Friends,

        "...for unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder..."      Isaiah 9:6

Amid unprecedented prosperity, it is fitting that we pause to consider Him by which the Father created all things -- Him who also came in the flesh to redeem His creation, and that ... as a babe in Bethlehem. ... Him who will come again to reign as president -- no, king -- of all, and who even now is on the throne in heaven -- Jesus, Emmanuel, the Christ.

At the Ron Schultz household, we are awed at God's blessings and what all has happened since Christmas 1999: the Haiti trip and other work by PMJ; Paul's high school and college news, Ron's travel, Dad V's last days.

Now all 4 kids have gone to college -- 3 to HFCC 2 summers ago and now Joy to Wright State for a summer program. And, in September, Paul was matriculated at Harvard. And now all 4 kids are teenagers, as of 11/25, Joy's birthday!

Ron collected Worldperk miles for trips to Boston by flying on pump, screen, valve, mixers, controls, and transformer test trips to Japan, Pennsylvania, Switzerland, Holland, Italy, England, Connecticut, Maryland, Georgia, Illinois, North Carolina, Minnesota.

Ron's starting to think "Join DWSD; see the world!": Factory inspection and tests on sewer screens proved to be more memorable than one would think -- with touring activities etc. after the workday is over.

Ron's job took him to two such trips, one to Romag's facility near Bern, Switzerland and the other to Copa's plant in Kent, England. Enroute to Bern, at Milan, Italy he took the train from airport to city and saw a little of the city. He extended the Swiss trip by rail to see a little of Germany and France; On the return trip from Bern, he only saw the airport at Amsterdam, but he did get to Minneapolis' Malls of America (from midnight to 4 AM!) -- when his flight from Amsterdam landed there rather than Detroit due to weather!

The Marriott in Kent, England rolled out the red carpet just prior to Ron's arrival! - [before two weddings held there]. In this land of lore, history and castles He toured Leed's Castle and London and saw the outside of Canterbury Cathedral enroute to a cricket match.

Interesting things of note on the continent were efficient train system in Switzerland, the importance of having native coins for pay toilets and coin phones (and the phone number of hotel to ask them to send cab to closed train station); And, while the phrase "ice-cold ___ " is hackneyed in the States, it is challenging to obtain drinks ice cold or with ice on the continent! For a cold drink from a Milan airport fast food restaurant, ice was available from the associated bar only.

In the Hotel Bern, the Gideon Bible was in German, French(?) and English. Also peculiar there were 1. The bed had no top sheet but rather a quilt with sheet integral to it! 2. The room had a locking wardrobe, and a custom nightstand for radio (in Japan the custom nightstand had various light controls instead) 3. Wicker and bent wood furniture. While in Switzerland, Ron traveled via 4 or 5 trains to the Jung Frau Jock, the common high point of the continent from whence rain water runs to all shores.

In Europe but more particularly in England people have an obsession -- even laws against -- tearing down the old; a host pointed out to Ron centuries old buildings that had been transformed from one type of service to another and yet another and another. One very common conversion in Kent was conversion of roundhouses -- previously used to dry tobacco -- to residences. In England one could travel the roads for hours and see relatively little -- due to the very widespread use of private ("priv" rhymes with give) hedges; not just in front of homes, in villages and cities (in England a city is [by definition] a place with a cathedral), but along all the roads bordering farm land! A host explained that there are laws about how high fences can be but not for hedges. Ron still saw more sheep in England than previously in his whole life!

Earlier in the year Ron made his 3rd pump test trip (he says his last) to Tokyo.

Ron was honored as best of all submittals in the DWSD Millennium Trivia contest, but son Paul actually came up with 23 of the 24 correct answers to 25 questions; Ron came up with one. Trivia is not Ron's bag!

SANDY's fleet is expanded to 2 vans with purchase of a white '97 Venture (It doesn't have any of those Firestone Wilderness tires that bro Bill's new Yukon has!) She took Paul's things to Boston and returned -- alone both ways. Ron sees it as training for a trucking job: (Ron says if she'd get a trucking job, maybe he could retire!) She cooked for 17 for Thanksgiving here -- all from Ron's side of family, while her side gathered in S. Illinois. She continues as coach of Guardian Lutheran School's very successful Bible Quiz team.

PAUL led his class [and it appears all Michigan high school graduates] academically as he graduated from Catholic Central(CC) in May. In scholarship efforts, he delivered an excellent VFW speech. For a while Paul's recognition by newspapers and others was awesome (URL http://www.detnews.com/2000/schools/0005/08/d07-51595.htm) [as was his high school achievements]. He's now at Harvard, majoring in Economics and working for Crimson (newspaper) and the more conservative Salient newspaper.

In October he flew back to Michigan for a weekend to lead a high school quizbowl competition that he and Andrew Flowerday organized and for which Paul wrote the questions. While in high school, Paul flew 16 trips [+ 11 long van trips] to compete in high school quizbowl, 4 of em in the 99-00 school year.

Paul is interested in well-paying work for summer of '01 -- to support his expensive 'education habit'.

At http://members.fortunecity.com/quentinkov/haiti/index.html you can view the report of Paul, Mark and John who flew to Haiti in July to build for a week on a Christian school. They teamed and traveled with 10 people from Cross of Christ Lutheran Church. Paul and Mark bagged at Meijer; Paul also cashiered. They worked enough at Meijers to appreciate the value of education to get less toilsome work.

MARK had as many as 3 jobs in one week, working at the primary election polls as well as Meijers and Hollywood Video. Now he works the latter about 10 hrs/wk (He particularly likes the fringe benefits -- free video rentals). He worked a few weeks cleaning at CC, but soon found the work too boring. Paul only had 2 simultaneous jobs [polls and Meijers]. At home, more manly duties are falling to John: mowing, concrete.

Both Mark and John are attending construction technology class at Ford Votech school 6PM to 10:30 Monday and Wednesday nights in addition to CC during the day; Mark is looking forward to getting a contractor's license. They already each have built a house! (a bird house), and together built a big (dog) house!

JOHN is wearing the Oxford shirt Ron bought him in England, but he says he's going to Yale (the only school of 8 Paul applied to that said no) His report card has room for improvement: 2 of those A's didn't have +'s after them! He's out of state alternate weekends in high school quizbowl competitions; his varsity academic team seems to always get 1st or third. His 237 of 240 on PSAT exam is noteworthy as was Mark's 203. (2 years ago Paul had 226)

John was one week at Citizens for Traditional Values statesmanship school in Lansing; sat in chamber of the state house. Paul passed the editorship of the Shamrock [CC online newspaper] to John; back issues describe their (PMJ+) crosses project, and academic team successes. go to catholiccentral.net/index_shamrock_1.html to view it. John's essay on faith was published along with Paul's VFW speech in a CC publication, the Renaissance.

8th grader, JOY enjoyed a math camp at Wright State -- tho she didn't learn much math. She has switched from piano lessons to voice lessons with the same instructor; from what I hear coming out of the 3rd floor, she's studying to be a country western singer! In the spring she played volleyball on the league champion varsity Guardian Girls team. She won her school's Geography Bee again, the only person to win it twice!

Ron, Paul, and Mark each played 1st game of golf -- Ron in England. None have played a second! And John hasn't played his first; but John and Mark each have 2 sets of clubs!

This household has all kinds of money; well, many KINDS -- not MUCH, but US, Canadian, Venezuelan, Swiss, German, Italian, Haitian, English, Japanese, Dutch, French.

Lazyboys and exercise equipments have been passing thru our house: the lazyboys get more use. One lazyboy went to Havard(I keep forgetting those "r"'s)! -along with the son who's not a lazy boy.

Ron's niece CHRISTINE is engaged to Jim Gold; Wedding date not yet set; probably late spring.

Sandy's Dad outlasted the rest of his generation and all predictions of his death by medical people after 2/99 diagnosis of aggressive liver cancer -- of which he died 7/27/00 at home where he was born almost 82 years before. He was quite a diverse person; combined reports of Jack Miles and Rev. Bill Miner paint him as both saint[Miner] and sinner.       Other than that, Sandy's family is fat and sassy.

Now that this year of practice is over, 1/1/2001 marks the beginning of the new millennium! But Jesus is coming (again) soon. To truly be ready for the millennium, one should be ready for His return! We hope you are ready and that 2001 will be a great year for you whether He returns in 2001 or not!

Ron, Sandy, Paul, Mark, John, and Joy Schultz