Happy New Year 2024

 Happy New Year!

As the boys get older, there are just so many new opportunities; though most of our homeschooling lives remain the same filled with Classical Conversations Co-op, FHE Sports, CBS Bible Study and Youth Group at Emmanuel and Two Cities Church. Joel is 13 and in 7th grade, while Jack is 15 and in 10th grade! Mike changed jobs last December and is still enjoying working at Honda Aircraft (Jet) in Greensboro and being the treasurer at Trail Life (the Christian “Boy-scout” group). I tried to eliminate some activities to be less busy, but I am still coaching track and have helped with the swim team and cross-country, the sports the kids are involved in. Homeschooling is still busy, though they are more independent.

Track started in mid-February and life was pretty busy until May. Jack throws the shot and discus and runs the 200 meter race. Joel loves to run hurdles and mid-distances like the 600 meter race. Maybe this year since doing cross country, he will run a longer race!

In March, Jack got his learner's permit and already has all the hours he needs to get his license, he just has to wait until March 12th!  By the end of April , Joel finished Foundation, Jack finished Challenge I and I finished teaching Essentials with our homeschool co-op called Classical Conversations. After Challenge I was finally over, Jack had the opportunity to go to Washington DC with his co-op class. It was certainly an adventure to bike around DC. 

Every summer, for years, the kids have participated with a summer swim team. This past summer was the only summer in the past 7 years that Joel didn't swim with the summer swim team. June was so cold, even Jack, who always wears shorts, said the water was so cold and it was definitely too cold for Joel. Jack swam with Willow Run pool until literally the day before the championship meet when he dislocated his shoulder for the 2nd time. During and after the swim team, Jack went away for three different trips, one with Emmanuel and two with Two Cities. His favorite was to Mendenhall, Mississippi on a mission trip and plans to go again. Joel did the trip to camp with Two Cities, but is planning to do the mission trip this coming summer to Virginia Beach!

In mid-July, Yuta, our exchange student from Japan, came to stay for three weeks. He experienced day-to-day things with us, but we also took him to Vacation Bible School at Emmanuel, swimming at the pool and Lake Norman with our neighbors, Pilot Mountain, Korner’s Folly, Old Salem, Rockin’ Jump trampoline park, Appalachian State in Boone and to the beach Kitty Hawk. Of course, while in Old Salem we got a Moravian sugar cake kit that the boys got to make! 

Once Yuta returned home, our former neighbors, the Quiros family came to Boone to visit and we enjoyed hiking with them at Price Park. School also started and life has been busy ever since with Jack starting Challenge II and Joel starting Challenge A. We all began doing Community Bible Study again studying I and II Samuel, and I am also doing BSF (Bible Study Felllowship) but not leading this year.  I’m grateful for a wonderful leader, Rhonda Lockhart!

This fall, Joel became a serious cross country runner thanks to a great coach, Mark Hanson, and a great bunch of middle school boys like Kylor Williams, Abe Hancox, Matthew Speas, and Dom Hanson! I am so grateful for their positive influence! Joel's cross country season ended in October with his middle school boys team winning the Homeschool State Championship! What a blessing to see them work as a team! Even before cross country finished, FHE swim began for both of them.

During Thanksgiving, we went for our second time to Eagle's Nest Children's Home in Solola, Guatemala. We were all actively involved working with the children, but Mike also worked with a couple of other guys and made a room that will serve as a “hospital” room there to help with the cost of children that have medical needs. Jack and Joel worked with VBS a couple days and with the teenagers a couple days in the mornings, and in the afternoon they were with the teenagers doing Bible study and playing games. Jack led the intro games during the teen time every day. I led the Vacation Bible School crafts every morning and sewed with the teenage girls and their house mom every afternoon. Our days were certainly full, but our time there is never long enough! Jack did dislocate his shoulder again while on the trip and is trying to strengthen it to be able to swim again.

In God’s perfect timing on December 9th at 4:30AM, I had the excitement of seeing Sylvie have 4 puppies, one boy and three girls. She is the best mama! Seeing her give birth was a wonderful reminder of Jesus’ birth and what a miracle new life is. So is a new life in Christ such a miracle. 2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. . ”

May this coming year you be filled with the joy and peace of being a new creation in Christ,
Caroline, Mike, Jack and Joel Fleischer