This day finds the McDaniel family spread across the country as we approach Easter 2006!

Andy and Sarah Grace are finishing up a week of ministering to Miami teens in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, as they ski, snowboard, and share the truth of the Risen Lord!  (Andy is not skiing or snowboarding for those of you who may wonder!)  For Sarah it was her first time to snowboard, but by all reports, she is loving every minute of it and (so far) has no broken bones. 

Goofy Gracie! 

Sarah Grace with her girls, the "SG Unit", in Colorado.

Sarah's first day on the slopes gave her an opportunity to share the Lord with Kathy (one of the girls pictured above) who asked Jesus into her heart that very day!  We celebrate Kathy this Easter!

Ben and I are enjoying a rather quiet few days here at home as we catch up on a few things around the house and take care of the latest addition to the family - Digory - a miniature poodle puppy! 

Kitty Paws has his paws full dealing with this little bundle of energy!

Our family is enjoying watching Miami Y.F.C. grow.  We've begun a few new Campus Life clubs this year and there are more on the agenda for the fall.  Over the summer months there will be another opportunity for area kids to go to Colorado with us, this time for a week long camp experience.  This is a powerful time of ministry.  

Speaking of summer, we do look ahead to hurricane season with a healthy amount of fear and trepidation.  We are being encouraged to prepare now, so we are doing what we can.  There are still so many blue tarp covered roofs in our community.   The roofers can't begin to get to all the work that needs to be done before the next season arrives on June 1.

Elizabeth has just finished a very successful run of the musical "Honk!" put on by Cornerstone University.  Elizabeth danced and sang her way through the lead role of Ida, (the mother duck of Hans Christian Anderson's Ugly Duckling.)  We say WOW!  She was awesome!

Elizabeth with her son, Ugly - What a great show! 

Val had the opportunity to fly up and be there for opening weekend.   We surprised Elizabeth by bringing Sarah Grace up as well.  In Elizabeth words, "Sarah Grace's coming, made my year!" 

Sarah Grace continues with her dance ministry, Devoted Dance, working with over 30 girls a week.  She teaches girls from our church on Monday at our offices, she teaches at Sunset Christian School on Wednesdays, and on Saturday she works with some of her Campus Life girls who love to learn about the Lord and learn more about dance with her.  She has her "Worship Around the World" dance recital coming on June 3 where all her students will lead an evening of worship through dance.  She is also taking some college courses on-line with Moody Bible Institute and is enjoying them very much. 

The "real" Elizabeth!

Elizabeth is between her sophomore and junior year majoring in vocal performance.  She is involved in the worship team at Keystone Community Church in Grand Rapids.  She loves working with this ministry-minded group of musicians.  She is also tutoring her fellow music students at Cornerstone and loves this new job!  We all eagerly anticipate her return to Miami for her summer break in early May. 

Through all the busyness, Ben has kept busy honing his computer skills and working his way through high school at home.  Ben is definitely the big guy around here, standing at 6 feet tall with a shoe size of 16!  He eagerly awaits the day when he passes his Papa, who stands at about 6 foot 2!

This is our "family" picture recently taken for our church directory.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with all of us - top row left to right - Andy, Ben and Valerie, bottom row left to right - Molly Ptaszek, Scott Tabor, Andy Sowers, and Sarah Grace.  By the look on Molly's face, she must see something that the rest of us missed!  Sadly, Elizabeth is missing as she was in Grand Rapids when this photo was taken!

Other things over the past few months that bear mentioning are:

A Disney holiday trip with the entire Boersma clan -

Jeff, Michelle, Andy and Val on Christmas.

Cousins - Elizabeth, Morgan, Gabby, and Sarah!

Val's parents - Ben and Cleo Boersma

Both Valerie and Elizabeth celebrated their birthdays in February.

Elizabeth celebrated with a very fun group of pirates here in Miami!

After 10 wonderful years serving the home educating community of West Michigan, Valerie has retired from her role as the Mid-Winter Home Educator's Conference coordinator. It ended on a high note with over 1100 attendees and many surprise celebrations in her honor. 

Both Elizabeth and Sarah Grace added their talents to this event (as always) and we had a wonderful Mother/Daughter winter visit in Grand Rapids after it was over with.

For a Christmas gift from her adopted siblings, Sarah Grace was treated to tickets to see the Broadway musical "Wicked!" in Ft. Lauderdale. 

She, with her Miami "siblings" - Molly, Andy, and Scott - as well as our friend Sarah from Tennessee, had a wonderful time at this amazing show!

Youth for Christ presented our annual banquets on March 13 and 14 where we hosted over 1000 folks for an "It's a Jungle Out There"  themed dinner.  Through out the evening our staff and students shared the things that are happening here!  Our guest speaker was the president of Youth For Christ, Dan Wolgemuth.  Dan and his wife Mary served on our board of directors years ago in Franklin, Tennesee.

Having Dan here to speak gave us a great time to catch up and encourage each other.  Dan's wife, Mary, accompanied him on the trip.  The picture above was taken at Bayside downtown Miami, where we enjoyed a fun lunch in between our banquets.

Elizabeth was given another opportunity to travel and do ministry over her spring break this year.  She went back to Italy with Cornerstone's Chorale.

The picture above was taken at the Colosseum in Rome.  The Chorale ministered in many of the places that Elizabeth and Sarah had visited this past summer.  It was a huge blessing to her!

We've had several fun times with our College and Careers friends from Kendall Church.  Andy and I and our dear friends, Mark and Ines Graham, count it a privilege to be a part of the lives of these wonderful young adults.  (Some are younger than others...) 

We did a Scavenger Hunt, held a wild ping-pong tournament (see pic!), and said farewell to Jennifer Duffy as she moved closer to her family in New Jersey.

That brings us pretty much up to date on the events in our lives over the last few months.  All the McDaniels send you our Easter greetings!  Know that you are important in our lives and that we deeply appreciate the impact you have had on our family!

Sent with our love,

Andy and Val - Elizabeth, Sarah Grace, and Ben (along with Scott, Andy Sowers, and Molly)

Merry Christmas from the McDaniel Family...     

(plus our additions - Molly Ptaszek and Andy Sowers!)

From Valerie...

2005 held a couple milestones for our family as first Elizabeth turned 21 in February and then Ben turned 16 in October.  The pictures I have posted here were all a part of how we helped Ben to celebrate.  I put together photo albums of his first decade of life (1989 - 1999) and below you will see some of our favorite family Christmas photos from those years.  It is hard to imagine that Elizabeth is 21 and Ben is already 16 and that we have packed so many memories and fun into the years the Lord has given us together. 

Not leaving out Sarah Grace...she has had a very significant year herself with directing her new dance ministry - Devoted Dance Ministries, travelling to Europe for the first time, and now we are about to celebrate her 19th birthday December 23!  Time flies when you are having fun and having fun is one of her specialties. 

We have all helped with our Christmas letter as you will see.  It is especially nice to have Elizabeth here with us over the holidays as she enjoys her Christmas break from Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids.  The girls are having fun sharing a bedroom (just like in their little girl years!) 

We trust it has been an event-filled year, full of God's richest blessings for your and your family.  It has certainly been that in our home.

From Elizabeth...

Holiday time... nostalgia and memories kick into high gear.

What kind of traditions did/does your family have surrounding Christmas?

Something my family started when I was little was celebrating Advent on the four Sunday nights prior to Christmas Day. The advent of Christ's birth - a waiting period prior to the actual event. It is one of the most vivid memories I have from my younger years and we carried on the tradition for a long time (though schedules make it more difficult in recent years).

The kids would get our pajamas on, then make a trek through the house and turn all the lights off. Then Mom would grab her guitar and a big red tablecloth... we'd sit in a circle on the floor (on the tablecloth) and start the night off by lighting the Advent wreath. One candle the first night, two candles the next Sunday and so forth. Then, we'd each take a turn picking a "favorite" Christmas song to sing together. Mom would play the guitar and eventually Sarah Grace and I learned to chime in on piano. We sang everything from "12 Days of Christmas" to "Silent Night". After the singing, Dad would pick part of the Christmas story to read to us. We'd eat an "advent treat" that we'd made sometime during the previous week. Often, we'd talk about certain Christmas traditions and their origins. Then came prayer time. Each year, each family member picked somebody to "adopt in prayer" for the entire pre-Christmas season. Often they were people that we knew were going through some really difficult times... Sunday nights was the time we took to pray out loud with the family for "our person". After prayer time, we'd often read another favorite Christmas book together before heading off to bed.

For many reasons, the tradition was very meaningful to me. The whole point of the Advent celebration is preparing our hearts and minds for Christmas. There's a lot of excitement and extra things that happen around the holidays - family get-togethers, presents, Santa, trees, etc... but it's so easy to forget the reason we even have Christmas to celebrate. This tradition was an amazing way my parents helped instill in me a special "sense of wonder" about the entire season. I love Christmas... and I hope this tradition of celebrating Advent is something I can carry on with my own family someday.

From Sarah Grace...

This semester I have been a volunteer for our Palmetto Campus Life Club. I have been building some amazing relationships with the high school students.  One of the girls who I have gotten close to is Priscilla.  She has honestly become like a little sister to me. 

I started getting to know Priscilla better and learned more of her story when her Mom joined our Y.F.C. office staff.  They moved to Miami about 2 years ago.  Priscilla had grown up in the Dominican Republic and when her parents divorced she ended up moving here with her mom.  Margie, her mom, is an amazing Christian lady who I look up to and respect so much for her courage and strength in Christ alone through this process. 

Priscilla had done ballet in the Dominican Republic and had to give it up when she moved here.  One day when we were talking I asked her if she wanted to get together with me and do ballet.  We got together that Saturday and had an amazing time dancing and doing devotions together. 

We choreographed a Christmas dance that we were able to use this Christmas season to encourage others. Now some of the other Campus Life girls have shown interest in joining us! 

God has definitely placed me here right now and is using me to help encourage these girls.  I love spending time with them.  What they don't realize is how much they are teaching me everyday.  I am so thankful for this opportunity and that Andy Sowers, my club director, listened when God said, "Come" and he moved to Miami.  

I know it's busy this season, but take time to be still.  You never know how your obedience will impact lives around you!  Andy Sowers surely never though that a dance ministry would come out of his moving to Miami, FL this year! 

From Ben...

Hurricane evacuations can be fun when you share a hotel room with a Campus Life staff person - namely Andy Sowers.  We watched lots of late night movies - double features were the best - and Andy kept me playing my XBox by finding the right cords for adapting my game system to the hotel TVs.  Sneaking our cat into the Cabot Lodge (done by my sister Sarah and Andy Sowers) was pretty cool. 

Turning 16 is great too.  I went on a deep sea fishing trip with one of my Dad's Y.F.C. board members - George Brown.  He took Dad and me and my Grandpa out in his boat down in the Keys.  I caught lots of fish (enough to bring home dinner) and I drove his cool speed boat.  

I took a birthday trip to Atlanta with Dad and it was awesome.  The Braves won a great baseball game against the Florida Marlins that we went to see.  We toured CNN Studios, visited Coca-Cola, and saw Millenium Park where the Atlanta Summer Olympics were held. 

On my actual birthday I had a great day with my buddy Scott Tabor.  We went to Miami Seaquarium.  Good thing we did, because Hurricane Wilma did lots of damage to the park and now it won't be open for quite a while.

It's been a good year. I like Miami.

From Andy...

What an incredible year this has been - getting used to living with the tropical heat and then our amazing hurricane season! 

We are excited about being involved again in our old church - Kendall Presbyterian.  We have a great time with our friends, Mark and Ines Graham, helping with College and Careers, I am part of our Missions Committee, Val leads the weekly Kids Korner ministry (basically a children's message in the morning service) and Sarah began the Kendall Dance team and sings in the choir. 

I have two significant personal events that I would like to share.  The first was the excitement of watching our 2 daughters go off to Italy for a month of summer missionary work with M.C.Y.M. - trusting the Lord to take care of them as well as to minister through them.  The second involved taking Ben away for a week long road trip to Atlanta to celebrate his 16th birthday.  We had a great time together and we had great talks about him growing as a man and growing in the Lord. 

It's been wonderful having 2 of our Y.F.C. Campus Life friends from Michigan join our Miami team - Andy Sowers who started our Palmetto Club this fall and Molly Ptaszek who will be starting our Coral Park Club this new year.  It has also been great to watch Sarah Grace get involved with our Campus Life ministry as a volunteer with Palmetto.  

Miami Youth for Christ is growing in so many ways and we are enjoying being a part of that process.  God has blessed our family in so many ways by allowing us to be back in the Southern Region of Youth for Christ and back in Miami where we served 20 years ago!

I thank those of you that support us both financially and in prayer.  This on-line holiday letter is a new idea for our family and we hope you enjoy it.  For those of you used to getting a letter in the mail with a return envelope for giving, we hope this isn't too inconvenient for you.  Our office mailing address is:

Miami Youth for Christ, P.O. Box 561101, Miami, FL 33256-1101

Thanks for your time and God bless you this Christmas season!

Andy and Valerie McDaniel - Elizabeth, Sarah Grace and Ben

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P.S.  Here are a few pictures from this year!

Ben's birthday fishing trip with George Brown and Papa

Ben and Andy at the Florida Marlins vs. Atlanta Braves game!

Some of Sarah's ballet students from Kendall Church.

The girls in Florence, Italy!

Enroute to Clearwater with our summer interns - Frank and Charles.

Some of our staff families in Clearwater at our Youth For Christ Southern Area Conference (S.A.C.) this summer.

Sweet Sisters!

Ben and his buddy Scott Tabor.

Val and Andy Sowers the night of Hurricane Katrina - also happened to be the night of his 25th birthday!

Damage from Katrina at our office - Andy's in the background.

Halloween Super Club Palmetto Campus Life staff - from left Carolina, Scott, Andy, student, and Sarah Grace!

Evacuated in Orlando with Andy and Molly for Hurricane Wilma.

Andy with our dear friend, Tido Huckfeldt, visiting from Germany.

A family picture taken in May at Alex and Allison Brito's wedding.