2024 Baumbach Year End Letter

Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

Lucas and Elysse started out the year by taking a long-expected trip to Hawaii. It was Lucas’ first visit, and he loved every bit of it, especially how similar the culture was to where he grew up in the central valley of California. We stayed on both Maui and Kauai, celebrating our 10th anniversary a few months late and our 12th a few months early. Imagine spending January in the pacific sun and sand and waves (God’s little heaven on earth)! A highlight was worshipping with a new, reformed church in Kauai. As church founders ourselves it was edifying to meet Pastor Jonas and see his dedication to reformed worship. They had a distinct liturgy, but the congregation was accompanied by Hawaiian ukelele. In our view his church was doing great, but he was less optimistic. We tried to encourage Jonas by connecting him with some friends back in South Carolina. We love the soldiers like Jonas, who are on the front lines, doing God’s work without much support. His story of returning to his home state to start a reformed church is like ours. It was a special encouragement since the love of working to expand the kingdom is becoming cold in the church. It’s a crisis of faith that men like Jonas are not better supported, even in wealthy denominations like the PCA.

Reformation Church has experienced some changes this year. We have relocated to our current home at the Sleep Inn in Nampa, Idaho. It’s an easy to access meeting room in the center of the Treasure Valley. It’s off the Franklin exit in Nampa. Our core group has expanded slightly, but others have fallen away. It’s expected but difficult. We live in such a transient society that building a little fellowship is hard. Christians need to learn that the Lord does not despise the day of small beginnings and the little fellowship is often sweeter, because you have more intimate connections. Still, many people talk about how they love worshipping God according to the ancient patterns of confessing faith and hearing plain preaching of God’s Word.

We did a lot of traveling this year. In the Spring, Lucas accompanied some other pastors to the Greenville Conference on Reformed Theology. David Barrett, Josh Bales, Tim Hazelbaker and a couple others went representing 4 different reformed churches of our area. Josh Bales even decided to become a MDiv student at Greenville Seminary (GPTS.edu). 

Ezra’s first birthday was in May. He is a firecracker - our red-headed, left-handed, koala bear. He loves wrestling with his dad and siblings and napping in the carrier on mom’s back. He’s a reminder of how blessed we are to meet every child God gives us. Even at a young age we see that he is like his parents: very driven, and has schemes already of taking over the family.

Lucas attended presbytery in St. Helens, OR later in the Spring. A presbytery is an organic association of pastors that work together to do the work of God’s Kingdom. And, we went to our first Bible Presbyterian Synod in Olympia, WA this summer. You can’t beat the beauty of the Northwest, especially driving the Columbia River gorge. Then in August, Pastor Len Pine invited Lucas to teach at the BPC family camp in Bonners Ferry, ID. Even though it is a small denomination, it feels big here in the Northwest.  Just like last year, we met so many BPC families and their children; all of us really enjoyed and were edified by church family camp! 

In June we found out that Sephora’s heart surgery needed to be accelerated from 2025 to the first opening that Stanford Children’s hospital could offer us. After Lucas returned from Presbytery in New Mexico in early October, we got in the car to Stanford. In God’s providence the whole outcome couldn’t have been better. God provided us with free accommodation (a church family and Ronald McDonald) House, a wonderful surgeon and a shorter hospital stay than expected. We are thankful for the hospital at Stanford, and in turn they were especially impressed with how strong Sephora was. During recovery Sephora’s nurse commented, “It’s been a long long time since I have seen this much strength from a kid post-op day-1” as she was walking laps around the CVICU (Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit) with staff, wires and heart monitors in tow. Sephora was (is) such a delight to all. She has an outgoing personality, a love of music and a good measure of “character” to make her own mark in this family of driven personalities. She is the consummate girl, loving on her dollies, “folding” laundry, and “cleaning” house from dawn to dusk. 

On the way home from Stanford, we stopped in Rocklin, CA to visit Lucas’ cousin, Nathan. It was so good to see Nathan and his wife Naomi. Nathan and Lucas grew up together and share a very close bond.

Shortly before our trip to Stanford for Sephora’s open heart surgery, Lucas transferred his ministry credentials to the BPC (Bible Presbyterian Church ). This is the denomination in which Francis Schaffer was ordained in 1937. And, for those who have followed Lucas’ seminary education from a distance and still wonder what that entails, Francis Schaffer is a fairly good example. He was passionate about God’s Word, and also passionate about making Christianity relevant, not by abandoning the God of the Bible, but by embracing absolutely God’s message in his Word, and understanding how God is the Lord of all of life, culturally and in every way. Schaffer consistently opposed the fragmented (hypocritical) approach to life that characterizes so much of Christianity today. He opposed external faith without the consistent outworking of faith that characterizes the true Christian.  Above all perhaps, Schaffer characterizes the warm-hearted Calvinism that represents the BPC of today. Yes, we are orthodox and ancient, but we are also primarily concerned with love, of God and of others. As a result, BPC churches generally tend to resemble families. What better biblical pattern of Christian fellowship is there?

Calvin is doing well, he is in 2nd grade and his favorite subjects this year are chess and piano and science. He is very delighted to tell everyone he meets that even though he is in 2nd grade, he is excelling in 3rd grade math! He loves puzzles, and has just discovered Duo-Lingo. Sebastian is in Kindergarten and is already reading, even though he doesn’t always let on. He’s our sweet boy, who also has a robust sense of humor (that sometimes gets him in tight spots). Sephora has had a good amount of speech therapy this year; now, Lucas is focusing on developing her phonics, which she likes a lot. Both Calvin and Sebastian are Trailmen, in Trail Life. It’s remarkable how much little boys like the military structure. It helps them build character, and fathers are very active in the troop. Lucas just passed his background check so that he can become a Trail Guide. Trail Guides are parent leaders who train the boys to fulfill the trailman oath: to honor God and country, to be good stewards of Creation and to treat others as they want to be treated.

Another significant event this year was the passing of Elysse’s maternal Grandma who everyone affectionately called “Nana”. She was the last of children’s great grandparents and we all had a strong and loving connection to her. Nana prayed diligently for us and Reformation Church, even giving the funds to purchase enough Trinity Psalter Hymnals to be able to open our doors. Even though death is sad and hard, walking through this season has been a great opportunity to teach and remind our children of our hope in Christ and our assurance that all those who confess Jesus as Lord and Savior immediately pass into glory, and we will see them for eternity. What a blessing!

Thank you so much for reading to the end. We are admittedly still working on this letter and plan to add a few more sections. But, in the meantime, we wish you a Merry Christmas and pray that the hope of Christ fill your life. Please, send us any updates from you. We love to hear from our friends and family.  And, again, thank you for your support and prayers. In Christ, Lucas and Elysse