Christmas 2022
Dear family and friends,
I’ve got a sermon to prepare for Sunday, but here I am working on my annual Christmas letter.
Why is that? Well, for one thing, preparing sermons every week is work. It’s work I like, of course, and it’s work I came out of retirement to do. But it’s still work.
I’m also not sure what to say on the Fourth Sunday of Advent that I haven’t said a bunch of times before. Besides, the people who come to worship on Sunday are looking forward to the music, the baptism, the welcoming of new members, and the Christmas cookies during coffee hour. My latest insights into Luke 1:46-55 are not high on anyone’s list of reasons to come to church this Sunday. Hard to believe, but true.
I’m sitting in my living room at Wassenaarseweg 83, which may not sound like a U.S. street address, because it’s not. I’m in the Hague, working for most of the school year at the American Protestant Church as their interim pastor. I’m glad I came. It’s important work. And most of the time it’s enjoyable, though there were a couple of times this fall when I remembered why retiring felt so good a couple of years ago. Also, a month of Covid wasn’t pleasant.
Susan didn’t move to Europe with me, though she did visit for a long stretch in the fall and will be back again in the spring for a similar length of time. We did touristy things together on Mondays, my day off, but she did a lot of sitting around and waiting for me too, which is why she’s glad to be back in Michigan and Minnesota with friends and grandchildren. Waiting for me was how she spent a lot of time over the more than 40 years I was a pastor, and she’s clearly ready for the next chapter of life.
We still own our “vacation property” in Minnesota, because our daughters and their families still live in the same neighborhood there, and we enjoyed a second winter there last year, fixing up that old house as well as spending time with grandchildren, who introduced me to a lot of children’s television I would not otherwise have known about. “Grizzy and the Lemmings” is my personal favorite. Check it out.
My 96-year-old mother wasn’t happy about my decision to move back to Europe, but she likes it that I’m doing “the Lord’s work” and (importantly) it’s something to tell the people who live on her floor at Raybrook Manor, because we all like to brag about what our children are doing. I understand that much better now.
My older daughter, Sarah, is married with two children and is lead pastor at a fine old church in St. Paul, just across the river from where she lives. My younger daughter, Elizabeth, is also married with two children. She’s a health economist, though it’s not clear to me what exactly that means. Lizzy gave birth early in the year – I buried the most important news of the year in the eighth paragraph! – and Claire, our youngest grandchild, is smart and beautiful and absolutely dominating each of her first-year developmental stages. She joins Gwendolyn, Martin, and Walter, who sometimes don’t know what to make of their pops.
Almost forgot. My memoir – Chasing After Wind: A Pastor’s Life – was published by Eerdmans in March, making it my fifth book with a company where I started out in 1974 as a copy writer in the sales promotion department. In the last seven months, I have appeared on more than 30 radio programs and podcasts, a tribute more than anything to how much airtime broadcasters need to fill these days. My favorite podcast was the one in which my niece interviewed me, along with my older daughter, who joined the conversation. They both pretended throughout that the old guy had some really interesting things to say.
I head to Schiphol Airport early on December 22 and look forward to spending Christmas with my family in Minneapolis. My older daughter has mentioned that she still needs an usher at the candlelight service on Christmas Eve, and that sounds like a job I can handle.
To my readers and friends, far and near, I wish you all a joy-filled Christmas and much happiness in the new year. I nearly forgot to mention how much there is to pray for in the world right now, but then I’m guessing you already knew that.
Love,
Doug (and Susan)
(Video: That’s Scheveningen Beach, and I wish I could say that Susan and I have already tried out the zip line. But, yes, the Hague has a cool beach! Who knew?)
Share this post