Merry Christmas from the Yangs!

[Amos Yang]

Merry Christmas from the Yang family!

“For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us;

And the government will rest on His shoulders;

And His name will be called

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace,

On the throne of David and over his kingdom,

To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness

From then on and forevermore.

The zeal of Yahweh of hosts will accomplish this.”

Isaiah 9:6-7

This morning our family looked at the above passage, thanked God for sending Christ to this world two millennia ago, and looked forward to the fulfillment of many prophecies related to Christ being fulfilled at His future Second Coming, including several in even just the passage above. One day Christ’s justice and righteousness will reign forevermore!

In terms of some life updates:

Amos continues to serve as one of the pastors at New Life Community Church and work as an independent private practice anesthesiologist. He is grateful to God for the semblance of stability in these endeavors. This past year included leading the church through various adventures and transitions, and this coming year likely will include several more. He will need to continually rely on God for adequate wisdom. In terms of his work as a physician, Amos has been able to continue the trajectory of his goal for several years now of tangibly growing various specific areas of clinical skills.

Emily continues to have her hands full homeschooling the children, taking them to co-ops, and training them in life skills. This past year one curriculum among many that she took them through is themed around the topic of biblical conflict resolution. One misadventure occurred this past summer when Emily was playing tag with the kids at a playground. She came down a firepole and landed on an inverted ankle. She ultimately needed to receive ankle surgery last week for that injury and so is presently scootering around during this recovery period.

Genevieve (10) is our responsible and self-directed eldest. She participated in her first theatrical production (outside the home), which was Disney’s The Lion King KIDS. Consequently, all four kids can now recite virtually the entire story line-by-line. (After hearing the kids belt out, “When I was a young warthogggggggg!!!! Very nice!” for the 30th time or so, Amos secretly wished all of that mental storage space had been allocated to Scripture memorization instead.)

Genevieve and her spirited and carefree sister Camille (8) together attended a horse camp during the summer, which both said was their favorite activity ever. Both have begun voice lessons in parallel with their piano lessons. Camille still loves reading books at every opportunity.

Asher (6) continues to love soccer and math. When we tell him to go do his math homework, he smiles and says “Yay, math!” Often we have to tell him to put the math books down and take care of other responsibilities. Recently after attending a trial class of Brazilian Jiujitsu, Asher now constantly wants to wrestle everyone. He loves doling out affection to his parents.

Isabelle (4) is quick to obey and volunteer to help others and is also equally quick to let us know that she isn’t a baby even though she’s our “baby.” She’s enjoyed joining her siblings at swimming lessons and attending any “classes” that her siblings put on for her.

One highlight for the entire family was traveling to Honduras to serve as a Christian orphanage for a week with a team of 27 people from our church. This was the first missions trip for the kids, and we were delighted that they enjoyed it and have been asking for the opportunity to return.