Theology and makes plans to graduate in the Spring
- Irene spends Thanksgiving with relatives of church friends
- We have a 'reduced' Thanksgiving: fewer family, smaller meal
- Eric sells his identity-defining pick-up truck
- Eric gathers courage to apply for another church position
- Eric does community service for the school by informing students of
holiday gifts
- December 2007
- It's December so we have to loose power for a couple of hours
- Flooding closes down I-5 so Eric has to fly from Portland to Seattle and
back again
- Barb works on set decoration for the Kids Choir Christmas production
- Eric begins working with the church's "Clothing Closet"
- Barb herds the family out to get a Christmas tree
- Irene comes home for the holidays
- Marian's Neon quits on the freeway - yikes!
- Happy Birthday, Jesus! And Jesus says 'thank you' with a snow-fall
- Family goes to Seattle for day trip: Starbucks Store #1; throwing fish;
the Crumpet Shop; Pikes Place Market; and the Asian market
News from 2006
News from 2005
News from 2004
News from 2003
News from 2002
News from 2001
News from 2000
News from 1999
News from 1998
News from 1997