Here it is(Just a little late)

“From Our House To Yours”

The Holloways 2009

What a fantastically busy year we’ve had! Our year started at Scott’s parents in Alberta. On January 15^th we headed to our new home in Kindersley, SK, where the Lord was leading us to start a new church. Our big steel box arrived before us and was unloaded by family and friends. Much faster than we imagined! Scott was heading back to work for his dad on the Monday, so we unpacked almost everything before he left and had the house looking mostly normal before he left. Our life over the next month included weekend visits from Scott and one more week spent at his folks. We traveled several hours to Swift Current and Saskatoon to attend church before holding our first services at the Elks Hall on Sunday, March 29^th.

In March we found out that the Lord was blessing us with a 4^th child! We later found out that Elyssia had been praying for a baby sisiterJ The next couple months included extreme nausea for me, a visit from my mom and our first Evangelist! Getting to know people in the community better and fitting Dr. visits in between.

The summer just flew by with family visits, organizational meetings, door knocking, etc… We headed to Scott’s folks for Canada Day and Scott performed his first wedding for his cousin on the 4^th of JulyJ. At the end of July we welcomed old friends and new for the organizational meetings and saw a good turnout for each night of the meetings. We’d sent out 16,000 John and Romans a couple weeks beforehand and there were about 60 at the meetings each night. Praise the Lord! Most of the doors in Kindersley were knocked on during the week as well. We’ve been blessed to have several articles written for us by the local newspaper. For free! Even if people haven’t visited, they know we’re here and what we believe, thanks to literature and articles circulated among the community.

Before I forget! There was another addition to the Holloway House this summer. Elyssia earned her puppy and named him Sam, the explorer dog, Holloway. He quickly grew into a LARGE puppy and has made a good, though messy, watchdog.

In September we made several visits to the Hospital with regular contractions, thinking that the baby was coming. God’s timing is best and Kiersten Blythe Holloway was born on Sat, October 3^rd at 11:39 pm. She was 13 days early, weighed 7lbs, 2oz and was 20 inches long. So far she is a sweet, contented baby. Her siblings adore her and Elyssia saw God answer her prayers once again.

Scott has been extremely busy working as a carpenter, pastor, husband and father. He has many “hats” and often has to change clothes 3 times in order to be at each one throughout the course of the day. In Spring he managed to plant 1,000 seedlings and keeping them watered was quite the task. We had a fairly decent garden as well and enjoyed eating most of it fresh. An early frost killed some of it, but the Lord blessed and we’re thankful for what we had. Scott has been doing Bible studies and hymn sings at Caleb Village and helping out at the legion hall in town. He was able to put up a fence for them this summer and helped with the Remembrance Day ceremonies this fall. The Lord has given him the energy to deal with it all and this is only our first year of ministry. Somewhere in the middle of all this we’ve been blessed to purchase a church building in town. It’s been such a blessing to have our own facilities and stay around for fellowship whenever we want toJ.

As for me.- Hmmm…Life has been busy trying to keep up as wife, mother, secretary, pastor’s wife, daughter, friend, etc… I’ve definitely felt the Lord helping me to change in so many ways. Being able to give more to others, even when my physical strength is low. There were many times where we looked at each other and felt that we should be exhausted, but instead we were excited and energized because of seeing what the Lord was doing with us and the town of Kindersley. There have been several new things that the Lord has helped me to do, including feeding a large crowd several times in one week. I was thankful that I had my mother-in-law there to help me thoughJ. Making cinnamon rolls and pies from scratch has also been a neat experience. I find that I’m becoming more and more of a farm wife these days, although we don’t have all the farm animals. Just the way I think and cook sometimes. Homeschooling Elyssia has also been a new experience. There is a good support group in the area that I was blessed to attend and get some encouragement from. Within 2 weeks Elyssia had started reading full books and she’s like a train that’s been set on course and there’s no stopping her(for now anywayJ). Kiersten has also been a big adjustment. Okay, she’s small, but figuring out how to do errands, etc with 4 instead of 3 has been a bit of a challenge. Sometimes it requires 2 carts if we’re planning to purchase more than a couple items. I sometimes feel like everyone is staring, perhaps because the kids are so close in age, but I guess that that’s part of being a parent. I’m just thankful they’re not staring because the children are throwing tantrums or something like that.

Elyssia’s Update: She turned 5 this October! She’s a big help to me with the baby and her brothers(although they don’t always appreciate her helpJ). Her latest interests, other than books, are sewing, pet shops and baby sister.

Garrison’s Update: He turned 3 and he’s growing like a weed! He loves to help his dad build stuff and go on adventures. Eliminating his need for diapers has been a huge blessing for all of us. He currently loves books, moose, tools, G.I. Joes and tells us that he wants to be a Mountie Preacher when he grows up. He also says frequently that his name is “Gary” because his friend Josh calls him that. I think that his Grandpa Prisk would have liked that.

Caleb’s Update: Hmmm… well update is a good word for him. He’s always climbing “up” on something. He also falls off of stuff frequently, but that’s beside the pointJ. He has a limited vocabulary, but still manages to let you know what he wants. He currently loves”his” baby, Legos, books, and anything he can steal from his sibling, especially if it involves food.

We’ve settled in quite well now and the goal for the time being is trying to stay organized amid the busyness of this new life of ours. Having a schedule for the kids helps a lot. So many new experiences and friends in such a short time. One friend said that I must be writing a Christmas “novel”. That’s a good idea for the futureJ. Well, that about wraps it up for us. We hope that everyone else has had a productive and blessed year. May you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Love, The Holloways

Scott, Meleah

Elyssia, Garrison,

Caleb & Kiersten