Hope you are doing well and enjoying this wonderful Christmas season!
We have had an eventful year over here in the Fox household. Here is a short update from this past year.
In December of last year, our church elders joined our Wednesday night home group and prayed for each of the households in our group. These times of prayer for each of the the families in our church has been very meaningful to use each year, and something that we both appreciate and anticipate. At one point during the prayer time last December, one of the elders said something along the lines of feeling that God would greatly expand our family’s ministry outreach this year. We didn’t know what that might mean at the time, but boy, did that turn out to be true!
The leadership at Antioch has been praying for a couple years that God would bring along the next pastor to eventually take Mark’s place in the coming years. Micah and I have felt quite content where God has had us over the years, and when asked each year at our annual elders retreat if we feel led to pursue the pastorate, for the last several years we have shared that we really haven't felt like the Lord has been leading us in that direction.
So imagine our surprise when, in February of this year, this began to change in our hearts and minds when, at an elder/deacon planning meeting, the elders presented the growing urgency about needing to find a replacement pastor to the deacons, and inviting them to join in praying more intentionally on the matter. On the way home from that meeting, Micah and I realized that we both felt impressed during that meeting that we needed to more seriously take the matter to the Lord in prayer and truly seek His will for us in this matter. So, with a little fear and trepidation, we decided to take time to pray, both separately and together, that God would tell us if this is something He wants us to pursue.
In March, the elders called for a church-wide meeting, and during this meeting, asked the congregation to seriously join the elders in prayer about who the next pastor of Antioch should be, as well as to ask the Lord for wisdom to know what to do about our growing need for more space at the church, as the congregation continues to grow and new families join. Little did they know at that time that God had already started changing our minds and hearts on the pastor decision, though we weren’t quite ready to tell anyone about it. After taking one last weekend to pray over it at the beginning of May, God brought us both to a place of peace and assurance that the pastorate at Antioch was indeed what God wanted us to pursue. Talk about a 180 for us!
This was nowhere on our radar when Micah and I did our annual planning for our family in January, which just reiterated to us that…“Man plans his ways, but God directs his paths.” Starting this January (2026), Micah will begin working part time for Antioch as an Associate Pastor, as well as begin seminary courses in February for a Master’s of Arts in Biblical Counseling. He will remain in a part time role at Tassel, where he has been for over 16 years now, and it's possible that sometime in 2026, he will transition to a full-time role at Antioch, with the plan to move into the Lead Pastor position sometime in 2028.
Fast-forward to the present and Micah and I can say with confidence that not only do we continue to feel the Lord’s distinct calling, but we also have a growing excitement about serving Him in this way. We are thankful to also have the excitement of the elders and congregation, and we are so grateful for their outpouring of love, support and encouragement to our family.
Updates on the kiddos…
Blake is a junior in high school and finishing his first semester in “real school” at Alamance Country Community College. His plan is to get his Associates in Science, and then, Lord willing, transfer to Liberty University to pursue a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry. He is the brainiac in the family and loves learning and discovering new things. He hopes eventually to go into the field of chemical or biochemical research down the road. He got his “wings” this year and received his driver’s license and phone. Big time! We got to attend the "College for a Weekend" event at Liberty in September, which was so fun! In his free time, Blake enjoys playing the guitar on his own and on the worship team at church. He is working part-time for a brick-mason in the church, which is provided great training and experience, as well as great exercise! We are so proud of the young man God has made him to be.
Seth is a sophomore this year and enjoying his learner’s permit, getting plenty of practice driving our neighbor around on various errands during the week. He still amazes us with his skill on the piano, and it’s always a privilege to be serenaded each day with his practicing while doing school with the others. He is praying and seeking the Lord’s direction for his future and dreams of one day getting to produce movie soundtracks. We shall see! We have no doubt that God will use him to bless others through music in some way or another. Seth had the opportunity to spend ten days on the Shoemaker family ranch in Tulare, California helping his great-grandfather, Virgil. Here's a picture of him and three generations of Shoemakers. From left to right: Seth, Scott Shoemaker, Woody Shoemaker and Virgil Shoemaker (97 years old!).
Owen is twelve now and in seventh grade this year. He was able to go on his first mission’s trip through Mission Serve with Micah and the older boys in June. They traveled to Buckhorn, Kentucky volunteering for a week doing construction and repair projects at a home for autistic boys. He is a “Trailman” in a local troop of Trail Life, which is somewhat like a Christ-centered version of Boy Scouts. He enjoys getting to go on special outings with Trail Life and Micah such as hiking and camping, which has also been a sweet opportunity for them to bond together even more. Owen has many varying and fast-changing interests and has a great sense of quick-witted humor.
Liza is ten and in fifth grade. She is blossoming into a lovely young lady these days. Her relationships with friends have grown a lot this year and she loves to do sleepovers and have friends over as often as possible. She got to try her hand (or foot?) at soccer this spring and we saw a quite competitive side of her shine on the field (it comes from all the skills she’s gained defending herself against four brothers 😉). She is in love with babies and horses and dreams of one day owning her own ranch filled with ponies and horses to ride and care for. She is an avid reader and we can hardly keep her supplied with enough Nancy Drew, Mandie, The Vanderbeekers, Little House, and many other series to satisfy her.
Ian, the happy “baby of the family”, turned seven this year! He is extremely proud of the fact that he is measuring a full inch taller than his siblings did at his age. He's on track to be the tallest Fox kid of them all! Micah and I chuckle to ourselves when we think about how our parenting philosophy has evolved over the years. If you ask our other kids, he gets away with murder, but Micah and I like to think of it as our parenting “growing in grace.” He is a delight most of the time, and still cute enough to be quickly forgiven the few times he isn’t quite as delightful. Ian still has his "nut collection," which continues to grow throughout the year. He has been enjoying our weekly homeschool co-op that he and Liza attend. He likes to create order and has a natural tendency to think ahead for outings and prepare accordingly. It will be interesting to see how God will use that bent in the future.
Micah has been a busy guy this year as you can imagine! He does an excellent job juggling all his spheres of influence as a husband, father, son, elder, co-worker, repairman (at home) and chief yard manager (at home). His responsibilities at church have been slowly increasing over this past year while his workload at Tassel has remained the same; so he is hoppin’ most of the time. He will be so sad to not be as involved at Tassel next year after a whopping 16+ years together! They have been a fabulous company to be a part of and it’s going to be hard to say goodbye to that chapter of our lives at some point in the future. Micah continues running as well, and he still loves to sing and did an Easter special with Seth on piano and Blake on guitar. He is looking forward to moving into a pastor role at the church next year, and he's excited to start (and finish) his seminary courses.
Thanks for hanging in there to the end of this lengthy update. We are so excited about all that God has for our family in 2026. We are so humbled and in awe of the many ways the Lord has blessed us above and beyond what we deserve. The song, Holy Forever, has become a household favorite, and we have loved listening to the beautiful and powerful words over and over as it has also been a favorite at the church in the past year as well.
May God bless you this Christmas with the knowledge of His great love for you. If you don’t know Him personally, we invite you to reach out to us or someone you know to start a conversation about how you can know Him better.
Merry Christmas!
Micah, Kari, Blake, Seth, Owen, Liza and Ian
