2014 Christmas Greetings from Ken and Brenda Ardrey

We are so very grateful for the many blessings of this past year, especially the friendships shared over the years. This is a year of thankfulness.

Thankful that Brenda has been able to continue working as a Home Care Nurse, thru the local hospital, now called Mid-Hudson Regional Hospital of Westchester Medical Center.  The former hospital was “bought out” by Westchester Medical Center, with many paper-work changes.   Brenda  was also able to transfer to a RN Field Supervisor position in MHR Hospital, which has been less stressful than the RN Case Manager position of the past three years.   Her current position is now focused on providing RN supervision for Home Care Aides caring for patients.  She’s still visiting patients in their homes, but more focused on coordination between aide, patient and family members. 

Thankful for Ken’s continued health – It has been 14 years since his diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease.  He continues to be the most wonderful “house husband” ever, taking care of all of the shopping, cooking, and general household duties, which makes it much easier for this wife to relax after a day of work.  Ken continues on an exercise program daily to maintain as much mobility as possible.  We are grateful for the small pool in our back yard – Ken’s daily swim was 50 laps !   It has been a slow progression of stiffness and related symptoms, I’m sure that Ken’s determination in exercising has helped.

Thankful for our Church Family – Fellowship at Yorktown these past five years, and the wonderful support we received from the dear folk there, and now returning to Fishkill Church of the Nazarene after being away for 10 years.  Our Yorktown pastor is now the pastor of FCON so we will attend church one mile down the road, and will be able to be more involved in week-day events. 

Thankful for our family – all doing well Dave, Heather, and the grandchildren in the South Pacific for two years, Ryan and Thea in Kansas City pastoring Vision Church of the Nazarene, … , Jon and Allie in Schenectady, NY … and Joe and Christina in Independence, Kentucky.  We are so grateful for SKYPE, enabling us to keep in touch with everyone.  We sure do look  forward to those phone calls from our kids! Our prayer is that all of our friends, family, and loved ones                     continue to know   God’s grace and peace in the Christmas season and in this coming year.

A Preachers Call

A Charge to Biblical Preaching - Darrell W. Johnson

The closing benediction of a DMin component entitled “Preaching That Transforms” - Fuller Seminary

May every time you open the Book, you do so asking of the particular text, “have you seen Him whom my soul loves?” And may you experience the particular text taking you by the hand and leading you beyond the words to the Word himself. (E. Stanley Jones)

Before you even think a thought about how are you are going to preach the text, may Jesus Christ, to whom the text points, encounter you and preach His gospel to you, causing you to live out “the obedience of faith” to which the text calls you.

May you “limp” into the pulpit, because like Jacob, who became Israel, you to have wrestled with, not only the text, but with the God of the text.

May you preach the gospel of Jesus with the systematic precision of Matthew, with the spontaneous enthusiasm of Mark, with the prayerful compassion of Luke, and out of the intimacy of adoring wonder of John. (So that you too can only call yourself “the disciple whom Jesus loves”.

May you preach the gospel of Jesus with the practical wisdom (“from above”) of James because you too are a doer of the word and not just a hearer.

May the preaching of Jesus’ gospel be as wide and long and high and deep as that of the apostle Paul (“to me, the very least of all the Saints, this grace was given, to preach the unfathomable riches of Christ”).

And as you “limp” to the pulpit, in the power of the Holy Spirit, may you always have the confidence that when you speak - because your speaking emerges from, and is shaped by the text - God speaks; and that when God speaks something always happens!

And so may you be surprised by Joy.