Hi all,
We wish you all a blessed Christmas and New Year and pray you are doing well. It has been a blessed year for our family and hope it has been for yours.
We are all healthy and well. I continue to serve as Pastor at Holy Cross Lutheran Church, we are looking for new ways minister as we continue to transition. This past year I also helped out part time at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in East Orange as thier Vice-pastor but hope to step down from this in the New Year to devote more time to family and our own congregation. Please pray for me about this. I continue to run and try to stay in shape and enjoy an occasional golf round with Paul.
Mei has been doing well and enjoys her swimming, exercize and time with the Taiwanese church in Livingston. She makes sure our house functions well and supports me to minister to the church. (A huge job!) She has found some extra joy this year by getting a plot at our local community garden in Springfield. She is hoping to get back to Taiwan to visit her father sometime in in the coming year.
We were blessed to be back at Silver Bay for memorial day weekend, as well as a week in the Poconos in June and week in Virginia Beach in August. We spent thanksgiving with Mom, Annemarie, and Declan in Bethlehem PA.
Beata has had an amazing year! In January she departed for Denmark for her semester abroad in Copenhagen. She had a very welcoming and friendly host family and was even able to learn some Danish. She visited family in Germany and Austria as well as traveling to Italy, France, Switzerland, Czech, Hungary and even the Faroe Islands (pictured). After coming home for the Summer she started an internship in project finance for bank in New York. She was offered a full time job to start sometime this coming Spring. She just graduated from Smith College this week with a double major in Statistical & Data Sciences and Economics. She will receive her diploma in May and we will go with her to celebrate witness the all the ceremony and tradition that Smith does for Ivy Day and their Baccalaureate. In the meantime, she plans to travel, spend some time with her boyfriend Gilbert and plan where she will live once she starts working in Manhattan.
Paul continues to thrive at Oratory Prep and in the pool. Last Spring he took a big step up as he not only began to qualify for events at the NJYMCA State Championships but also to think realistically about going to YMCA Nationals. His most recent medley relay swam a qualifying time but he really wants an individual time, that way he is guarantied a spot. He is very close to qualifying in the 100 Back and 100 Fly. His favorite class so far this year has been American Law and he has even joined Oratory's Mock Trial team where they reenact real court cases. He plays bass guitar in church almost every week, helps set up worship, and volunteers for all our service projects. This past summer he lifeguarded at the Summit Pool and also made the transition from athlete to coach as he became an assistant for Coach Karen at the Springfield Swim Team (pictured). He received particular praise for helping young swimmers improve their technique. He is starting to think about college now and is thinking about swimming while at school. He is on the recruiting lists of a number of DIII and DI schools in PA, NY, MA, OH and WI. Please pray for him as he works hard to pursue his goals and find the right school for him to thrive.
Thank you for reading our family update. We are so blessed to have so many people praying for us and sending their goodwill. We wish all God's blessings in the coming year and a very happy and joyful Christmas.
Dave Knecht and the Knecht Family
Mei, Beata & Paul
