New Haircut!

Okay, so I'm really bad at trying to take pictures of myself, but I think you can get the idea!
This past weekend Dave spoke at Hartland Christian Camp in Badger, CA for their J-high Winter Camp. I got to spend the weekend with my parents in Oregon City. We both had a great time. Dave spoke 6 times over the weekend to 100 kids and enjoyed an awesome tube run in a couple feet of snow! He said it was beautiful at the camp. His topic was Romans 12 and overcoming evil with good. I had a very nice, relaxing time with my parents. It was good to be able to hang out and catch up with them. My dad barbequed us a delicious steak dinner to make Dave jealous! My mom was very gracious and helped me a lot preparing the decorations for our church dinner/talent show next weekend (I will take pics and hopefully do a post about that!) She also gave me my new haircut :-). Dave was surprised when I met him at the airport with my new look!

Behind the Times!

Wow, I cannot believe it's almost the end of January and this is the first I've written since our Christmas letter! Sorry about that!
Well, here's a quick update on our family.
We enjoyed being snowed in for a while in December and had a hard time transitioning back to work. It was very nice to have the extra time together. We played a lot of games and read a lot of books!
Christmas was a wonderful time with both families in spite of plans being changed due to weather. We went up to the Davis side for New Year's Day instead of Christmas to give time for the snow to melt. Dave and I were thrilled with an assortment of books, games, movies, and clothes for Christmas. Dave also got a couple of "Restaurant Recipe Cookbooks" that both families are excited to fully experience :-)!

Dave and a few men from church have recently started up a men's ministry program. Last Sunday was their first men's Bible Study. They are working through the book, Disciplines of a Godly Man. They had a great turnout and a good discussion on the first chapter. We look forward to the men's ministry taking off at Grace and are so grateful for the way God blessed this effort.

In January, I started a few new jobs--I am now working as an assistant to another realtor in my office a couple days a week instead of being an agent myself. This means I can't personally represent buyers or sellers, but I can refer them to Yolanda and receive a referral fee. It also means I don't have to pay the monthly dues or advertising fees, which in this economy, is VERY nice! I am very much enjoying the change of pace and not having to stress the finances. I'm also nannying one day a week for a friend's little boy (Bronson Deets) and putting a few hours in for my parents testing their software program. I am so thankful and aware of God providing each of these opportunities for me this year. I was praying about what to do and each job was offered at just the right time. God's timing is an incredibly scary yet wonderfully freeing thing!

Last weekend, we had our first 2009 J-High Retreat! We joined 4 other Dallas churches in putting on the retreat for 95 students. Dave and another youth pastor spoke on coming out of the darkness into the light. On Saturday, we bused the kids up to the Lloyd Center and went ice skating and shopping (That was one of those stressful afternoons that I spent constantly counting to make sure my charges were all there!) Overall, it was a great time, but boy were we thankful for our bed when we got home!

Other than that, things have been pretty routine with youth group 2x/week and Sunday School keeping us busy! Dave is looking forward to a church Super Bowl party next weekend, and I am excited that my family will be coming over on Saturday to celebrate Anna's 23rd b-day! Sophie is apparently saying quite a few words now, and of course her baby boy continues to keep her tummy growing! I am a proud auntie!

Christmas Letter 2008!

I don't have everyone's email addresses, so I decided to post our Christmas "letter" on the blog! Here it is :-).

December 2008
Dear Family and Friends,

The last two nights at youth group, we've had our annual Gingerbread House Making Contests and talked about the 300 plus Old Testament prophecies that Jesus fulfilled when He came to earth to be our Savior. The probability of one man fulfilling only 8 prophecies by luck or by effort is staggering (10 to the 17th power!), and Jesus fulfilling over 300 is definitive proof of His Lordship! We are so grateful to serve a risen Savior and have been overwhelmingly blessed by His work in our lives and those around us in 2008!

We began the year with more work on the youth center at church. We were able to knock down a wall (with the help of several wonderful church members) to enlarge the main room, allowing up to 55 high schoolers to squeeze in there for youth group! (With that many kids, we are thankful that Oregon doesn't have too many warm evenings, or it begins to smell like a locker room after game time!) Shortly after the new year, Dave put together a high school mission team to spend a week in Ensenada, Mexico. We held training meetings each month leading up to the trip, as well as putting on two major fundraisers--a dinner talent show and an all-church garage sale! Through generous donations, the team raised enough to cover travel costs and had an additional amount to bless the church we were partnering with in Ensenada!

The summer was, of course, a busy time. We did some home improvement projects, adding a deck to the back of our house and carpeting Dave's "man cave" (also known as the laundry room) downstairs. It has been so nice to have those things done, especially for enjoying barbeques outside! We spent 10 days traveling to, working in, and traveling home from Ensenada the end of June--a challenging but very rewarding time! In July, Dave became "Dr. Wienerschnitzel" for our church's VBS--complete with spiky white hair to give that mad scientist impression! Immediately following VBS, Dave once again had the opportunity to speak at Hartland Christian Camp in California, along with his dad. His mom and I got to go along, and I was able to speak to the girls one of the nights when Dave spoke to the boys. We also enjoyed playing in the church softball league, taking the youth groups rafting on the Deschutes, and I led a Bible study during the month of August for the girls.

I continued to work in real estate this past year, but with the current economy, I have decided to get out of it for a while and pursue other things. I keep very busy with youth group activities, and I have been co-teaching the J-high Sunday School class with one of the dads. Dave and I have enjoyed lots of wonderful family time this year. Our niece, Sophie is now 16 months old and is a joy to be around as she discovers and delights in the things around her! We are also experiencing the toddler stage with Dave's parents' puppy, Blue! Dave has had the opportunity to preach in church service several times this year.

We are so grateful for each one of you and pray this Christmas season finds you drawing ever closer to our Savior!

With love,
Dave and Amy Bertolini

Family Time with the Bertolinis

Dandy and Ashley came down for family pictures the 1st of November, but I haven't been able to post them til now because we were giving them as a surprise for Dad and Mom and Gpa and Gma for Christmas. We spent a couple days at the beach with Dad, Mom, Dandy, Ashley, and Blue and Red (their dogs), this past weekend and celebrated early Christmas (because I couldn't wait anymore to give Mom the picture!) and Ashley's 21st birthday (which was actually yesterday).

We took a Nintendo Wi to the beach and all enjoyed "bowling," "tennis," "golf," and "boxing." It was a lot of fun, though I'm sure we looked ridiculous! While Dandy and Dave mastered the art of staying in one place and flicking their wrists, Ashley and I were jumping all over the room, as if playing the sports in real life! We also enjoyed walking on the beach--again, God blessed us with beautiful weather. We are especially grateful for that, as we hear reports that it might snow this weekend! Mom and Ashley brought a little tree, so we could maintain the Christmas spirit, and we went to Moe's for lunch before we left. Though Mom was sick the whole weekend, she was a great sport, and we all had a good time!

The Oregon Coast!

Lately, there has been a lot of emotional strain and drama through work, so we took a day off and enjoyed some time at the beach. A couple from our church generously let us use their beach house for a couple nights, so we left Sunday afternoon after church, spent all of Monday at the beach, and came home early Tuesday morning to be back at work at 8:30am! Though it was quick, it was such a nice, relaxing time to be able to spend together without our cell phones on--well, most of the time anyway! We slept in, did some Christmas shopping, ate a picnic lunch at the beach, and really enjoyed some needed time together just relaxing and getting refueled. We praise the Lord for the beauty of His creation, the wonderful sunny day (it was 70 degrees!) at the beach, and His faithfulness to us as a couple!

Youth Group Harvest Parties

Well, we survived last week :-)! It was a flurry of Harvest parties, then the church Trunk 'n Treat and then Dave preached on Sunday. The Harvest parties for J-High and High School went really well. We had a scarecrow stuffing contest (which was very fun! We gave them some straw and some old clothes and a sheet for the face. They turned out great!), a pie eating contest (no one got sick this year, so we called it a success!), and a Bible character costume contest. We had everyone from Ruth, to Noah, to a leper (which was quite disgusting!), and of course Mary. I dressed as King Eglon, complete with pillows in my shirt and the hilt of a "sword" sticking out. I was quite proud of my costume, and it was a great excuse to wear sweats to youth group! It is exciting to watch the groups grow.

As our pastor has been on a missions' trip to Peru for the last few weeks, Dave preached on Sunday and will preach again this Sunday. I always enjoy his preaching, though it makes for a very busy week for him as he prepares his sermon and 2 youth group nights. We are excited to have a new church website coming online sometime this week where you will be able to download the sermons, see youth group pics, etc. (http://www.graceindallas.org/ Check it out!).

Wildhorse Canyon!

A couple weekends ago we took our high school group to Wildhorse Canyon--the Young Life Camp in Antelope, Oregon, for their High School Discipleship Camp. Josh and Anna took their youth group as well, so it was fun to hang out together. This was the first time we had been to this camp, and we were thrilled! Not only do they have the largest zipline in the Northwest (that drops you into a freezing cold lake at the end), a giant 3 person swing that drops you 60 feet and then you swing out over the canyon, an indoor skate park, and 4 b-ball courts, the food was fabulous and most of all, the speaker was really good! We are looking forward to making this an annual event. I will hopefully post some pictures of our weekend later.