The Family in 2025 was another Milestone year for the Warrens!
For starters, we as a family made the decision to switch churches in 2025. That was hard, particularly for Sam, who was heavily involved in serving both on the worship team and the IT department. After some serious prayer, God gave us the insight and wisdom we needed and we transitioned to Victory Church in Graham, WA. However, God has been amazing (as usual) and showing His hand in it. The Pastor of Victory Church is someone both Sam and Amber worked with in years past. During that time, Sam was able to reconnect with the IT and Worship ministries at the new church and is leading their production efforts.
We went on the vacation of a lifetime to Spokane, WA, Silverwood Theme Park in Northern Idaho, and Glacier National Park and Kalispell, Montana!
We recently went to the Linfield versus University of Puget Sound. Amber's alma mater, Linfield, DESTROYED UPS.
Jude
Believe it or not, Jude is in Highschool. He started 9th grade this fall and has been thriving in School. He is 14 as of October. This young man has been learning on his own how to code in C++ on his Arduino circuits and been soldering/creating light shows. Jude this year has leaned into youth group! As mentioned before, we landed at Victory Church early in the year. A large part of the year for Jude and Sammy was spent at youth group! He is amazing in every way and we love this young man in the making! Silverwood and Montana were highlights for Jude this year. Silverwood was a ton of fun on its own, but then the second day we went, the park was shut down due to a lightning storm! Everyone left, so the icing on the cake was that when it reopened, we had the park practically to ourselves and got to go on as many rides as we wanted. Jude loves weather and loves watching storms (from safety of course) so this day and the nights in Montana, almost all of which had lightning storms, were highly enjoyable for him!
Sammy
Sammy has been growing too! He just turned 12 on November 19th and has been a joy to be around. He has been learning a lot about many different things but has been more recently working on his Washington State report and building many different Lego sets. Sammy also has a keen eye for art. He has been helping his mom on Sundays with Children's ministry and enjoying time at youth group as well. Sammy and Jude have been walking their Aunt's dog, Remington, on a regular basis and enjoy spending as much family time as they can get! Additionally Sammy's compassionate heart means he's always willing to help and loves all animals-especially dogs and penguins.
Amber
At the beginning of the year, Amber was working with her sister in the Bethel School S. However as of November, we decided that she should be home to support our boys during their High School education. This was in no small part due to the challenges in the classroom increasing and lack of support from the school leadership. However, Amber has been filling her time with the boys by reading to them almost nightly, spending time helping at church in the Children's ministry, supporting her family that all live within 30 minutes of our house if not closer, and enjoying photography and being a stay-at-home mom again. Amber was an amazing vacation planner for the Vacation Trip this year. It was the most fun our family has had and sets the table for our road trip next year. Amber is simply the best.
Sam
In a not so shocking twist, Sam has reverted somewhat on the work front.
Early in the year, Sam accepted a part time job as the IT Director for a local Document Management Company. He has, since then, helped them with MANY key projects, advised and supported website change overs, and built out several tools that play a vital role in the team's success.
Sam started out helping at Victory with Bass guitar, as is normal, but then with a lot of shuffling of staff and departures was asked to lead the Production department. The role entails scheduling and working with volunteers to broadcast the service and provide sound and lyrics for the Sunday services and all church events. He has had to hit the ground running and learn a completely new area of Church production and provide guides, advice, and support often with little knowledge and lots of Holy Spirit. Recently, he replaced the entire internal internet structure of the church and provided guidance on upgrades to different systems in use.