The 12 Words of Christmas

 The 12 words the angels proclaimed as they first announced it—“A Savior has been born to you. He is Christ the Lord”—thereby ending the apparent silence of God for the prior 400-plus years. With the birth of Jesus, each and every person could now know and have a real relationship with God.

    As he is relating the account, Pastor Louie Giglio maintains that the first Christmas was chaotic and came at the busiest time of year—on tax day. With that, the circumstances surrounding Jesus’ birth were also less than perfect. He states that the only perfect things on the night that Jesus was born were the baby, and the message the angels gave announcing His birth.
(The Twelve Words of Christmas part 1, Louie Giglio)
(The Twelve Words of Christmas, part 2)
(The Twelve Words of Christmas, part 3)

  Mr. Giglio emphasizes his point well, that Jesus, the Savior of the World, had come for exactly that very reason—to land right in the middle of chaotic humanity and be the very presence of God. Giglio takes that particular thrust of the story and brings it to the forefront of people’s lives everywhere today. 








  Christmas is not necessarily a perfect time of life, but the perfect One Himself has come, and He is available and reaching out to each person in every kind of circumstance. 
   







  As some friends of ours reminded us:

       In the Christmas story in Matthew 1 and Luke 1-2 the angel that appears to the main characters of the story addresses all of them by saying, "Don't be afraid". 
      Today fear is gripping our world like a strong man grips a small boy's hand to hurt him. 
     We all feel it everyday. 
     BUT, the message of the Christmas story when personally believed releases us from fear and gives us a lasting inner peace forever! 
     The message is simple - The God of the Bible truly wants to "walk among us and be our God" , Leviticus 26:12.

Merry Christmas to all of you today!
(With a little scenery thrown in for those of our family
who live in the south!)

The New Home of Amazing Grace Community Church

    Amazing Grace Community Church will celebrate its 6th Birthday in September. For the past 3 years the church has been looking for a building in the North Lethbridge area to purchase and turn into its new home.  They almost had a place in the spring of 2015, but due to the Canadian building codes - the purchase fell through. That ended up being a blessing in disguise. This Spring, 2016, we found an old furniture store on the main street right in the heart of the neighborhoods we serve that was for sale at a price that would allow us to remodel.  
    A group of investors who believe in the mission of Amazing Grace Community Church and the Amazing Kids program agreed to finance the purchase and remodel of the building until such time as Amazing Grace CC is incorporated and can secure their own bank loan.  
    Howard has been spending his summer supervising the many volunteers who have been helping with some very messy jobs, and we have been rewarded by uncovering beautiful brick pillars and hardwood floors. We are hoping that they will be used in the final decor of the building!
    What follows is a time-line of photos showing where we are in the process. Our regular Tuesday, Thursday evening demo times of 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm and Saturday mornings from 8:00 am to 12:00 pm. 
    We do not know when the remodel will be completed - but we will for sure keep you updated. We ask for your prayers that the building remodel will be smooth and finished before Christmas.

Furniture Store to Church! 

In some of our demo we found out that the building
used to be a hardware store. 

This space will become our worship area.

That wall will be opened up to become the stage and storage area.

The storefront areas will become stairs to the basement
and then bathroom areas.

  

Upstairs will become classrooms and downstairs will be
the kitchen and serving area.

  

The side building will become the pastors office,
welcome area, stage and nursery rooms. 

The side building was a storage unit facility in its most recent life. 

The kitchen, with our furniture elevator that will not
be able to stay but we are using it now.

The only bathroom for now - it will disappear later on in demo.

Upstairs rooms. 

View down on the worship area from the classroom area.

View of street windows from kitchen area.

Always wearing masks during demo of walls and carpet.

After removal of all 4 layers of flooring we found the maple hardwood!

A load going to the dumptruck!

  

Mystery legs removing drywall from ceiling.

Ceiling on the floor.

Carpet coming up, two layers of tile under that.

After removal of drywall, we had to remove all of the
remaining nails....at least 9000.

Putting our all into nail removal.

The old heating coming out - new mechanicals will be coming!  

On the way to the dumptruck.

Piles of stuff ready for the dump truck. 

Insulation or cotton candy?  (there was both that day!)

Guests from the states helping with drywall removal
- drywall and plaster layers.

We were given the gift of free use of dump trucks
- I think at least 12 loads have been removed.

Panaroamic view of building waiting for new electricals, plumbing, and walls!

Taking Myself out of the Picture

“If only I could take me out of support raising and have someone else do it for me!”

  If only you knew how many times we have thought this and said this.  But then we are chastised by God - through his words in scripture, friends, and fellow missionaries - that WE aren't raising the support for the work God has called us to do. HE is raising up supporters for us, just as HE has raised up people to serve him.

   Although most fellow missionaries we have known and met throughout the years are very humble and self-effacing in this area, they have a tendency to fall headlong into the trap of the enemy: feeling and acting, as though support raising is both all about themselves and totally up to themselves. Satan wants us to feel like beggars who think everyone is running the other way when they see us. He wants us to forget that God has already promised to take care of those He has called into full-time kingdom work.

In reality, very little of the whole process of support raising is about us, the missionaries. 

Success is certainly more dependent on God than on ourselves. 

Thus we can take heart in the biblical promise found in 1 Thessalonians 5:24,

 “God, who calls you, is faithful; he will do this.” 

And also in Philippians 2:13, 

"For it is God who works in you, to will and to work for his good pleasure.

  God has called Sandy and I to work in Lethbridge, Alberta with the Blackfoot people in the city and on the reserve just outside of town. As we have shared with many of you, the need is great. Discouragement, loneliness, addictions, single-parent homes, families who don't know what a family of God looks like, people who don't like white folks. 

It is our privilege to invite you into the joy of making disciples among the nations, to see what God is doing to push back the lostness in this world, to be part of the God-sized endeavor, and advance his kingdom in the hearts and lives of those he has called us to serve.  

Even though God has called us to “climb down into the darkness” for the ministry, he is calling many of you to “hold the ropes” to fulfill the Great Commission. Thank you once again to those who have done so. We invite others of you to join us. 

 **** Many of these thoughts and words are from an article we recently read by Mike Riggins of  Support Raising Solutions which we recently read and which convicted us.

Two Words

 

  This past Monday evening Howard and I ventured out of our normal world of existence - we attended a High School CRU - CityWide event in Chattanooga.  We spent the evening praising God with 75+ high-schoolers.

 
           What is Cru? - It is the high school and junior high ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ.

CRU-High School has the goal of:

  WINNING students to Christ

  BUILDING them up in their faith

  SENDING them out to reach others for Christ

       We reached out to Jill Finley who attends our church and who we had met last year when our church had its Missions Conference. She is a Missionary with Cru at Brainerd High School in Chattanooga and encouraged us to join her as she helps grow the Gospel in these students lives.    

   
   While Howard and I are in our Support Raising portion of Ministry we want to involve ourselves in others lives, we want to learn and absorb as much as we can that will help us when we arrive in Lethbridge.  Spending time with High School youth is a way we can minister to others, share our testimony and SHOW THEM JESUS, right here in Chattanooga.  We hope to spend Mondays nights for the next few months with Jill and the students from Brainerd High School.

       In addition to Praising God through song, enjoying a bit of YouTube fun and prayers, we heard about the recent event that many of them had attended.  The event they attended was called FAST BREAK. It was a 3 day event for youth that have been attending CRU meetings, it is a time of fun, training, and worship for the kids who attend.

       One of the young men who attended shared something really great that I wanted to share with you  - something I have been thinking about and want you to think about.

      The high school seniors who attended where challenged to come up with their TWO WORDS.

 Two words that would describe their before Christ and after Christ lives.

   

 Two words that they could share when they left high school and would lead into their testimony.  

 Two words that no one could dispute because the words belong to them and are true for them.

      I didn't have a paper to write down his TWO WORDS, and I don't remember all of his testimony to share with you, but it was good, really good. 

  So, the challenge was there for me, what would be my two words?  I have been thinking about how I would get two words. I mean, I was raised in a Christian home and it seems as if I have had Jesus in my heart from my earliest memories.  How could I have a before and an after when I was never "away" from Jesus.  I happened to be reading John chapter 3 today and read about Nicodemus' question to Jesus about being born again. Nicodemus had "always" followed God and obeyed the commands, sounded just like me. Jesus's answer is the key: "being born of the water and the Spirit" (vs. 5).
I had been baptized and educated in the church, prayed to Jesus as a child and learned all the stories about Him.  But then I recalled the time when I was 12 years old and was attending catechism classes.  Through what we were learning I was convicted that I needed to make my relationship with Jesus more than just head knowledge and my parents faith.  I was convicted to move from being Happy in my home, church and belief in Jesus, to being Content in Jesus no matter what was going to happen in my life in the future.  A maturity process was begin, one that is still being worked out day to day as I remind myself I can be Content in all things because I have a relationship with my Savior Jesus Christ.


So here are my two words:

   Happy - Content

  And you can see where my testimony started and where it is going.  After all, isn't a testimony all about what you have seen happen?  And I have seen Jesus moving me from being Happy to being Content, my TWO WORDS that I can share with others whether they are family, friends, students, adults, little children, believers and unbelievers.

   Challenge - What are your TWO WORDS?

*All photos THROW-BACK-THURSDAY proof that Howard and I were high-schooler's a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.
           


 

Alone in the pool?

It finally happened. 

 We have been members of the YMCA in Athens, TN and Chattanooga, TN for over a year now.  

  Howard walks the treadmill for 450 to 500 calories and then lifts some weights.




I swim and participate in the Activtrax program they offer
 (it's been fun to learn how to use all those intimidating machines).



  Every other day is swim day and when I arrive a little before 7 am, I usually have to wait for the the really committed Masters Swimming class to finish, and then I can have a lane for laps, although lately I have had to share a lane most days. Not a problem.

  Thirty minutes of laps - freestyle one direction, backstroke on the way back.  Fourteen strokes of freestyle - 18 strokes of backstroke.  It can get monotonous, but I have gotten praying while swimming down to a science.  The time flies by now.

  So today as I was about done with my 30 minutes, I happened to stop for a breather and looked around the pool - I had started my morning with sharing a lane with another person, now there was NO ONE in the whole pool except for me.

It was eerie, just me       -        and the life guard.

My own personal life guard for 5 minutes!!

Cool.

Which got me to thinking while I finished up my laps:

Was I really alone - of course not - the life guard was there.

Hey, I always have a personal life guard.   Jesus!  

I am never alone as I swim through the waters of life.

  What a nice thought to start my day and to think on for the rest of the week. And it will probably come to mind every time I swim.

Such are the musings of a morning spent in the pool.