a2f newsletter.

happy new years y’all.

hope time with family and friends have been good.

it’s been a little wacky over here at west lafayette. last week it was really warm. it got as warm and as humid as the mid to high 60s. and then the cold slapped us in the face. storm warnings. wind chill that made the temp feel close to 0. thankfully it’s warmed up a bit now.

it’s been a quiet week here. family coming to visit. a small but nice service this past week which gave us an opportunity to look back on 2025 and start to think about 2026 and the small, scary steps we can take to obey god and to experience him in a new way this upcoming year. we also got to check out chriskindl market near indy. pretty neat. german-themed, christmas town with a lot of german food. we went bonkers on the food.

for my family, we spent part of sunday watching “the greatest christmas pagent ever.” and you know how you feel about christian movies… a little cringe, not much expectation. but i do have to say… it was pretty good and, low-key, i ended up tearing up a little bit at the end.

tabby also had her surgery this past monday. thank you so much for praying for us and for loving us with tons of food. we got the best outcome. it was benign and the surgery was very minimal (thank god for modern medical technology that can do surgeries now with tiny robotic arms). so much so that she’s up and about, walking, eating well and, to quote her, “i’m back.”

all in all to say, we’re gearing up for the spring and we look forward to seeing all of you again. we definitely miss all of you and your energy personally but i think at a city-level. it’s real quiet here without students on campus (but on the flip-side, lines at walmart are miniscule.)

dj.

feb 6-8. camp tecumseh, in.

come join us for an incredible weekend. fun. meeting new friends from iu and uiuc. time in god’s word. worship. different workshops addressing a variety of major questions about christianity. and of course a lot of food and late night shenanigans.

sign up on this form - here.

not sure if you guys like roller-coasters. me personally.

i hate them.

i have a deep fear of heights and fast-movements (which reflects itself in both my driving and my basketball game) so roller-coasters are the worst for me. we went to cedar point though for student leader retreat this past year and i rode on one. steel vengeance.

i thought i was going to pass out. there was this one moment though, as the roller-coaster was building up in anticipation for that first drop. expectation building for the thrill that was to come and then… free-fall. but then there was this moment. right at the bottom of the free-fall that the roller-coaster veered sharply to the left and my body and neck, expecting something else, experienced severe whiplash.

i thought about that experience as i was reflecting on this previous year. whiplash. expecting, with anticipation and excitement, for the year to go a certain direction but life veering away sharply, unexpectedly, in another.

excitement to move to west lafayette met with a cancer diagnosis. the thrill of fall and getting to meet new students on campus met with an untimely and unexpected death of a newborn and a beloved pastor. the holiday season coinciding with news of the loss of a loved one. it was emotional whiplash.

but i couldn’t help but think that this so captures life, doesn’t it? moments of incredible joy and excitement and expectation only to, at times, be met with the most unexpected. bad news, a recession, bad job market, something happening to a loved one and we’re left reeling. disoriented. unsure of what just happened or how to respond and, all the while, it’s not like life waits for you to respond. it just keeps on going.

i love john mayer. well, okay. he got a little weird. but i liked old john mayer and his songs. and i was reminded of one song, “stop this train.”

with all this in mind, i was deeply moved and comforted by our devotions in ephesians. ephesians 1. paul prays that this little church in ephesus going through its own brand of struggle and challenge, trial and persecution, would know and be strengthened by this.

what a verse. we have hope in the gospel that no matter how bleak life can get, we know how everything will end. we’ll enter into eternities shore where tears and weeping will be no more. there will be joy forevermore. that’s the rich inheritance that is awaiting all those who believe in christ. and to top it all off, there’s this mighty god with immeasurable greatness who has the power to overcome anything and everything including any life circumstances, challenges, trials and even death and he’s going to make this hope, this rich inheritance come into fruition and that’s guaranteed as paul will later say.

only the gospel gives us the resources to handle and metabolize all the whiplash experiences that life can throw at us. it’s the only thing that can give us hope in the most disorienting of times to then reorient, look ahead, and even have expectation, anticipation and hope of what can come and will come not only in our joys and triumphs but maybe even more so in our trials and difficulties.

with all that being said, i came out with a sense of hope. i wonder what “new thing” god will do in 2026 because i know he is at work all the time. and it gave me a sense of excitement even in the midst of the whiplash. god could you even do one of those ridiculous judo reversals on some of our lowest points and have something good and wonderful come out of it. god’s resounding answer to that in scripture is yes. i will do a new thing. the question is: can you perceive it?

praying that this gives us hope in the midst of all that we’re going through. as well as a sense of anticipation of wanting to experience and know and learn more about god in 2026.

until next time.

dj.