We began 2005 with Kevin living in Santa Rosa, where he was managing Hardisty’s Homewares (www.hardistys.com) and volunteering in the college and music ministries at Santa Rosa Bible Church (www.srbible.org). Allison was living in Woodland Hills, teaching junior high match at West Valley Christian School (www.westvalleychristianschool.com) and volunteering at The Church at Rocky Peak (www.rockypeak.org) in the youth ministry and worship arts department.
At the end of March, Kevin packed up all his belongings (much thanks to Allison and a bunch of his friends at SRBC) and his dog, Hershey, in a U-Haul truck and moved down to a duplex in Van Nuys (in the San Fernando Valley just northwest of Los Angeles). After unloading the truck on Easter Sunday (thanks to some gracious folks from Northridge Christian Church), we flew back to St. Louis to pick up a Volkswagen Passat that Allison’s brother gave her, which we drove back to the Valley with stops in Kansas City, Dallas, & Las Cruces. On April 3, Kevin began his ministry at the Northridge Christian Church (www.northridgechristianchurch.com) as youth pastor.At the end of April, Kevin felt it was the right time to make a hardware investment, so he visited a jewelry store and purchased a diamond solitaire that he presented to Allison on April 25. Not coincidentally, that began our engagement after 4 months of getting to know each other followed by 6 months of courting.
We prepared for our wedding as Kevin adjusted to his ministry at NCC and Allison wrapped up her school year at WVCS. We reached the eye of the whirlwind on July 23 as we were married at The Church at Rocky Peak in Chatsworth, California. It was a wonderful day (105+ degrees) that we celebrated with many friends and family members. We set off the next day with a limo ride (thanks to Dad Everett) down to Long Beach, where we boarded the Carnival Pride 
cruise ship for a week long cruise to Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan, and Puerta Vallarta, Mexico (thanks to Ken & Maia Everett). A week later we were back in our little duplex, unwrapping a living room FULL of wedding gifts (thanks to our friends and family) and beginning our life together.
After a month of trying to get settled, it was time for Allison to return to teaching at WVCS, this time as the junior high Bible teacher and director of a junior high mime troupe. We celebrated the end of summer by purchasing season passes for Disneyland (which we’ve used about once a month since...).October brought a tremendous shock, as Allison’s sister-in-law, Maia, died after what seemed to be a successful surgery repairing a faulty valve in her heart. We flew back to St. Louis for the funeral and spent time with Allison’s family, especially with her brother, Ken, and her nephew and niece, Stephen & Kaia.
We’ve had a wonderful first five months of marriage. It hasn’t been without its ups and downs, but the ups have far outnumbered the downs. We both feel very blessed to be married to each other--we’re kindred spirits now united as man and wife. God has been incredibly good to us!Now we’re on the brink of celebrating our first Christmas together as husband and wife, and what a busy time! We’ve been very busy with activities at West Valley Christian School and Northridge Christian Church. We’ll be visiting Kevin’s folks in Rio Vista (about 45 miles south of Sacramento) on the 23rd and 24th, coming back for a Christmas Eve Service and Christmas day service at NCC, and then flying out to visit Allison’s family for 5 days at her folks’ new home in The Villages, Florida (about 50 miles northwest of Orlando).
2006 promises to be an eventful year for us. Allison will continue teaching at West Valley, and we’ll both strive to
deepen our relationship with Christ and with each other as we expand our ministry to students at Northridge Christian through a variety of channels: Bible studies, meetings, discipleship, activities, retreats, camps, outreaches, all-nighters, etc.Merry Christmas and may God richly bless you,
Kevin & Allison Peterson (and Hershey)
4 comments:
I love you guys so much. I just want to thank you for all the hard work that you have put in to the youth group. You are both a blessing to us. We needed someone who loved us and would always be there for us.
Good luck and God bless you in all your travels and in the coming new year. See you in 2006!!
Love,
Laura Pullen
Greetings from Dallas! Very cool website and nicely done newsletter Kevbo! (Allison, I need a good nickname for you too so any ideas send 'em my way.) Great to hear that you guys are doing so well and enjoying each other during this exciting time of your life.
We love you!
-MRJJHS
Kevin, cool blog design (it's the same one I picked!). It's good to hear from you and see that you are doing so well. There is a guy I work with at Sutter that reminds me so much of you. Consequently, I think of you often. Love ya and pray the best for you and your wife in 2006.
Giants hats at the Dodger game? Very brave. Fight the good fight! Huzzah!
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