We are still here...

 

We are still here in Nenana, preaching the Word and loving the people. We are in our fifth winter here and this one seems like the coldest.  They all seem like the coldest!  Temps these last few days have been down to -60 degrees F.  Way COLD! 

Our kids are doing great.  Aerin is homeschooled this year in 8th grade, but she is taking mostly high school classes from online sources.  She does go to the public school for band and is looking forward to music fest in April.  Ethan is just finishing up a unit on Da Vinci for his fifth grade homeschool lessons.  He is also in the public school band, and both kiddos play the trombone.  Emily has two bottom teeth and is really a joy to have around.  We all dote on her and spoil her rotten.

Bill is starting a new preaching series, Daniel one month and Thessalonians the next, until both are done.  He just finished going through the book of Romans.  Church attendance is down when it is so cold, but we usually expect about 40 attendees when it is -20 or warmer.  Bill is attending a Men's Retreat this weekend featuring Bible Study, Bullets and BBQ.

I am busy being the homeschool teacher, working as a file clerk ten hours a week, being a mom, wife and friend.  We have had some traumatic events during the last year and every day I struggle with heartache.  But I guess you can learn to live with it and it is not the overwhelming emotion all the time.  My kids and husband make every day a joy, and I try not to dwell on the things that are so upsetting. 

I was reading in Daniel last week and some of my favorite verses are in chapter 3.

¹⁶ Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to him, “King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. ¹⁷ If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. ¹⁸ But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”

Bill's mom, Cheryl Troxel, passed away unexpectedly yesterday.  She was found dead after passing away in her sleep during the night.

Bill has left for Iowa to make arrangements and to conduct the services.

We are all shocked and saddened by this turn of events as Cheryl was planning on moving in with us at the beginning of May. 

Please pray for Bill during this stressful time and for Cheryl's family in Iowa.

Merry Christmas from the Troxels!

Winter 2010

Dear Friends,

I hope this post finds you healthy and content.  May the spirit of God be with you this blessed holy season. We have had so many things to be thankful for this year, although we have also been through some hard times.  I hope to hear from all of you soon and hope you will share what God has been doing in your lives too.

Our New Year started out with a bang!  We found out that we were going to have a baby in September.  We were all full of joy and very excited. However, the baby was miscarried the end of February, the last full day we were in Hawaii on vacation.  Hawaii was warm and wonderful in February.  We had an exciting time there; we were evacuated from Waikiki due to a tsunami warning! But we also got to visit the zoo, Pearl Harbor, beaches, shopping districts, and we had good times visiting with my mom and dad and grandma, who were also in Hawaii with us.
 

We also got to visit Disneyland this year!  We spent the month of October traveling in California.  We stayed in LA for a week and visited not only Disneyland, but California Adventure Park, the California Science Center, La Brea tar pits, and Hollywood.  Then we spent a week at a friend’s family’s cabin up in the San Bernardino Mountains, west of LA.  We rode Amtrak from LA to Redding, and visited with some fellow Village Missionaries in Willow Creek, CA.  They let us borrow their car to spend a day viewing the Redwoods along the coast.  We returned to the train and continued on to southern Washington, where we attended a VM conference in Ocean Park.  We were gone long enough to really miss Nenana.

Bill was diagnosed with “Mood Disorder due to a Chronic Medical Condition”, depression related to losing the baby and from dealing with his liver condition.  He was put on medication that greatly reduces the pain level he constantly experiences and is also an anti-depressant.  He is feeling much better lately, after being on the medication and going to counseling this year.  I have also been diagnosed with two more medical conditions this fall.  I’m pregnant again! We are expecting a new little Troxel in May.  The pregnancy has aggravated a condition I already had; Premature Atrial Contractions, a condition were the parts of my heart don’t beat in sync.  This is normal according to the doctor; but it is uncomfortable, and the symptoms should decrease after the baby is born. 

Aerin and Ethan are growing tall and more wonderful every day!  They are excited about the baby and can’t wait for it to arrive.  They won trophies in Tae Kwon Do this year for sparring and patterns.  Aerin plays trombone in the junior high school band; Ethan played Santa Claus in the class Christmas play.  Aerin was also elected president of the local 4H ATV safety club.  They both attended Camp Li-Wa this last summer, and had a fabulous time. When we returned from California, they both had chicken pox.  They are very good kids and make us proud. 

We started a new hobby this year.  We are now chicken owners!  We have 19 hens and one rooster and I enjoy them so much.  Gathering eggs is a real treasure hunt.  We are using and selling the eggs.  We made them a house out of straw for the winter and next summer plan to make them a real coop.

May God bless and keep you and yours.

Aerin got braces!

We have been helping with Project Overhaul this summer, a local effort to clean up Nenana.  We took 14 tons out of town this summer already, and there will be a few more work days scheduled.

A picture of Aerin

A photo of Ethan

This is Lynn, a friend from Tok, who has been spending a lot of time with us this summer.

We hosted a Freecycle at our house and lots of people showed up.  We love to BBQ and talk so we had a great time!

The kids and I took a walk and found this old car seat out by the river.  We sat for awhile and enjoyed the breeze.

There was a fabulous double rainbow!  The sun was shining through it so beautifully, there was more than one set of colors on the big rainbow. 

We have a beautiful new sign!  We put this sign up and take it down every week. 

Two more quilts given away.  That is now four this year.  I hope the kids feel loved and always can find a hug within the quilt when they need it.

Two more quilts to be given away today.  My friend had two little foster girls arrive with nothing more than their clothes on their backs.  I thought the girlies would like a quilt of their own.  The first one was half finished, (had been for about a year) so I got it out and finished it yesterday.  The green one was just waiting for the right kid to come along.

We were invited on a boat ride upriver with our neighbors. I took lots of photos! I want to share them with you!

Can you see the temperature!!!! 83.1 degrees at 4:22 p.m. This was in the shade! WOW!

This was our AWANA group for 2009-2010. We had a great year and the kids did so great! In the last 10 weeks they finished 283 sections!
Aerin finished her fourth T & T book this year and got a trophy, the Timothy Award. She is the only kid in Nenana AWANA that has ever earned this award.

We love AWANA!

Bill was the commencement speaker at Alaska Bible College this year. This was the last class that would remember him as a student. Graduation was May 8, so we made a weekend of it and went to Glennallen and Tok. We saw 11 moose, 11 caribou, beaver, rabbits and porcupines on the way down and back. We stayed with good friends and had a nice relaxing time.


Our little chicks are turning into chickens! This is a rabbit hutch turned upside down and made into a chicken pen. The kids can fit inside and they go and sit with the chicks.

Ethan has become quite the artist with the Etch-A-Sketch! I know I couldn't do this!

What a great Mother's Day present from Bill! Just what I wanted. But cooking with stainless steel is certainly different than non-stick!


We are having fun with the chicks. The kids each took two to school today for show and tell. They are so fun to watch!

Marshmallows!

Both kids won trophies in the Tae Kwon Do tournament held in Nenana this last weekend. Aerin got first in Sparring and third in Patterns and Ethan got first in patterns and third in Sparring!

This week is incredibly busy. Maggie has a sore on her leg, so she went to the vet yesterday for medicine and to update her shots. While we were gone the landlord came over and replaced some of the porch boards. Today is helping with Project Overhaul, a local clean up effort, then Wellness in Nenana meeting, then a funeral for Bob Eldridge followed by a potluck, then a meeting this evening about the gas pipeline. Wednesday is the Ethan's class field trip and the Spring Concert in the evening. Thursday is Aerin's class field trip, the Crowly Community Picnic and Races, and 4H in the evening. Friday is the School Clean-Up BBQ followed by a community Clean-Up Day. Saturday nothing yet. Sunday is Graduation followed by a picnic party for the graduates. Whew!

Ethan and I both got new hairdo's for spring!


We are dog sitting this little dog named Baby for some friends. Maggie (the black and white one) is our little dog.Spring is here! I have since raked up the leaves in the yard!


The kiddos dyed some eggs for Easter.

And our new project for the summer is chickens! We have 20 chicks. We bought all these, we tried to hatch some from eggs, but they didn't make it. Out of 12 eggs, there were four that had chicks in them, but they never hatched.

We have some bad news and I am so heart broken having to post it.

The baby we were eagerly awaiting miscarried on March 1st.

Sermons Now Online

We have something new at Nenana Community Church…

I received an excellent suggestion from a member that is in the lower 48 for the next few months. He asked about having sermons recorded so that he and his family could listen in even when they are away for a time. What a great idea! Alaskans love to travel and making sermons available is an excellent ministry opportunity.

The elders chatted about the best way to accomplish this request and we now have a new mp3 recorder. Added to the mix is that the other 2 elders have extensive backgrounds in the skill set to produce a reasonably refined audio track for posting online.

Look on the left hand side of the blog for a list of sermons. Click on the link and it will take you to Bill's blog with a short summary of the topic and a link to the sermon download.

The 2nd Annual Chili-Off was held January 9th, 2010. There were four more contestants than last year, and all the chili was really good. Each chili was judged in every category and the one with the most points overall was the grand champion!


The judges were left to right, Rebekah Thompson, Carl Horn, Bill Troxel and Wayne Miller.


The winners were Sam Verhagen, Tastiest Chili (2nd year in a row);


Prettiest Chili went to Terri Thompson;


And Hottest and Grand Champion to Jeff Coghill (2nd year in a row)!!!! Photo is from 2009.

Congratulations!!!

******

We had a very busy but very happy Christmas. From the week before Thanksgiving until Christmas Day we had something to do every day. Places to go, people to see, things to do.

On Christmas, we opened presents in the morning and then visited with two different sets of friends before we left on vacation. We so needed it. But it wasn't really an all rest vacation, we were visiting supporters and friends all through Alaska.


This is near Eureka, between Glennallen and Anchorage. I am always amazed at how beautiful Alaska is, every time of year. The sky was so blue and the snow was so white. God is so creative!

The frost was really incredible. It must have stuck out about six inches from the one side of the power pole. All the trees were droopy and the power lines must have been four inches in diameter. It was really cool.


I was taking pictures through my sunglasses and this one is really neat. Darn it though, my sunglasses got broken on this trip. I really liked the purple tint.


This is my friend Esther. I like this photo because we both look so happy.

Esther took this picture of me and Bill so we could have a formal photograph for Village Missions. We don't do formal very often! In fact, we had to borrow some clothes to take the picture!

We will be going to Hawaii in February for a real incognito vacation! We are all looking forward to laying on the beach and soaking up some sun!