Happy New Year from Team Kaetzel!

Hello Family and Friends!

Life has been pretty full and a lot has happened since our last update! When we last wrote, in April 2024, we were in the process of moving to Loomis, CA. Since then, we have really enjoyed settling into the new space which has opened up opportunities for us to host friends, family, and students and the moderately shorter commute to church is a nice bonus as well!

Throughout the summer we had several opportunities to have students over for lunch, small group bible studies, and game nights. We were also really excited and grateful to have access to a pool on the property and we enjoyed having friends and family over to swim. This past fall we've had students over for breakfast before school, hosted youth leaders meetings, and we somehow managed to squeeze over a dozen people into our small living room/kitchen for a White Elephant Christmas party with the Middle School group!

A couple more ministry highlights from the year:

Missional Serving Communities

This fall Chrissy has been focused on growing our church's presence in the local community. Through her efforts, our church has adopted a creek near a local high school, collected stuffed animals for local first responders, and participated in community events like the SPCA's Barktoberfest and Rocklin's Christmas Tree Lighting.

Middle School Fall Retreat

In October, Jeff took the Middle School Group to Mission Springs for a weekend retreat. The exciting thing about this particular retreat is that 95% of the Middle Schoolers who come regularly came on the retreat. This is the highest percentage Jeff has ever taken to a retreat. It was awesome to see so many Middle Schoolers at Mission Springs. The Middle School Group has been a source of such joy for Jeff this past semester. Each and every student that has been coming regularly have taken steps to deepen their relationship with Jesus.

Additional highlights from 2024:

• Chrissy was relieved to wrap up her seminary journey (for now) completing a MA in Christian Ministry last June!

• Chrissy guest-preached for the first time at a nearby Covenant church in Orangevale, CA.

• Jeff participated in his first power-lifting competition and set personal records in both Back-squat and Deadlift.

• In October we made a trip to Denver for a little reunion with friends from college (along with their partners and families). This was a delightful gathering with dear friends and it was such a joy just getting to hang out all together and seeing our kids play together!

• Chrissy & Junia joined Jeff on the High School Fall Retreat in early November and had so much fun hanging out with the "big kids".

• Jeff surprised Chrissy with tickets to see her favorite band perform a Christmas concert in Santa Barbara. Although we've had a couple trips away from Junia for church conferences, this was our first planned vacation away just the two of us since Junia was born! Needless to say, it was sweet to return to Santa Barbara just the two of us and to reminisce about our time living there.

• In late December amidst the holidays, we were delighted to celebrate the birth of our adopted niece, Abigail and are so excited for Deb and Chris as they begin their parenting journey.

What we're looking forward to in 2025:

• Sabbatical - After 3.5 years of full-time ministry here in Rocklin, Jeff gets to embark on his first 6-week Sabbatical. This time will include some traveling, exploring, resting, researching, and a family vacation as well! He is most looking forward to spending time on the Navajo reservation to learn more about his indigenous heritage, closely followed by a trip to Disneyland with Chrissy's family.

• Disneyland - For those following our lives closely, you might be thinking...didn't you just go to Disneyland?!? Well, yes, we were lucky enough to go last fall with Jeff's family to celebrate Jeff's mom's retirement. But now we are going with Chrissy's family, squeezing in one more trip before Junia turns 3, and this will also be our brother-in-law Chris' first time at Disneyland!

• And yes, you heard (...er, read?) that right, our daughter Junia will be turning 3 this year! Time is flying by and Junia is quickly transforming from a toddler into a little kid. Junia is so creative and imaginative and is currently obsessed with Doc McStuffins. She loves playing doctor and insists on giving us and her toys multiple check ups a day.

• MEXICO - Last but most certainly not least, our family has decided to join our church's summer trip to Mexico. We are partnering with an organization called Baja Bound who works with families and churches in Ensenada and we will be helping to build a house alongside an indigenous migrant family. Originally, only Jeff was going to go, leading the youth portion of the trip, however, Junia surprised us both by showing a unique interest in also going to Mexico. (For more of the story, click here). So after a lot of prayer, in a leap of faith, we decided to get her a passport so that we can all go on this trip! Additionally, we are looking to fundraise $750 to help us get to Mexico. We ask that anyone reading this prayerfully consider donating here: https://app.99pledges.com/fund/rocklincov/chris-gothold . (Please note that we are already so humbled and grateful for all our family and friends who continue to support us on a regular basis, and we are honestly quite hesitant to ask for anything more. That being said, we don't have a lot of wiggle room in our regular budget and we could really use some help offsetting the cost of this trip.)

That's all for now! Thanks for reading our semi-annual update! We are so grateful for all the love, prayers and support from friends and family near and far. We'd also love to hear from you! Feel free to leave a comment or send us a text or an email - What are you looking forward to this year? How can we be praying for you or your family? Where have you seen God at work in you life?

Wishing you and yours all the best in 2025,

Team Kaetzel