Hopefully making theology simpler to understand! (2 Corinthians 1:12)

Quite a bit of this, I admit, I just copied and pasted! I changed and added what was needed.

Did you know more stuff happened this year? (*extreme sarcasm)

On some positive notes, my Youth Group managed to have a lot of fun this year, especially in the fall semester as we went through the Gospel of Mark and discussed missionaries of today and history. There was also a major focus on evangelism training this year. I also stepped down as youth pastor in mid-December, rounding out 7.5 years. More than likely, more news is to come on the ministry front.

The Instructional Assistant (one step below professor, but I still teach … but mostly grade work and keep students on task) for Christian Worldview at Grand Canyon University job continues proving fruitful in many ways, and I added PHI-101 to my list of classes. A major fruit is that I personally have gotten to lead several people to faith in Christ and help others grow deeper in their faith, as well as helping some who had been antagonistic to religion in general and Christianity in particular be more open-minded. That is pretty cool. A negative this year has been the amount of AI usage in writing. (The CWV textbook was apparently written by such authors as Wes Anderson, Edward B. Adams from 40 years ago, and several people who were not Christians until very recently.)

I had another full year in seminary, including taking biblical Greek. Unlike many seminarians who get super-academic and feel the need to give their hearers “all the information” and then find themselves getting pulled out of the devotional side of Bible reading and discipleship, I actually found my love for ministry deepening and my teachings getting more pastoral and *gasp* fun! Even more than last year, to the point that some people were getting excited about my excitement. God is so good! I also am set to graduate with my M.Div. in April!

There were new controversies (the biggest probably being Michael Tait of Newsboys/DC Talk fame having his dramatic fall), Christian persecution increased globally (the biggest being Nigeria’s violence and assassination of Charlie Kirk), and many wars and rumors of wars and even newfound peace.

Overall, we had a good year in our house.

And God is still good and in control.

This next year will definitely be … 2026.

In any event, may you receive an abundance of bunches of blessings this year. And though life may take some effort to trudge through, fall on the promises of God, this year and always.

The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.Numbers 6:24-26, ESV

In His Love,

Daniel