Tag: christmas

Merry Christmas 2012

Dear Family and Friends,

What a blessed year our little family has had! We are grateful for your place in our lives and hope that this season finds you thankful for the blessings in your life as well. Highlights this year include celebrating our third wedding anniversary, finding a great church home and welcoming our first son – Timothy Ian Ma – into the family. What a full year it’s been! We are thankful for the gospel-centered preaching, teaching and community found in our church home of Mars Hill Bellevue. We are incredibly blessed to serve and contribute to the work God is doing at Mars Hill. Our hearts are challenged and we are growing in our walks with Jesus. In parenthood, we have enjoyed learning the ropes and loving on our little boy so far! 🙂 We are excited and so humbled to have the new responsibility of raising and teaching Timothy in the years to come about God’s goodness and his incredible grace for us. This year, we’ve posted more regularly on our family blog at www.ajmas.com. Please feel free to subscribe for more regular updates.

The first half of the year brought some work trips for both of us. One of Jenny’s trips was out to Baltimore so we took the time to revisit one of the spots we went to on our honeymoon. In the spring, Andrew also visited Israel on a recruiting trip. Though unexpected, it was an neat opportunity for him to visit some biblically significant landmarks. Andrew continues to enjoy his work at Amazon.com on the Instant Video team and is doing well there. This year, he has also taken on a fun project of doing part-time mobile phone app development for a small company in Seattle. It’s been fulfilling for him to learn some different technology and use his gifting to work on an church app platform used by hundreds of churches. Jenny left her role in Sales Operations at Apex Learning in February to manage our kitchen remodel project and further prepare our home for the big change in our family. She is enjoying this new season of working at home in raising Timothy and growing as a wife and homemaker.

This summer, we sadly said goodbye to sweet Sammy rabbit. After battling with several eye infections, she couldn’t fully recover so we, along with her buddy Stewie, had to bid her farewell in late August. Stewie appears to be getting along okay, but seems quite lonely at times. He is over 8 years old and still makes us laugh with his funny bunny quirks.

Our family continues to be very grateful for God’s overly abundant provision for us in this season. We are glad to be celebrating our fourth Christmas together as husband and wife, and are hopeful as reflect this Advent season on what Christ’s coming means for our lives and purpose. Our family hopes you are able to reflect on and enjoy the season with family and dear friends, and look forward to what 2013 may hold. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you!

With love,
The Mas – Andrew, Jenny & Timothy (6 months)

Merry Christmas 2011

Greetings, family & friends!

As temperatures are freezing here in Seattle, we hope that wherever you are, you’re warm and healthy. 2011 brings us into  our 3rd year of marriage. This year has brought numerous blessings and experiences to grow us. We continue to be thankful for the friendship and support of many of you.

A significant change in our family this year was Andrew’s departure from Microsoft to join Amazon.com in September. He is currently working on the video application for the Kindle Fire. It has been a good fit for him so far and he is eager to learn more and contribute to the technology at Amazon. Jenny has enjoyed working at Apex Learning for over a year in her role in sales operations for the East coast teams. With both of us now working in Seattle, frequent lunch dates are a welcome treat during the week!

We participated again this fall on a medical mission to the northern part of Vietnam and it was a stretching journey for both of us. While the travel and clinic days were tiring, it was rewarding and humbling to be a part of the mighty work God is doing that country. We were encouraged to know though we were limited with the health care we could extend, we helped strengthen the Vietnamese church’s presence and favor in the areas of the country where we worked. We both served in the optometry clinic again and this time was especially neat for us because we saw Andrew’s gifting in the way of building software come to fruition in the mission field. Earlier in the year, he took on the task of completing rewriting the software used for managing the glasses inventory. The whole process from adding, to sorting, packing and distributing has become more efficient and sustainable for future trips. Andrew was blessed to use his gifting to help the team serve patients more proficiently. We have both continued to grow in our hearts for supporting Christ’s work for reaching all nations through missions. After Vietnam, we took a week to travel to Hong Kong and China. It was Jenny’s first time to both and it was an eye-opening experience for both of us to meet some of her family. We were also blessed to learn about both of our ancestors and families’ histories during our visit there. We are humbled by how we see God’s hand in redeeming our  heritage and are grateful for what we have in our lives flowing from that history.

Looking ahead to 2012, we are immensely thankful for Jesus’ grace in our lives. We pray you might know his great love in your lives as well. For those of you we haven’t seen in a while, we hope 2012 might bring us together. For those whom we do get to see, we look forward to that continuing this year. Enjoy a beautiful Christmas season and a blessed 2012!

By His Love,
Andrew & Jenny Ma
(+ Stewie and Sammy rabbits, 7 years old – still alive and hoppin’ )

Merry Christmas 2010

As we look forward to 2011, we hope this letter finds you well. Reflecting back on this year, we are thankful for much, including our relationships with you, our friends and family. We see the theme of growth and newness continue to fill our home as we grow in marriage and seek the Lord’s will for our life together.

Anticipating an eye-opening adventure this year, we committed to going on and preparing for a medical mission to Vietnam. We were humbled blessed by our friends and church family who supported in us in going to Vietnam for two weeks in October and November. We went with a team from our church, Cornerstone Christian Fellowship. This was Jenny’s first time out of the western world and the first overseas missions trip for both of us. Andrew worked to meet the technology needs of the team and even got to play optometrist. Jenny worked alongside Andrew in optometry and enjoyed getting to serve in patient intake and pharmacy clinics. Our time in Vietnam opened our eyes to importance of what is happening in the hearts of the people there, far beyond any of the physical needs we attempted to meet with our medical care. It was a busy and tiring trip and one of the most life changing and rewarding adventures we have had! Our hearts for taking a more hands-on part in missions work have been ignited. We are eager to see what happens next as we pursue Jesus’ heart in seeking and saving the lost.

We are thankful for how God continues to provide abundantly for us. Andrew is steadily employed in his 9th year at Microsoft and Jenny is considering an offer from a company she has been enjoying working at in Seattle. In our home, also known as Hotel Jendrew or the Ma Daycare, we have had the joy and privilege of hosting a multitude of visitors and guests. We love having company in our home as we learn to be generous stewards of all we have been given. Our rabbits, Stewie and Sammy, are also still hoppily living their bunny lives in the garage. 🙂 We are both helpers in a Sunday school class at Cornerstone. Andrew is also putting some of his talents to work on the web/technology team and involved in the men’s ministry. Jenny enjoyed directing the bi-annual children’s choir for Easter and Christmas and learning the ropes as a new leader in both the youth ministry and an after-school program at a nearby middle school. She is also encouraged by her involvement with the women’s ministry.

Most recently, our extended family grew – we are the proud uncle and aunt of our first nephew! Conor Rhys Ma was born to Andrew’s brother Kenny and his wife Clarissa on December 12th here in Seattle. We are excited to get to know the little guy as we spend time together and he grows. May the gifts of life and community bless you this year!

Love,  Andrew & Jenny Ma (+ Stewie & Sammy, 6 years old)

Merry Christmas 2009

Christmas Card 2009 - Front

Dear friends and family,
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you! We hope this greeting finds you well. 2009 has been quite a year for us with months of wedding planning and moving into a new home to share together. We have also enjoyed getting to travel together for our honeymoon to the Bahamas and spending July 4th in Washington, D.C. Additionally, we’ve taken trips for two different family weddings to Montreal and New York. Andrew is currently in his 7th year at Microsoft, continuing to grow in his role in the Xbox division. His Xbox gamescore has also grown to 40,000. Jenny completed her academic tour through Bellevue College/The King’s College/Seattle Pacific University with a business degree. She currently has a contract position in downtown Seattle and hopes it leads to a full time position as the work she is doing interests her. Stewie and Sammy (pet rabbits) have had to make their home in the garage. However, they are adjusting well and their cage is frequented often by us and many of our young house visitors who enjoy petting them and feeding them fresh veggies. We have been blessed in learning to live together in our house this past half year. It has been a growing experience filled with changes and warm memories, caring for each other in new ways and discovering more wonderful qualities in one another each day. In building our home together, house improvement projects have kept us busy as we check them off the list and continue to plan out the course for more to come. We are thankful for God’s gracious provision in our lives by making these house projects possible, and enjoying opportunities we have to open our home to family and friends through the year. Another highlight of this year has been the friendship and support from our mentors who offer us insight into our new life stage. Looking forward into 2010, we are excited to continue to grow in our marriage, our relationships and seeing what the Lord has in store for us as we look to Him for direction. We hope 2010 has good times in store for you and that you are getting to think upon the meaning of this holiday season and spending time with loved ones. Blessings, Andrew, Jenny, and our bunnies Stewie & Sammy (5 years)