December 19, 2007,....Merry Christmas!

WOW!!! I am so sorry that I haven't been on here in awhile. We have been so very busy. I've had a few people actually bug me about updating this - so I guess that's a good thing! That means people are reading it!

Today is a special day. Matthew preached this morning at The Lutheran Church of Webster Gardens for the Wednesday Advent service. (this was his second time preaching in chuch) Tonight he will be preaching again at the 7pm service. God is so good - he invited our un-churched neighbors the other day, after he shoveled their driveway --- and they showed up this morning!! Praise the Lord! It only takes a seed to be planted. The girls and I will be going to Advent dinner and go see "Daddy" preach tonight. This will be our first time seeing him up there. (he wouldn't let us come last time!)

We've had so many things going on - I don't even know where to begin. But we did travel home for the Thanksgiving break to see our family. We all ended up sick with a sinus infection that slowly moved through the whole family,....then the kids each got strep throat,.....so we've spent a lot of the last month or so fighting illnesses. When we were home for break we got to see many friends and family. We even went downtown to the Science and Industry Museum to see the Star Wars Exhibit! (ooooooooo.)

I led the Christmas Praise Choir at Webster Gardens and had practices every Wed. after school with my choir. We had our Christmas Service a couple days ago at the Sunday Contemporary Service. It went very, very well. The children all had fun and I know this because when it was all over and I told them what an awesome job they did,...I got asked repeaditly "Can we do this again next year?" and "Will you lead us again next year?" How sweet! I got asked this same question when I led music for vbs at this church. It's so hard to answer. I don't know where I'll be next year!!! So I just smile and say - "I sure hope so!"

We had our vicarage meeting at the Seminary last week, after filling out all the paperwork and Mat had another interview that I didn't have to be at. It was very relaxing - I thought I might be a little nervous - but Dr. Nielsen was very easy to talk to and I enjoyed our time there. We are asking for what's called a "deffered" vicarage. This means that Matthew would stay in St. Louis for one more year and finish his studies and then have a convertable vicarage the following year. (which would mean hopefully just one move after being here - instead of three!) We have submit a letter and wait for the faculty board to approve or deny. If they deny - that means in April on the 22nd, we will find out our vicarage placement and it could be anywhere!!! (but we did request the Chicago area). I think Elissa wants the vicarage to be in Florida,...I think we all know why!

I'm sure I won't get on here again until after Christmas. We are heading to Schaumburg to be with family - Matt's brother and his family are flying in from California too! AND while we're home, Matthew is preaching his very first sermon at our home congregation: St. Peter Lutheran. If in the area - come hear the word!!! (Dec. 29th at 5pm, Dec. 30th at 9am / 11am)

Because of the Christ child, our lives have meaning! Merry Christmas!!!!

Matthew, Janet, Elissa and Sara (Zoe and Simba too!)

Grandma (Matt's mom) and Elissa at the Thanksgiving Dinner table.

Everyone always asks why Zoe isn't on this blog,...well here she is. She is SO good with our kids. What an awesome dog!

Here's the whole family. (this was used for our Christmas picture!)

This is taken in the old historic chapel at St. Peter Lutheran Schaumburg, Illinois. This is the church where Matthew and I got married 14 years ago.

Weeks of Oct. 15 - Oct. 28th

Sorry I missed last Sunday's post. Since you heard from us last, we had our Harvest parties at the kids school. I organized and ran Sara's party and helped at Elissa's. Matthew's parents came down for the weekend to visit, Elissa went to a field trip to Daniel Boone's Home, Elissa sprained her ankle in a soccer game and had to go to the doctor to have x-rays done (glad to say the Lord pulled her through without a cast!), Sara had a field trip to a pumpkin patch (which I went on as a chaperone), We went to a Halloween Walk in downtown Kirkwood, we caught a turtle in our front yard(that was cool!), Elissa had a pizza party with her girl scout troop at Incredible Pizza, Sara had a pizza party with her soccer team, Elissa and Sara had a bonfire with the girl scouts (where I led the daisy's in song), we had our first Christmas pagent practice together, we had movie night again at our fieldwork church (Matthew stayed home to write a paper),.......sounds busy you say?! That's an understatement!!!

I have volunteered to be the music director for the Christmas Pagent at Webster Gardens Lutheran Church and are still working on the music selections and next I have to come up with movements to go with. (help, Sandy!)

Today at church Elissa (our 9 year old) took part in the sermon. She was asked to do a short skit at the beginning of the sermon and at the end of the sermon she sang "Jesus Loves Me" as a solo. (her first time doing a singing solo with a microphone in front of people,..not in the living room!) She did great. What a blessing!! I was up there by her singing today with the Praise Team. I found it funny today that I was the only female in the band today,....but wow - was it fun!!!! (great harmonies!)

Matthew has been working on a history paper on St. Peter Lutheran Church (our home congregation). Thanks to Jason for sending us the great St. Peter pictures! Matthew preached his first "church" sermon last week at Webster Gardens using the text of Ephesians 2:8,9 and 10 and John 3:30 with the theme "Saved to Serve". He made a cross and I spray painted it and wrote "saved" and serve" on it for him. (see?! It really is a joint ministry!) Matthew is in his teaching phase of the seminary. He is in a class called Pastor as Educator and he is currently teaching at CCLS (where our children go). He teaches 26 third graders every day for three weeks their religion class. He's been doing some very creative stuff with them and they LOVE him! Of course a lot of them know him from Kingdom Quest (Sunday School). He enjoys the teaching, hands on stuff. (get rid of all that reading and writing papers and studying for tests,..........)

Tomorrow night we have another Vicarage meeting. We must both be at this one and we will be taking a test. (yes, me too). This is a requirement for Matthew's vicarage interview to be set up. Pray for us, please, as we go through these steps. Also, lift Matthew up in prayer as he heads into the last two weeks of this quarter,...this is a stressful time. We love you all!!!

Here's Elissa and Sara with their Grandpa and Grandma. (Matt's parents)

Here's Matthew with his two girls in downtown Kirkwood, MO. Elissa is Hannah Montana and Sara is a rock star!

Our turtle,....ok - we didn't keep it. We set him/her free in the backyard. Sara was so excited!

Week of Oct. 8-14, 2007

This week Matthew had a test that he thought he was sure he did poorly on,......he got a 97%! That happens a lot with him. The Lord seems to pull him through every time! :)

We had two sets of friends from our home congregation call this week and say they were coming to St. Louis. Melissa and Jason came down from Schaumburg to spend a weekend with their family on vacation,...just happened to be St. Louis. They were in our small group when we lived in Schaumburg. Thomas and Jaime (who just returned from Panama on a year long mission trip) were also coming into St. Louis. Jaime was talking with a LWML group at a local church about her missionary experience. The two of them stayed at our house. Jaime was only here for one night - but Thomas stayed for two and he left for Alabama from here today. Please pray for safe travels and speedy learning for Thomas. He is attending an academy to get his pilot's license before entering Air Force Training. (which begins in Nov.) Thomas and Jaime were also in our small group back home,....it was just such a great feeling being with these friends/family again!!!

We went to the Magic House for a CCLS School event on Thursday night. It was great fun to see the girls running around with their friends. Friday night we drove to Jason and Jen's house in Collinsville, IL to visit and have PIZZA!!! :) (Jason is our friend that was in the hospital last week) Jason is doing well. He is back in classes at SIUE. He still has his arm in a sling, from his surgery and can't move that for a few more weeks.

We had the girls soccer games on Saturday morning. Elissa twisted her ankle and still has it wrapped in an ace bandage. Please pray for healing for her-she has a field trip tomorrow!

At church this morning, we took Thomas with us and I showed him around our fieldwork church. He and I got to watch Matt in action at Kingdom Quest. As usual, he did a great job. (he played Gideon in a skit) At one point it was Matt and I up front with microphones leading the kids in song and movements,....now there's a scary site! But we realized how fun we will have in the future doing kids ministry TOGETHER!

Week of Oct. 1-7, 2007

Just one I think one week is busy and crazy - the next one is even crazier!

We had dance classes as usual,...we had the girls each drop one class - we just can't afford for them to take two classes each, no matter how badly they want to. So this week they chose which class they wanted to stay in. Sara is staying in hip hop and Elissa is staying in Musical Theater. Girl scouts started this week - I am the co-leader for Sara's Daisy Troop. That was fun!

On Wednesday a friend of ours from our home congregation had his heart stop while in class at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. He actually flatlined and was brought back by the help of a defibulator and a professsor and a students quick thinking with cpr. Dr's have said he shouldn't be here,....thank you Lord! Jason is 33 years old. They moved down this way the same time we did - and we were so blessed to be able to be there with them through this. We visited at the hospital every day. Matt even donned his "Pastor shirt" (collar) and brought a Communion kit and administered Communion to Jason (Jen and I) before his surgery. It's awesome to serve the Lord's people,...but even more awesome when you can serve a friend. Jason had a defibulator put into his body as a reassurance in the future - that if this happens again - he'll have a back up. Praise be to God that he put Jason where he was and had the right people and equipment all in line,....he surely knows what he's doing! :)

So much of our week was spent visiting them, but also on Friday afternoon, friends from back "home" (Schaumburg, IL) came down to visit for the weekend. Jessica and her daughter Natalie. Jessica and I went scrapbooking together on Friday night - I needed that! And on Saturday we went to Grant's Farm (a few minutes from our house) and on Sunday we went to church (I sang and Matt did the children's message) and we also drove an hour to Meramac Caverns. These are a series of caves - where Jesse James hid out! Oooooooooh. It was neat - the kids all experienced their first cave! We also took them twice to go see Jason (and Jen) while they were down here.

Matt just left for a meeting at church - he missed a few classes last week to be with Jason - so he has a lot of catching up to do. He very much feels that friends and family come first. Now he'll be busy this week, I'm sure.

Lord, thank you for your mercy. Thank you for bringing Jason back to us. Thank you for our church family and for their support and love through everything. We are so blessed by you, Lord. Most of all, thank you for your son, Jesus Christ - who gave his all. May we give our all to you in return.

This is us at Grant's Farm. Grant's Farm is owned and operated by Anheiser Busch. They have a tram ride through a safari style park and animal shows. And horses (the Clydesdales!). Here's Janet, Jessica, Sara, Natalie & Elissa

Here's the four of us at Meramac Caverns, MO. It's amazing to see the beauty that God created on this Earth. Can you imagine what's in store for us?!

Week of Sept 23-Sept. 30, 2007

This week was a busy one. At least the weekend was. During the week, Matt decided after much prayer to drop one class at the Seminary. It was too many hours, too much reading and not enough time for all the other commitments he has. He has many more responsibilites at the fieldwork church this year and the added vicarage meetings. So now he has one less class to read for,...yet he's still reading all the time.

On Monday night Matt led worship at The Lutheran Church of Webster Gardens. One of his professors gave Matt some great advise this week, "Jesus Christ already died for the church. We as future Pastors do not have to." In other words don't kill yourself with all the pressures etc. I think he liked hearing that.

On Thursday evening we had a visit by a seminary wife and her two children that we hadn't seen in awhile. Good friends and it was great fellowship. The husbands were too busy "studying"!!

On Friday night we drove one hour northwest of our house to a suburb called St. Peters, MO. There's a mega church there called Church on the Rock that was hosting a concert. We took the kids with us to go see Barlow Girl, Matthew West and Toby Mac. It was great fun,...LOUD!!! We did not stay till the end. We left at 9:40pm and got home at 10:30pm. (the girls had two soccer games the next morning!)

Saturday morning we headed out for Sara's soccer game at 8am. (ugh!) And Matt coached the kids. He was so cute out there with the little ones! And they won!!!

Then Elissa had a game at 10am. Matt coaches that team too. Got some great pictures. Remember when I said I was so proud that Matt didn't bring a book to the zoo,....well check out the picture attached today -- he's trying to read while playing soccer!!!

Saturday night Matt stayed in studying while I took the kids to movie night at our fieldwork church. They offer free hot dogs, popcorn, drinks and a movie to anyone who attends. They have a discussion on biblical views on the movie for the kids. It's really a lot of fun and a great outreach. The kids bring friends, and bring sleeping bags, blankets, pillows and lay all over the gym floor. We watched "Over the Hedge" this month. (they do this every month).

Today, we had to be at church by 8:30am to be presented to the congregation again. They introduced all the fieldworkers and their families today. We needed to be at both services for this. We met a lady and her husband who has a sister that lives in Schaumburg and has been attending our home congregation -- she knew all about us!! It's such a small world! Matt taught 8th grade confirmation and I sat in and watched. The girls attended Kingdom Quest upstairs. Tonight is my first night at my second part time job: doing set design at the Disney Store. I'm looking forward to that!

Praise be to God for you,...our friends and family, who are always encouraging us and lifting us up in prayer. Thank you!

This is the concert on Friday night! Over 6,000 in attendance,...it was sold out.

This is Matt, Elissa and Janet at the concert (Sara took the picture). I love Elissa's tshirt from Barlow Girl: "be a voice, not an echo"

Sara playing at her soccer game - KICK!

Here's Elissa playing soccer with her Dad. Notice the "Luther The Reformer - The Story of the Man and His Career" book in his right hand!

Week of Sept. 17 - Sept. 23, 2007

I can't believe it's time to write on here again. A week goes by fast doesn't it?!


The girls had the usual during the week - dance class, girl scouts, and soccer. Elissa made her first GOAL on Saturday - it was quite exciting!!! And Sara played very, very well also. We have to split up for their games - so I missed Elissa's goal! I hope she does another one when I'm there!


I worked three days and I also joined a gym this week. I have gained 20 lbs. since we moved here and I am determined to lose it! I joined a place where I can lift weights or do the aerobic machines. I went twice this week,....just have to keep it up! :) This morning I was asked to lead music for the Kingdom Quest Sunday School program. I showed up, got a mic on and was ready to go,...when I was asked to do two other things - short on volunteers?!! Can you believe it?! Does anyone else have this problem?!! ha-ha! So I was also in a skit playing two different female parts. I had to do a quick change and say a couple lines! It's always more fun when things are done last minute!!! I so enjoy leading the kids in song - what a gift from God to watch them grow in his faith through music.

Matt had a neat first time experience this week. Our fieldwork church has a "seeker" service on Friday nights for those 17 years in age - 27 years of age. It's called REACH 1727. They have a band, and have a message - but it's not really a "service". Matt got asked to help participate by giving the message for the evening. He really enjoyed this. He also taught confirmation again this morning.


This week was also the first of many "vicarage" meetings. (It's interesting how they want spouses to come, but don't supply babysitters,....yet for me to come I had to hire a babysitter and it cost us $30 to go to this meeting. The meeting was about living on a vicarage budget/pastor's budget etc. We just found that humerous.) The vicarage is the year in which we will spend "somewhere" (yet to be determined) as an internship. Then we return to St. Louis for one more last year of schooling before our call to a church. This meeting was a little intimidating and now my mind races about things out of my control and also a ways off. I really have to learn to really throw my worries on the Lord and trust in him. I know where we are sent is where he wants us. It's all just a little scary. Please pray for us and all the other Seminarians and families going through this same step - it is scary for all of us and we could use prayers!


Love and blessings to you!



This Wednesday the girls both had a half day and the four of us went to the St. Louis Zoo. Matt came along with us and didn't bring a book!!! (we were so proud!)

Week of Sept. 10 - Sept. 16, 2007

Well, the blog begins,....

This week began with going to small group last Sunday night. We joined a small group from our fieldwork church last year and are still with the same group. There were a few new people and we had lots of fun sharing stories and getting to know one another. Matt did a sermon at the local nursing home after church last Sunday, and taught 8th grade confirmation also.

Monday night the kids started dance classes at a new studio. I think they really liked it. Matt recieved some information on the upcoming Vicarage meetings this week too. Many meetings coming up - oh that reminds me I have to get a babysitter,...wives are expected to attend! I had Praise Band practice Tuesday and I sang today. I only sing every three weeks on rotation. What an awesome way to praise the Lord! (and fun!) I was asked to lead singing for the Kingdom Quest Sunday School next weekend - whew! It's always something! Matt is constantly reading - the Seminary is like a giant Book Club - read and discuss,...read and discuss. On Wednesday Matt and I went to Grant's Farm together ALONE! (the kids were in school) Wed. is the only day I don't work and Matt doesn't have class until 12:30pm - so we try to do something together! The weather has been beautiful - the hot weather is gone (for the moment). It's been in the 70's and 80's. It looks like we're getting the 90's again this week though - so it was short lived. Hurry up fall!!!!

Matt's classes are very intense this quarter and he struggles with the expectations of reading, papers and presentations. These coupled with his desire to still be a good father and husband - makes life difficult at times. He feels overwhelmed and also a bit of pressure,...he's gotten straight A's so far since starting - I think he needs to get a B or C,...to make him feel "normal". (ha-ha) He is teaching confirmation every Sunday morning for the next 4 weeks. And we just found out that in October he will be doing his first sermon at the fieldwork church.

I'm keeping busy - working 10-12 hours a week and volunteering at school. This week we went on a field trip to Lewis and Clark's Expedition Site and to the Lock and Dam in Alton, IL. (with Elissa's class) The girls began soccer this week too. Sara had a game - Elissa just had practice. Sara's team lost by one point! She was so cute out there! Matt is assistant coaching for both teams. (in his spare time) Blessings to you, our beloved friends and family - we love you!

Pictures of the week:

Sara playing at her soccer game yesterday.

This is Matt's 8th grade confirmation Class on Sunday mornings at Webster Gardens.

Sara & Elissa at their first night of Dance class this week.

This is Elissa's 4th grade class from Christ Community. This was taken on their field trip to the Locks and Dam in Alton, IL. Elissa is the first on the left in the back row.

Yeah! Our own Blog.

This is us when we began this process,...

Hello everyone!

We finally created a blog-site to keep everyone posted of what is happening in the life of the Peterson's while we are away at Concordia Seminary in Saint Louis, Missouri. Please check for updates as we will post new entries every Sunday night.

This will be a great way to communicate with our family and friends!

May God be glorified in all we say and do through his son Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. AMEN.