Christmas Rumblings from the Lyons Den
Christmas 2024 from Columbia, SC
Looking Back…
• In January, Michael and Erin enjoyed time away representing CIU at CrossCon24 in Louisville. The kids had a blast staying with grandpa and grandma in Cincinnati.
• In February, we held our annual birthday month with Jeremiah (13), Lydia (11), and Josiah (9). Michael and another professor did a special talk together on lament and grief in the college chapel.
• In March, Erin snuck away with some Cincy friends to Savannah. We attended an Easter vigil and ended the month with an Easter celebration, hosting many from the neighborhood and seminary. Christ is risen!
• In April, Erin hosted a baby shower for an Afghan friend. We cherished a sweet visit from our faraway friends in Cambodia and were blessed to have several Cincy couples stop by for visits. We love these times together.
• In May, Michael traveled to Chicago for the Center for Pastor Theologians’ workshops. Meanwhile, the four oldest kids dived into their first summer swim team. Erin then arranged flowers for a wedding of our friends’ daughter. And Lydia performed in an end-of-the-year ballet performance.
• In June, we visited friends in Cincinnati, attended a Reds game (they even won!), ate Skyline, all while Erin hung out with college friends at the Women’s Gospel Coalition.
• In July, Michael and Jeremiah took a special 13th birthday trip to Colorado (32+ hrs of airport chaos!). Erin and the kids enjoyed helping with an ESL Afghan soccer camp. And Erin attended a special conference for Christian Afghans reaching out to Afghan refugees. The month ended at Virginia Beach with Erin’s family.
• In August, Jeremiah and Lydia began a new 2-day hybrid homeschool academy. Michael began his third year of teaching and mentoring college and seminary students. We paused to give thanks to God for our 2-year anniversary in Columbia, reflecting and remembering the many ways God has provided for us.
• In September, Erin began a new year of Girls of Grace, a mother-daughter group with Lydia. We also helped begin monthly Community meals for refugees. Soccer was in full force for Jeremiah.
• In October (and the end of September), we mourned all that Hurricane Helene did to our part of the country but rejoiced in how the Church was able to serve. We also launched a monthly student group that meets in our home for dinner, discussion on ministry, and prayer.
• In November, Erin, Jeremiah, and Lydia went to a For King and Country concert. Erin’s sister’s family came for a visit, and we scurried up to Cincinnati for a very brief Thanksgiving visit.
• In December, we celebrated little Judah turning 4 (who’s not so little now!) with our small group. He was overjoyed to get so many letters! Michael’s parents came for a Christmas visit as we celebrated our King.
Year’s Reading Recommendations (a selection of some of our favorites)…
From Erin: Parenting with Hope, Kruger; All My Knotted-Up Life, Moore; Five Lies of Our Anti-Christian Age, Butterfield; The Watchmaker’s Daughter, Loftis; The Waymaker, Voskamp.
From Michael: The Demon of Unrest and In the Garden of the Beasts, Larson; Bad Therapy, Shrier; The Earth Is Weeping, Cozzens; Satchel, Tye; Middlemarch, Eliot; Parenting with Hope, Kruger; A Preface to Paradise Lost, Lewis; What It Means to Be Protestant, Ortlund; The Christian Ministry, Bridges; Simply Trinity, Barrett; Authority, Leeman; Teaching Christianity, Augustine; On the Apostolic Preaching, Irenaeus; The Imitation of Christ, Kempis; The Anxious Generation, Haidt. Ok, there are too many that he wants to put here, but we have others in this family!!
From Jeremiah: Ranger Apprentice and Brother Band Chronicles series, Flanagan; The Early Years, Flanagan; Uprising, Nielsen; The King’s Shadow, Alder; Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians, Sanderson; The Mismantle Chronicles, McAllister.
From Lydia: Dear America series; Out of My Mind, Draper; Alcaraz Versus the Evil Librarians, Sanderson; The Vanderbeekers series, Glaser; Detectives in Togas, Winterfeld; The Good Master, Seredy; Betsy and the Emperor, Rabin; A Lantern in Her Hand, Aldrich; The Hiding Place, ten Boom; The Watchmaker’s Daughter, Loftis.
From Josiah & Joel: Sign of the Beaver, Speare; Lad, Terhune; Sarah, Plain and Tall, MacLachlan; The Courage of Sarah Noble, Dalgliesh; A Lion to Guard Us, Bulla; Squanto, Friend of the Pilgrims, Bulla.
From Judah: Judah loves the library! He loves checking out his own books about trucks, trains, or giraffes. Other favorites: The Pokey Little Puppy; The Terrific Train; We’re Going on a Bear Hunt.
On Our Minds this Past Year
The Church. This is why we serve in Columbia. We long for God to strengthen His Church in America and around the globe. The American evangelical church is facing a crisis as it struggles with temptations of power, politics, superficial worship, and a lack of pastors. We regularly hear heartbroken stories of leadership failures or hear of churches struggling to fill positions. Yet praise God that Jesus is committed to his body, the Church! Be encouraged. From Columbia, we are privileged to see how God is working in mighty ways around the globe. We said goodbye to one person going back to China to serve their own people at the risk of their safety; we watched one pastor, also Michael’s student, hold his church together after they lost everything in the hurricane in Asheville. Another student has faithfully served in West Africa among Muslims. Another student helped bring reconciliation and peace to a church in Asia. The harvest is ripe. Keep praying that God would raise up such faithful and godly pastors and missionaries to build his Church both at home and abroad. Pray for God to heal our churches and make the Church more faithfully represent Him in all the nations.
News from the Lyons’ Den…
The Parents: Michael’ continues teaching at Columbia Biblical Seminary of CIU. It has been a full year of teaching Hebrew and the Old Testament. He has also enjoyed preaching at area churches, including recently preaching Ezekiel 1 in the college chapel. In July, Michael taught a weekend seminar for church leaders. He stays busy mentoring several students, working on writing projects, leading a monthly ministry study for seminary and undergraduate students at our home, and helping with a weekly men’s business leaders’ Bible study downtown. Michael also helps coach the boys’ baseball team and still does weekly donut days with our kids. Erin’s days are busy homeschooling the children, even little Judah now wanting to do “school.” She is active in Refuge Cola (a refugee ministry), helping with monthly meetings and community meals. She ministers particularly to one Afghan family and is excited at how far God has brought them. Erin enjoys planting and caring for flowers at CIU a few early mornings a week. Long walks along our scenic rivers with friends regularly refresh her. As you might expect, Erin’s hospitality is ever-expanding to people all over our town.
The Kids: Jeremiah is 13 and in eighth grade. He has a flourishing lawn business (with Mommy as his agent!) and loves youth group and anything with friends. He plays soccer as much as he can and continues cello. He is especially captivated by airplanes and flying, hoping to be a pilot someday. This summer was his big birthday trip to Colorado to hike a 13er for his 13th with Daddy. Lydia is 11 and in sixth grade. She loves to read, do crafts, and write letters. Lydia enjoys sewing lessons from a friend at church. She still loves ballet and helping with little ones. Like her brother, she also loves youth group and plays cello. A sad note for Lydia is that her bunny Nibbles died this year. Josiah is 9 and in fourth grade. He loves drawing and gardening. He still loves playing baseball, quietly practicing the game when he can. Joel is 7 and in second grade. This year Joel exploded with an obsession for lizards. Most days you will find him out catching 20 lizards at a time and climbing trees. He tried out baseball with his brother this year, swinging as hard as he could. Judah is 4. He loves running after the boys! He still loves giraffey and still bonks himself to sleep. Judah loves music and has a little guitar he plays when we sing songs.
Seeing and Savoring Christ in Christmas…
We see Christ often through the saints of God. In Colossians 1:2, Paul writes, “To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ…” This year, we witnessed two saints back in our old home of Cincinnati die. They both were faithful men who were encouragers to Michael especially. Their testimonies and the testimonies of their faithful wives who took care of them cause us to desire “to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him” (Col 1:10). We long to strive for “bearing fruit in every good work” as these men did. This is only possible through dying to oneself and following Jesus, all by the power of the Holy Spirit. As the years fly by and beloved saints pass away, we are continually reminded to be faithful even unto death. Our mortality and fragility as humans is an ever-present reality. Praise God for Immanuel, GOD WITH US, who has come to deliver us from such mortality. Our church recites weekly: “Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again!” We pray you will join us this year in saying and believing these words, too. Press on toward the goal of Jesus Christ. And let us know how we can pray for you, too.
Treasuring Christ,
Michael & Erin, with Jeremiah, Lydia, Josiah, Joel, and Judah Lyons 😊
129 Firebranch Street, Columbia, SC 29212
elyons25@gmail.com, mlyons533@gmail.com, http://melyonsden.blogspot.com (Family news)
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