Jory & Luke’s *2015* Christmas Newsletter (Merry Christmas Family & Friends)!

Merry Christmas family and friends!

This year has been CRAZY for Luke and I, but super exciting. We spent this past year living with my parents in Washington, PA (where I grew up) as we figured out our next step.

As some of you know already, I left my church job position in 2014 as children’s pastor (in Virginia Beach), because I felt God calling me to start a women’s ministry back in my home state (Pennsylvania).

Since I quit my job, I had no money to start a ministry, so I started a blog. God has blessed this endeavor tremendously in 2015, and I think I can officially call myself a writer now.

The blog went from about 300 views a month to about 30,000 views a month in one year. Plus, I was published with Christians for Biblical Equality International and have wrote for some well known Christian bloggers.

Turns out writers and ministers don’t make much money, so you can imagine how stoked Luke and I were when he was offered a job at Tyler Technologies, a fast growing company, just a couple months ago.

Luke is in training mode right now and is working really hard to learn many new “technical things.” He will be traveling to local governments in the US as a consultant to help government employees learn Tyler’s software program.

For those of you who don’t know, Luke has an MA in Public Administration in Government, so he is pretty thrilled to find a backdoor, working with local governments again. 

Interesting enough, one of my Bible college professors and I reconnected a few months ago through my blog. Now, let me be brutally honest, I have felt a bit like a loser this year not having a “real” job, that makes a “real” paycheck. It’s frustrating having a master’s degree and not being able to find a fitting job (I feel ya millennials). Ok, back to my story.

So, my previous professor found me through my blog and we reconnected on Facebook. Turns out, he is a chairman at SUM Bible College and Theological Seminary, and the school takes Galatians 3:28 seriously and strives to equally hire women for ALL positions. So, he recommended me and just yesterday I was offered an adjunct position teaching theology online.

So, I guess y’all can call me “Professor Peterson” now (LOL). 

Luke and I also moved into our very first town home. We are renting in McMurray, PA, which is a very nice neighborhood full of awesome businesses, kind people, and nice walking trails. Plus, we are only about 20 minutes from my family and we literally live two homes down from one of my best friends that I grew up with. It is pretty amazing, even though we have more room than we know what to do with. Needless to say, we will be filling it up VERY slowly.
Princess Noella is still as sweet and as lazy as ever and loves her new home too! She is tremendously spoiled and I am starting to think we have created a dog who truly believes she is a human baby. Oh well, I guess that’s what 6 pound Chihuahuas are for!

Well, that is all the news the three of us have for you this year. May your season be blessed and don’t forget to take risks in 2016. You never know where life may lead.

We love you all SO much! 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Warmly,

Jory, Luke & Noella 🙂