The Lyons Den: 2020

Christmas Rumblings from the Lyons Den

Christmas 2020, Cincinnati, Ohio

Looking Back…

In January, we watched Jeremiah play Upward basketball; the kids waited for snow to come each day (it never did!).
In February, we enjoyed a family night getaway to Great Wolf Lodge for birthday month. The kids loved swimming and doing all the water slides. We also did a pet themed birthday: our friends brought in their favorite pets; Jeremiah even adopted a Russian tortoise that he named Hobbes (our first family pet).
In March, our worlds halted, as COVID entered the US. Zoom, ‘online church’ and masks are some new things we met. Yet with daddy now working from home, the kids thought it fun.
In April, we mourned the loss of the son of dear family friends. We celebrated Easter quietly, yet such hope that Christ has conquered the powers of evil and death. We found out we soon would have another miracle to behold- we were expecting our 5^th child at the end of the year.
In May, we finished school and Erin traveled to York with kids to see family. Covid crazy, we adopted 6 little fluffy chicks. 3 Buff Orphingtons, 3 Golden Comets; Jeremiah named his Faithful, and Lydia named hers Hope.
In June, we were thankful for our church meeting in-person once again; with the help of friends, Michael built a chicken coop for our feathered friends. Erin and kids swam at our private church pool.
In July, we enjoyed a family getaway to Corolla, Outer Banks with Erin’s family. It was wonderful to be in God’s creation. Not wonderful: a kamikaze deer crashed into the side of our van…but by God’s grace we were all okay.
In August, we started school once again: Jeremiah 4^th grade, Lydia 2^nd, Josiah K, and Joel- the crazy 3s- he is still running around destroying things, being loud and making it hard for us to read!
In September, we enjoyed hikes, apple saucing and going to orchards and other outside places. We celebrated the 15^th anniversary of the founding of the Lyons family…with masks on!
In October, Michael and Erin did a getaway to Red River Gorge. We enjoyed hiking and resting and relaxing while Pop-pop and Mom-mom wrangled our four kids for two days.
In November, we enjoyed serving and raking leaves for people in need, while Michael was on a writing leave. Thanksgiving was quiet and calm, yet filled with yummy treats.
In December, though quiet, our kids love the festivities and lights and have growing energy! We joyfully welcome Judah Obadiah at 7lb. 7oz. born on December 11, 2020, a wonderful end to this crazy year!

Year’s Reading Recommendations…

From Erin: Flourish, Brownback; Pilgrim’s Progress, Bunyan; Insanity of God, Ripken; Afraid of All The Things, Hiltibial; Devoted, Challies; The Beautiful Woman, Ortland; Future Men, Wilson; The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, Comer; Letters to Pastor’s Wives, Stewart.

From Michael: Les Misérables, Hugo; Agent Sonya: Moscow’s Most Daring Wartime Spy, Macintyre; John G. Paton: Missionary to the Cannibals, Schlehlein; Contemplative Provocations, Haggerty; I Still Do, Harvey; How to Think, Jacobs; Lead, Tripp; Divided by Faith, Emerson & Smith; Christmas Carol, Dickens; The Day Is Now Far Spent, Sarah; Echoes of Scripture in the Gospels, Hays; The British Are Coming, Atkinson; Crisis in the Red Zone, Preston; The Great Influenza, Barry (believe it or not, Michael read these two books on the Ebola crisis and the 1918 pandemic just before COVID hit in March!!)

From Jeremiah: The Incredible Journey; Gentle Ben, Morey; Redwall series by Jacques; Adoniram and Ann Judson, Benge; By The Great Horn Spoon, Fleishman; Old Yeller, Gipson; The Hobbit, Tolkien; Christmas Carol, Dickens; Sign of the Beaver, Speare.

From Lydia: Sarah, Plain and Tall, MacLachlan; Caddie Woodlawn, Brink; Amy Carmichael, Benge; Jim Elliott, Benge; Adoniram Judson, Benge; Listening to Little House audio books.

From Josiah: Katy and the Big Snow, Burton; Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, Burton; Curious George stories; Robert McCloskey stories; The Little Caboose.

From Joel: Thomas the Train books; books about trucks; We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, Rosen.

On Our Minds this Past Year…

This year, our theme has been faithfulness, desiring faithfulness in our church, our home and family, and wherever God places us. God has been so faithful to us even when we have been faithless. We are thankful that His mercies are new for us every morning, great is His faithfulness. Our prayer is that we would walk in faithfulness, whether it’s Michael serving at church during an upside-down year of ministry during COVID, or whether it’s Erin serving in the home as she homeschools or visiting with friends and neighbors (socially distanced, of course 😊). It felt like hospitality ministry was hindered this year with all the regulations and rules, and yet we know God is at work doing more than we ask or think! God taught us to be faithful in more creative ways. We pray that we be faithful as parents in training these young ones in the nurture of the Lord. We pray would be faithful in worshipping our Risen Lord and learning what He has to teach us through this year!

News from the Lyons’ Den…

The Parents: Michael’’s ministry this year at church has been quite different with COVID. He and other staff had to come up with creative ways of ministering to people, which included things like Sunday School podcasts and lots of Zoom meetings. The silver lining has been that the pandemic has allowed for a lot more space to minister on-on-one with people, and we’ve seen so many evidences of grace as members minister to each other. One highlight was organizing a men’s fall hike! During the year, Michael continued to teach some for two universities, both online. There is also a growing rumor that he is close to finishing his first academic book, on famine. Erin’s days are full of teaching and training young hearts. She enjoys homeschooling the kids and teaching at the co-op on Wednesdays each week- this year doing Nature Study and Missionary class (She enjoys visiting with mom-friends that day!). She loves to visit neighbors, still loves to hike and go on walks, organize field trips and make meals for people and anything God might bring to her that day! This summer, she enjoyed hosting a weekly pool time at church with some international friends the Lord brought into her life. She also enjoyed hiking with the kids and visiting various parks around the city!

The Kids: Our home is busy! We are learning by God’s grace to love the little years. Jeremiah is 9. He is now in fourth grade. Jeremiah loves to read this year and has become quite the chicken farmer! After 6 months, we are finally getting eggs! He loves to cuddle them (yes, it’s true) and takes them for walks. He enjoys creation, especially climbing trees. He recently caught a pet minnow in a nearby creek and is trying to keep him alive. Jeremiah still wants a dog and loves any pet or animal he sees. He loves to build Legos. He also reads like crazy. Lydia is 7. She is in second grade and is good at reading simple books to her brothers and loves to help Josiah do some Kindergarten workbooks. She has grown to love audio books and loves to color and make crafts. She is an explosion of energy and really enjoys being one-on-one with friends. She still rooms with little Joel and is such a helpful big sister! Josiah is 5. Josiah is slowly learning his phonograms and letters and how to read. He is good at handwriting and loves when someone reads him a book. Josiah studies and pays attention to everything, including he recently informed us about the differences between a diesel and steam-engine train! He and Joel have become quite the partners in crime this year. They love to play together…and fight together too. Joel is 3. He loves books and loves to pretend he is a cat (okay, so the older kids might have convinced him he is one…at times he also thinks he is a baby sting ray). His social life is quite intense: he holds loud imaginative conversations with all his cars, trucks, animals, and basically anything else he grabs hold of. After a long 12 months of training, Joel’s big accomplishment was to declare in his loudest possible voice, “I went to the potty!!!!” Chocolate chips for everyone…especially mommy. Judah is, well, just a few days old! He’s not sure what he thinks of this world yet, but we have great hopes and prayers for him that he will become a devoted follower of Jesus—as we pray for all the kids. Judah means “praise” (referring to praise to God) and Obadiah means “servant of the Lord.”

Seeing and Savoring Christ in Christmas…

Our family, and probably yours, experienced a lot of loss this year: loss of loved ones, loss of traditions, loss of our ‘normal’ lives. Yet when we look at the world and hear the stories of others, we realize we have much to be thankful for. We lament the pain that so many have gone through. We were reminded this year that we live in a broken world that greatly needs hope. How blessed we are to know that God the Father Almighty, the maker of heaven and earth, has not abandoned his people. He did not abandon Abraham or Isaac or Jacob. He did not abandon the people of Judea in the first century when they were under the thumb of Rome. Jesus Messiah came and threw himself into the abyss of evil and sin, only to rise from the dead. And so, we have hope here at the end of 2020. We pray that your family too will treasure the hope of Jesus.

Treasuring Christ,

Michael & Erin, with Jeremiah, Lydia, Josiah, Joel, and Judah Lyons

5684 Colerain Avenue Apt. 3, Cincinnati, OH 45239

elyons25@gmail.com, mlyons533@gmail.com, http://melyonsden.blogspot.com (Family news and happenings)

Judah Obadiah Lyons

Judah- means "praise given to Yahweh!"

Obadiah- servant of Yahweh, Yahwestic name

Verses of Dedication:

Psalm 86:12-

I will praise you, Lord my God, with all my heart;
I will glorify your name forever.

Revelation 5:5-

Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.

Hymn: O God Our Help In Ages Past

"O God, our help in ages past,

Our hope for years to come,

Our shelter from the stormy blast,

And our eternal home.

Within the shadow of thy throne,

Still may we dwell secure.

Sufficient is thine arm alone,

And our defense is sure.

Before the hills in order stood,

Or earth received her frame,

From everlasting thou art God,

To endless years the same.

O God, our help in ages past,

Our hope for years to come,

Be thou our guide while life shall last

And our eternal home."

We welcome Judah Obadiah Lyons to our family on Friday, December 11th at 7:05pm.

He weighed in at 7lb. and 7 oz. 20 oz.

Judah's birth story: He was due on Thursday, December 17. The doctor had originally scheduled me to be induced Tuesday, December 15 in the evening to be induced overnight. I was originally due Thursday, December 17.

I went in for my appointment on Friday, December 11th at 7:30am. Dr. Van Wyck checked my blood pressure and said it was high and they wanted to send me down to be induced that day. We grabbed our bags and grabbed the kids to take to Mom and Dad and headed to the hospital. We got to the hospital around 10:00am and waited until 1:00pm until they started the pitocin. I started having contractions but there was no progress. Around 5pm, I began to get discouraged that nothing was happening. The nurse checked me and found I was not making much progress and said she couldn't even tell if he was head down. They did a quick ultrasound to find that he was transverse and not in the right position. The doctor said they would need to do a c-section right away. I was fine with whatever needed to happen. They headed us into the OR. The surgery was hard for me. I felt pretty anxious and could not stop shaking, probably from the spinal. They had a bit of trouble getting him out, and it took longer than normal. It was definitely a strange experience to be awake during the whole process. After going to post-op, I still could not hold the baby as I was shaking so much. I really struggled with the numbness of my legs. The Lord did help us and gave me much grace and help. Michael was such a big help during the whole process.

Having a baby during covid pandemic 2020:

This was definitely a crazy delivery and birth during this covid pandemic. I have to admit I was very anxious before having him about all the details leading up to his birth. Thankfully they tested me in the hospital and I was covid- negative. It was strange to wear masks all the time when the nurses would come in. I missed not having visitors in the hospital this time. The nurses and everyone was so great! It was a sober time knowing that there were Covid patients dying in a wing in the same hospital. The doctor that delivered Judah spent a half hour with us visiting and said his brother-in-law was dying of covid in a wing of Christ Hospital. We told him we would pray for him. This has been a hard year for everyone, that is clearly evident. Many of the medical workers are tired and worn out.

Welcome:

Judah Obadiah Lyons

Judah- means "praise given to Yahweh!"

Obadiah- servant of Yahweh, Yahwestic name

Verses of Dedication:

Psalm 86:12-

I will praise you, Lord my God, with all my heart;
I will glorify your name forever.

Revelation 5:5-

Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.

Hymn: O God Our Help In Ages Past

"O God, our help in ages past,

Our hope for years to come,

Our shelter from the stormy blast,

And our eternal home.

Within the shadow of thy throne,

Still may we dwell secure.

Sufficient is thine arm alone,

And our defense is sure.

Before the hills in order stood,

Or earth received her frame,

From everlasting thou art God,