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From the Maguires…

By Laura & Darrell Maguire

Laura and Darrell Maguire

Happy New Year Church Family!

Darrell and I want to express our thanksgivings through the past year, even through a difficult year.

We always send out a Christmas letter to friends, family, and former church family who we do not have the opportunity to connect with easily throughout the year. This year's letter was a Christmas letter of Thanksgiving which we debated sending to all of you, but it just did not feel like the right letter for our church family here in Simcoe.

So here is your New Year's Letter of Thanksgiving!

You all know of the difficult health scare of this past year for Darrell with heart infection, then collapsed lung from the heart surgery for valve repair and replacement. We are thankful for you praying us through this and realize how stressful this was for you, our church family. You were in the shock of it all right along with our birth families! Then you were told you could not visit, call us, or bring us anything! But you could stay updated through the emails/texts and pray. It is hard to feel that you are doing enough when in shock, but pray you did. And you supported each other, and kept God's ministries at First Baptist going.

We are thankful for each one of you. There are many who have only seen Darrell through YouTube since last January because of COVID hitting right after Darrell getting out of hospital, but we sense and feel our togetherness as a church family through it all, and pray that you do too.

There were many thanksgivings along the way such as the right nurse each day for what needed to happen that day, the right person asking about coming just when our son needed to be home but needed a drive, or me sorting out who was staying with me when I needed someone but my family needed a break and a text came. We are thankful for Cindy being my daily shield and communicator. I felt God close in all the uncertainties. Many little things were worked out before I knew they needed to be worked out. And that was God working through you and your prayers. So, thank you again.

I am thankful for the strong staff I have, and for Diane Sowers stepping in to look after the accounting side of things. We are thankful for our son and son-in-law getting a leave from teaching so they could be wherever needed each day. We are thankful that Darrell had gained enough strength that I could help Rachel with Melody for a few days when Oscar came into the world on April 23rd. Melody turned 2 in November and is singing up a storm! Our red-headed Oscar is now 8 months old and is ready to eat anything in site and get moving. Lewis, Josh's son, is now 18 months, stocky with curly hair like his Pops!

Thank you for your continued prayers, for being a big part of our New Year's Thanksgiving, for Christmas treats, cards, wishes, and blessings. We will see what lessons lay ahead for us all in 2021. Stay well.

Contents for January, 2021

A January Event
From Darrell's Desk
Volunteers for 2021
Church Updates
Church Treasurer
From the Maguires…
Christmas Outreach
Annual Reports
What to Expect When Joining
Lessons in Greek
Opportunities for Everyone
The Back Page

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