This Christmas season, everywhere I turn it seems I am noticing advent messages related to waiting. I must confess my advent revolves mostly around waiting to get and give gifts, and waiting for delicious food (Pickled herring anyone? Thats ok, more for me!). But I have been reminded this year in particular how important it is that we remember there was a time when the messiah had not yet come. The world was waiting. And we wait still, at the earth aches and groans under the weight of sin, we wait patiently for all things to be made new. Alex and I are in our own season of waiting right now. We are counting the months untill we head for a warmer climate. Sometimes we count because we are excited, and sometimes it is because we are sad to leave this place. Tonight though, I am gratefull that, despite our current work load, this particular season of waiting is full of peace. We are so happy to be with familly this christmas season, and yet we are thrilled to be moving forward in this journey God has us on. I am gratefull for our snug little appartment where we can take naps by the fireplace. I am gratefull for the depth of meaning that we are able to experience this year in the fact that the Son of God humbled himself to become a human infant. A drooling, pooping, floppy infant. God did that. I am gratefull that this is the God who is the prince of peace in our waiting. Merry Christmas folks!
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Hello friends! Since this is the time for cheesy "Christmas miracle" movies on the Halmark channel, I thought it would be an appropriate time to tell you one that is true.
What follows is a true story from MAF'ers in Indonesia just a few months ago. "When Emma Grace was conceved, her teenage parents were some of the very first believers among the Moi people. Her dad accused her mom of cheating on him when Emma Grace was in the woumb. According to Moi belief, babies in the womb wont grow unless parents have ongoing intercourse. Since her dad was gone durring several months of the pregnancy, but the baby grew anyway, he could only conclude that his wife was unfaithful to him. He ordered his wife to kill the baby as soon as she was born. So, reluctantly, just a day or two after the baby was born, his wife tied vines around the baby's neck and placed her in a net bag which hung outside the hut, leaving her to die. Someone heard about what was happening and told ome of the missionarys living among the Moi, who ran to the hut and retrieved the baby from the net bag, pleading with the parents to change their minds. The father was unwilling, so the missionary took the baby and ran to a colleague's home where they cut the vines off her neck, bathed her, named her Emma Grace, and cared for her for about one week. Throughout that week, the missionaries talked with the baby's parents, explaining that babies grow in the womb and that babies are a precious gift from God. Also, durring that week, Emma Grace's father read Exodous 1, which had been translated into the Moi language and told about the Hebrew midwives who were blessed because they spared the lives of the Isrialite baby boys, even though Pharaoh ordered the babies to be killed. Emma Grace's dad's heart was changed through the scripture he read and he accepted his loittle girl back into his home. Now Emma Grace is an exuberant, vivacious five year old ready to start kindergarden! You can watch her beautiful song of thankfulness to Jesus, which she wrote herself and sang with her friends." Written by: Tom and Valli Howard |
AuthorsWe are just a couple of kids from Iowa learning to trust Christ daily and aiming to serve Him though mission aviation. Archives
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