Easter 2018
Well, Christmas has come and gone without our yearly Greenwood CHRISTmas Letter! During Christmas, there were a lot of conversations about possible changes happening concerning our family, so we decided to wait and see what settled out. We are doing things a little differently this year…instead of mailing all of our letters, we are going to use social media and email. Instead of a CHRISTmas letter we are doing an Easter letter. The Lord has really been working on me to simplify things since the Bible study I did last summer with the women of our church. So here goes to change…something I don’t often embrace, but as the Lord continues to fine tune me, I find it better to embrace Him and His ways instead of fighting Him. And another added bonus…it is saving us TONS of money!! Can I get an “Amen” from my Dave Ramsey friends?
So, the BIG news we have been sitting on for a couple of weeks now is that we are MOVING!! Yes, you read that correctly. There are many reasons for our move, but the biggest reason is our desire to be obedient to the Lord’s calling on our lives. Chris will be the new Sr. Pastor at Forest Hills EPC in Wilson, NC. We are excited about how the Lord will use us in this area of our country to further His kingdom’s work. With this move, it puts us within 45 minutes of one set of grandparents and a few hours closer to our South Georgia grandparents. I know ALL the grandparents are excited to have us a bit closer. As we have been preparing to move to Wilson, we have been trying to figure out our living situation. We quickly found out that Wilson doesn’t have much of a rental market. Because of this, we have found ourselves buying our FIRST home!! We had put an offer in on a house, but the sellers were not willing to fix the inspection repairs. So, we walked away from that house and are trusting the Lord to provide the home He wants us to raise our kiddos in and do the ministry He has called us to. 2018 is full of many changes…leaving our church and friends, self-packing our home and having our stuff moved across state lines in less than a month, Chris starting a new call as a Sr. Pastor, Sara getting the Hootie Hoos adjusted and settled into a new home and community, and buying our first home. I told Chris that we must believe in going BIG or going home!!
Let’s get started with the Hootie Hoos update! As always, we will start with our oldest, Josiah. He turned nine this summer. I still can’t believe it! It seems just like yesterday we were celebrating his first Easter with him. He started 4th grade this year…yes, 4th grade! His favorite subjects are science and art. This kid loves to explore…create…figure out how things work. I am thankful for the great science curriculum we got this year. It has SUPER easy science experiments for each lesson. Most of the stuff that needs to be used is stuff I already have lying around the house. To see him in action and come to life when he does these science experiments brings great joy to my heart. He has been into drawing for awhile now. His grandparents gifted him an art camp for his birthday this past summer. Each day he was SO excited to share his creation when he was picked up. We have a couple of his pieces hanging up. He spent a few days last fall drawing different animals with pencil. Man, I couldn’t believe that my child had drawn these pictures! He played soccer in the fall and basketball this past winter. He likes both sports, but he continues to say that basketball is his favorite. He continues to do AWANA this year and does an amazing job of storing God’s Word in his heart. Because of our upcoming move, his AWANA teachers are allowing him to work at his own pace to complete his book because we will not transfer to a new AWANA program to finish off this year. I have been SUPER impressed with his perseverance to finish his book ahead of the rest of his group. We have enjoyed seeing him to continue to grow in his gentleness and kindness. We have been working with him to take initiative around the house and in situations…to be the humble leader that we can see he has the potential of being. He has definitely accepted the challenge (on most days) and is stepping up and taking initiative and it makes this mom and dad proud. These kinds of things make us excited to see how the Lord is going to use Josiah to further His kingdom’s work.
Next, we have Sophie. She turned eight in January! She is in 2nd grade this year and is doing a lot of the same work as Josiah. The subjects they do together are history, Bible, science, Latin and reading. She is doing her own grade in math, English, spelling and art. Her favorite subjects this year are English and art. This girl is VERY creative when it comes to writing stories and illustrating them. And she LOVES to read. Often times, I find her curled up in her bed or on the couch in our front room reading a book. Library Day is one of her favorite days. Most times she has her library book bag filled to the top and can barely carry it on her own! She continues to be our “cautiously observant” child. BUT when she is comfortable with someone, she comes to life! She has quite the funny personality. She likes to make up her own jokes/puns. And my favorite thing is when she changes her voice when telling us a story. This fall she played soccer and was able to move up an age bracket. She also did basketball in January and improved tremendously from last year! She continues to be very competitive…I have NO IDEA where she gets that from! 😊 She is continuing with AWANA and is doing an amazing job of memorizing God’s Word. She has completed her book for the year and has started on a bonus book that she is currently tearing through! It is amazing how much these kiddos can absorb on a daily basis! The last few weeks, Chris and I have both noticed how grown up she is looking and acting. A few times, I was caught off guard by the emotions I felt when watching her comb her hair or putting a necklace on and thinking about her growing up and possibly getting married one day. But I digress. We have also noticed that serving others is becoming a passion of her heart. When I am doing things at the church, she wants to be right there helping me. When I am cooking and cleaning around the house, she is the first to volunteer to help me. She will secretly make beds for her siblings and sometimes for us. We can’t wait to see how God is going to use her heart of serving others to show others how much Jesus loves them.
Now, time for Kyrie. She turned six in November and started kindergarten this year. Her favorite subjects are science and math. In science, we have recently been learning about animals. This girl has such a tender heart towards animals. She desperately wants to have a dog to the point that she has an imaginary dog named Astra. 😊 She keeps mentioning that since we will be buying a house, we can finally get a dog. For the longest time, renting our house has been my reason to not get a dog. She is a smart one! She has really picked up on her math skills figuring out math problems that she hasn’t even been taught yet. The beginning of the year, she wasn’t very excited about school. Up to this point, I didn’t overly stress about her doing school. If she wanted to play with Tobias, then I would let them play. It was a bit of an adjustment for her, but now she gets right to her school work before we have even officially started our school day. She has also begun to like reading and will choose to read instead of always being asked to read. She has also gotten more into acting out little plays that she has created in her mind. It is a good day in her book when she can get her siblings to participate in her play. A year ago January, she did cheerleading while the two older ones played basketball. She decided that she didn’t want to cheer this year, but would rather try soccer. She did a great job considering last year she didn’t want to play because she didn’t want to get sweaty! 😊 I think Chris coaching her team helped her tremendously with feeling comfortable on learning a new sport. Kyrie moved up in AWANA and is doing full Bible verses this year instead of shortened verses like she did last year. We are so proud of her taking the time each week to memorize her Bible verses and storing God’s Word in her heart. She just finished her book for the year which she is super excited about! We continue to admire her nurturing heart…the way she gets joy from taking care of people, stuffed animals, and baby dolls brings joy to this momma’s heart. We can’t wait to see how the Lord will fine tune these character traits in Kyrie to make His name known.
Lastly, we have Tobias. He turned four this summer and started K-4 this year. Most days he is excited about school, but there are days when he just wants to play. Most of the time when he wants to play I let him since full-time school will be here before we know it! His reading is improving tremendously. He is enjoying reading Dick+Jane books. I can’t believe he is the last one to use these books. ☹ His favorite subjects in school are math and handwriting. He is also doing a great job counting to 100 by 1’s. Around 50 he needs help with the transition number (50, 60, etc.), but he continues to count the rest of the numbers on his own. He is trying so hard to count by 10’s like his big sister and is getting closer to doing it. His handwriting his improved tremendously in the last month or so. He enjoys writing his name and the letters that he learns each week. This past fall Tobias played soccer and had a BLAST. Most weeks while he was waiting for his soccer practice, he would be found with the older kids running around and kicking the ball. He definitely has no fear and believes that his age and size can’t hold him back! The basketball season has been hard for him because he wants to be out on the court. Often times, we find him practicing with the two big Hooties. I don’t know how many times he has gotten hurt trying to keep up with them! This kid is FULL of personality! It is safe to say that he is by far our most extroverted child. Last winter, he got it in his head that he wanted to sing in our church’s talent show. We honestly thought that as it got closer, he would want to back out. But as he practiced on the stage, it gave him an even bigger desire to sing. He did an AMAZING job for a three-year-old singing “10, 000 Reasons” by Matt Redman. He has been planning for his next big performance where he is singing by himself (and some days) with Sophie and Kyrie as his backup dancers! 😊 There are many days that this momma gets way more emotional with this guy. I guess it is because he is the baby of the family and there are LOTS of lasts with him. But we love watching him grow into who God wants him to be. We can’t wait to see how God uses Tobias’ love of life, joyful spirit and giving heart to further His kingdom.
In case you’re wondering about mom and dad, we are doing well. Right now, life is a bit busy…to say the least. This past year we have been disciplers, life group leaders, and marriage counselors just to name a few. Chris has been a flurry of activity at the church working with and developing current and new leaders, laying the foundation for new discipleship programs, and maintaining his other pastoral duties. Sara has matched him in the pace of life as a homeschool mom, an active part of the women’s ministry, and a wonderful helpmate to me (Chris). We are sad to see this season end here are VA Beach, but the Lord has amazingly made all this fall into place in about three months…a normal pastor search can take anywhere from 6-12 months!!! The next few weeks will be hard emotionally as we pack up our home and spend time with our dear friends. We know that the Lord has been working this move out. Our greatest desire is to be obedient to Him and to teach our kiddos to be obedient as He leads us. A couple of days ago, I shared with someone that it is so easy to teach on obedience during discipleship time, but how hard it can be to live that out. It is really easy to obey when the Lord asks you to pay for a meal or pay for groceries. It is easy when He asks you to reach out to someone. But this is hard...leaving a church where you love the people you are ministering to...leaving a “dream job” to do something unfamiliar…taking a big pay cut…buying your first home. In our mind, none of this makes sense, but what makes sense is for us to obey Him…to trust Him. A few weeks ago, the Lord gave me an image of a bird nest. I told Him I wasn’t ready to leave the nest…that I liked it here…that it was comfortable and familiar. And then He told me that I needed to trust Him and the wings that He has given us. Gentle He has been gathering us to the edge of the nest. He is saying it is time to spread our wings and fly.
"Yet those who wait for the Lord
Will gain new strength;
They will mount up with wings like eagles,
They will run and not get tired,
They will walk and not become weary."
Isaiah 40:31
So, that is what has been going on in the Greenwood Family. We hope that this letter finds you well. Once we find a home, we will let you know our new address.
Continuing to learn to live and love like Jesus,
Chris, Sara, Josiah, Sophie, Kyrie and Tobias
Family website:
Mathetes 268 Ministries website:
Forest Hills Presbyterian Church website:
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