Tim Mann 707 Leahy St. #127-C Redwood City, CA 94061 415-367-8019 mann@pa.dec.com December 11, 1994 Dear Friends and Family, I just heard a TV commercial in which a young couple had just had all their Christmas presents stolen by burglars. They were thanking their local WalMart store manager because he had given them three shopping baskets full of free toys as replacements. They gushed "Without him, our children wouldn't have had a Christmas!" As this Christmas approaches, I'm thankful that it means so much more to me than basketfuls of toys from WalMart. Without presents, without trees, even without family and friends to celebrate with, I would still have a Christmas. For me, Christmas is a day to celebrate God's greatest gift to mankind---his one and only son Jesus the Christ, who came to earth to lead a perfect life in our place and yet receive the punishment for our sins, who freed us from our sentence to Hell and made a place for us in Heaven. I hope that you too see this meaning in Christmas, that you too are among those who receive this gift through faith. This year has gone very smoothly for me. I am still enjoying good health. This coming February will be the second anniversary of the end of my cancer treatment. My doctor says that with the kind of cancer I had, if there is no recurrence in the first two years, it is considered cured. So far there has been none, and I've been feeling great. The big things in life have stayed the same this year. I'm still single, still living at the same address, still working at the same job, still a member of the same church. I will probably be losing my roommate soon, though. Ken will be finishing his PhD this month and is in the job search process now. He'd like to continue working in his specialty (biomechanical engineering, studying the remodelling of bone in response to stresses, such as pressure from joint implants), which limits his choice of universities to those with programs in that area. After Ken moves out I might stay in this apartment and take over his bedroom as an office. I keep thinking about buying a house some day, but so far it's just a dream; I haven't done any shopping. At church I'm no longer serving as congregation president; I've traded jobs with the treasurer. Treasurer takes a bit more time, but my duties are more well-defined. It's nice not having to deal with arbitrary problems that come up, and espcially nice not to have to appoint committees and look for volunteers to do things. My most prized new possession this year is an Ovation acoustic/electric guitar, replacing my battered 15-year old acoustic. I bought the new guitar the day before Bible camp this year and used it all week to lead the singalongs before evening devotions. With over 150 campers and staff sitting in the bleachers, it helps a lot to have an electric guitar so you can make yourself heard! I had a wonderful time and got a lot of positive comments. The guitar plays very well acoustically, too, and I actually haven't bought an amplifier for it yet. (I used a borrowed one at camp.) Besides playing for camp, for Sunday school opening services, and at the TwentySomething Bible study group, I also got to accompany the school children when they sang for Thanksgiving this year. It has been great fun. I've also begun dabbling a bit with keyboards, using a program on my PC that works with a MIDI electronic keyboard and gives lessons. I'm less than halfway through the "first-year" course, so I'm still a rather rank beginner. I always seem to write about travel in these letters. I made two business trips to Scotland this year, one in January and one in October. I am getting pretty good at driving on the left, shifting a manual transmission with my left hand, and negotiating my way through the roundabouts. The road signs still fool me at times, though! I combined my January trip with a visit to a friend who was living near Amsterdam and some sightseeing in the Netherlands and the German Rhineland. I spent only a week, but it was a memorable visit. It was my first trip to Germany, and a chance to exercise my college German. My other trip this year was a camping trip to Joshua Tree National Park in the desert east of Los Angeles. A few of us flew down right after our Thanksgiving dinner to join Mark Mammel, our former associate pastor at my church, who is now pastor in Yucaipa. We had a great time but got very cold at night! My family got around quite a bit this year. My niece Beth and her family moved to Shreveport, LA, where her husband is stationed at Lackland Air Force Base. My mother, sister, brother, and my niece Leigh all came to visit. Mom and Mary each came for a week just to see me. Bill and Leigh were each here on business and took a little extra time to visit. This was Leigh's very first business trip! I don't get to see her often, so it was a real treat for me. Well, I've filled a lot of space with this small font, so it's time for the ramblings to close. I hope to see many of you when I come to Milwaukee December 19-29. I will be at my mother's house, phone 414-466-3082. I wish you all a blessed Christmas and New Year! Love in Christ, Tim Mann