Merry Christmas!

God became man; the divine Son became a Jew; the Almighty appeared on earth as a helpless human baby, unable to do more than lie and stare and wriggle and make noises, needing to be fed and changed and taught to talk like any other child. And there was no illusion or deception in this: the babyhood of the Son of God was a reality. The more you think about it, the more staggering it gets. Nothing in fiction is so fantastic as is this truth of the Incarnation.
J. I. Packer (1926– )

Merry Christmas from the Nielsens!

2006 proved to be a very exciting year for us. It was marked by lots of changes and many reasons to be thankful. 2006 began with us living in Nashville, wondering if we needed to make a change and 2006 ends with us living 1400 miles away in the glorious southwest! Albuquerque is a wonderful place to live, but the extra lotion for dry skin and green chile on everything has taken some getting used to! We are very thankful for this transition and it’s wonderful to ponder how God has blessed us so richly in 2006.

Kim: Kim greatly enjoyed her teaching position in the PA program at Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville. Her students loved her and she saw much fruit in her position there. In July, she had the privilege of traveling to Moldova for 10 days with our church in Nashville to minister at an orphanage there. It was a challenge for all of us to have Kim be gone for so long, but it was more than worth it for the sake of children who have so many unmet needs. Since moving to Albuquerque, she has enjoyed spending more time at home with the kids and working one day a week at a pediatric clinic.

Taylor: Taylor loves to play with his little sister and has started to work on his letters and reading. He loves to wrestle with me and anyone else who is willing to withstand his fury. He loves to play with his cars, trucks and dinosaurs. Spiderman has also been a big hit for Taylor this year. He has been blessed by meeting lots of new friends from church and also has a knack for memorizing Bible verses. Joshua 1:9 is his favorite verse thus far. He is a blessing to us in many ways and has a very sweet spirit.

Autumn: Autumn is our precious little soul. All she is interested in is whatever her big brother is doing. This has proven to make her very durable and courageous! She is a miniature version of her mommy, which melts her daddy’s heart everyday! She has currently experiencing an explosion of language. Her favorite words are: “wow”, “hold you”, “stinky”, “eat”, “baby”, “mama”, and “dada”. She has also started sitting on the potty! You can stay up to date on the kids by visiting: www.nielsenkids.blogspot.com. I update it regularly with pics and videos of the kids.

Zach: I started the year as a sideman for Matthew West and songwriter for Word Publishing in Nashville. We knew we needed to make a change and God provided the opportunity to work for Desert Springs Church in Albuquerque as a music minister. This job has proved to be nothing but a blessing for us. Though we are far from our families we are thankful for a loving church family that continually provides for our needs and gives us opportunities to serve. I continue to enjoy spending time with Kim and the kids, taking seminary classes, practicing guitar and piano, biking to church and in the mountains of NM, and blogging (www.takeyourvitaminz.blogspot.com - shameless plug… I know).

We hope this letter finds you all well and know that if you are ever in the southwest please give us a call. We would love to see you!

BTW – Baby #3 is on the way. Kim is due on May 24th!