Christmas Letter 2009

Christmas Greetings! December 2009
Somehow another year has come and gone, and it’s time to reflect on all that it brought into our lives.
Although it seems that our lifestyle continues to be busy, we did find some time for pleasure. Tim and I were blessed to take a vacation to Mexico in the Spring. We enjoyed resting on the beautiful beach. It was a wonderful peaceful trip, except for the fact that the “Swine Flu” made headlines while we were there, which made for a bit of an interesting return trip. In August we traveled to Klamath Falls to visit his sister Vicki and her family. Tim and the boys went hunting with some friends in the fall, and Tim and Matt both shot their first deer.
Tim has been the minister at Stone Creek Christian Church for nearly two years. It is exciting to be a part of the work that God is doing through this church family. Some of the highlights at the church this year included the Big Sunday Community Fun Day in August, where we rented a big tent and had church out on the front lawn followed by lunch and a carnival; Vacation Bible Spectacular for the kids; and the deepening of friendships as people learn, pray, and serve together.
Patti’s job as a classroom assistant ended in June. After unsuccessfully seeking employment for a few months, she investigated returning to school. This was an answer to prayer, as God closed the doors to working in the schools, but removed all of the obstacles for becoming a student again. Patti is enrolled at Concorde in their Medical Assistant Program. She’ll finish at the end of July, and looks forward to a meaningful and rewarding new career! In her free time she enjoys being a grandma, teaching children at church, and partnering in ministry with Tim.
Sharon is in her second year of residency in Family Practice at Milwaukie Providence. She works crazy hours sometimes, but juggles it all with grace. Jon continues to work hard, which often involves travel. His company loves him, as do we. Sharon and Jon have moved to the Woodstock neighborhood, and are serving at a new church, “Life House,” that meets in a school close to their home. Their golden retriever “Hurley” provides them with lots of fun and love.
Matthew has been a master mechanic at Landmark Ford for several years now. He plays drums and guitar for the worship band and helps out at youth
group. His wife Kaitlin is an assistant for a primary Special Needs classroom at Verne Duncan Elementary. She also helps with the youth group and teaches one of the childrens' Bible Adventure classes at church. We have enjoyed having them live in our basement for a few months while “house shopping.” They have a deal pending, and are hoping to move into their first house in January!
Bethany is a wonderful wife, mommy, daughter, and friend. Josie keeps her busy, but Bethany also babysits for a family at church and is involved with the youth group. Tavis gets the perseverance award this year! Last Saturday he graduated from Warner Pacific College. He has been working two part-time jobs, in addition to going to school, and being a husband and daddy. It is a HUGE relief for him to reach this goal, and we’re all extremely proud of him. He works at UPS as a part-time supervisor at night, and also works for NW Technologies. Josie is the sunshine of all of our lives! It has brought so much joy to all of us to love and care for her. She has a great sense of humor already and is a real “people person.” If you’re on Facebook, you might have noticed all of the hundreds of pictures we’ve taken of her.
David is a student at MHCC focusing on computer technology. In addition we’re blessed that he ministers at church leading the music and technology. This involves selecting music, coordinating musicians, leading rehearsals, playing guitar, and leading worship for the contemporary service on Sundays. His girlfriend Cammie Reyes is a Medical Assistant, and also teaches a children’s class at church. She sings on the worship team and we enjoyed having her in our home Bible study last spring.
We are also blessed to have both sets of our parents here in town, and to see them regularly. Tim’s parents, Gary and Juanita Long, continue to be active in church and are such a blessing to us and the entire family. Patti’s parents, Charles and Phyllis Nielsen are involved with the extended family, in church, and volunteer in many different ways.
Please keep in touch with us. We are on Facebook, but you can also reach us at timpatti@comcast.net. Many blessings to your family and you as you celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Love, Tim & Patti Long

“I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.” 3 John 1:4

Can we be this kind of church family?

Excerpted from "Searching for God Knows What," by Donald Miller

"The way John writes about Jesus makes you feel that the sum of our faith is a kind of constant dialogue with Jesus about whether or not we love Him. I grew up believing a Christian didn't have to love God or anybody else; he just had to believe some things and be willing to take a stand for the things he believed....John seemed to embrace the relational dynamic of our faith. And he did so i n a n honest tone, not putting a spin on anything. He revealed how some of the disciples truly understood Jesus and how they were screw ups, and he didn't make himself look good, either; he just told it exactly as it was. That's guts, if you ask me. And then,not unlike Paul, John closed his book with a lot of sentimental talk, very to the point, but charged with meaning. He ended his book by telling the reader he was going to die. There were some people around back then who wondered if John was ever going to die because they had overheard Jesus say John would live forever, and because John got tortured and should have died early on, a lot of people assumed Jesus saw saying John was going to live forever on earth.
This is beautiful and meaningful because John wrote his essay a long time after Christ had left so he was very old, probably early ninety years old, and this was back when communities loved old people. They didn't put them in homes to watch television; they gathered around them because they represented a kind of gentle beauty and wisdom. This was back when you didn't have to be all young and sexy just to be a person. And it makes you wonder if John saw and wrote that he was going to die knowing within a few days, a few weeks, a month of gentle good-byes, he was going to go home and leave all his friends, and he didn't want any of them to be surprised or scared.
When you read the book you start realizing that people who were very close to John read this essay and got to the end and started crying because John was telling them he was going to leave, and then I'll bet at his funeral everybody was standing around thinking about how John knew he was going to die and told them in his book. And I'll bet they sat around that night at somebody's house, and somebody who had a very good reading voice lit a candle, and they all lay on the floor and sat on pillows. The children sat quietly and the man with the voice read through the book, from beginning to end, and they thought together about Jesus as the man read John's bock, and when it came to the end where John says he is going to die, the person who was reading got choked up and started to cry. Somebody else, maybe John's wife or one of his daughters, had to go over and read the end of it, and when she was finished they sat around for a long time and some of the people probably stayed the night so the house wouldn't feel empty. It makes you want to live in a community like that when you think about the way things were when Jesus had touched people.
A community like that might sound far-fetched, but when you read through John's other books, the short ones, all he talks about is if you know Jesus, you will love you brother and sister, and anybody who talked that much about loving your brother and sister was probably the most beloved person in their community, and when he died people would have felt a certain pain about it for a long, long time."