PRAYER LETTER NO.46.
Dear Team, 20th December 2006
Oops, I wrote this before Christmas but have had email problems, hence you only receiving it now. So here’s wishing you all a belated
Very Merry and Meaningful Christmas
and also
a Happy New Year!
I am so deeply grateful to all of you for your interest, support, prayers and contributions. This last year has been huge for GLO, with significant changes as the work has been growing steadily. Tens of thousands of lives have been impacted through our partners, and your role in empowering and releasing them to do it is absolutely key.
Thanks to those who voted for Cards from
Africa (www.cardsfromafrica.com) in the BBC World competition. Out of the original 800 projects from 100 countries, they got down to the last 12, and then eventually came second, with a prize of $10,000 and masses of free publicity. The result is that more orphans can provide for their siblings and make something of their lives. Superb effort! Voting and lobbying on issues definitely works, if we can overcome our own and others’ apathy and mobilise people to action. Indeed the Church needs to if we are to be salt and light and assume our prophetic role in this messed up world, speaking up for justice and righteousness and promoting God’s standards at all levels of society. May God help and use each one of us wherever we are!
Since her husband was tragically murdered seven years ago, this will be Romaine’s best Christmas, as she and her children and extended family will have a new home thanks to those who responded to last month’s appeal. Also, Cossette has been given enough money to start a hairdressing salon to provide for the girls she has taken in. Your contributions mean lives are being changed.
1056 miles in 10 days on a bicycle from John O’Groats to Land’s end was never going to be easy, but Geoff, Steve, and Yves did it in September, and raised a massive 38,000/$65,000 for the Youth for Christ orphanage – thanx guys, great stuff!
Do click on www.greatlakesoutreach.org to see our totally new-look website, thanks to Rob, Cheryl, Steve and others, brilliant job!
Pat Symons, GLO’s first administrator, has been a star over the last few years. She’s fighting leukaemia and would value your prayers. She’s now handed over to Cheryl Law, who is doing a great job. Thanks so much Pat, you beauty! And now Cheryl, as the work continues to grow, here’s to keeping up with the pace!
Emmanuel – ‘God with us’ – that’s the Christmas message. Thank you Lord for sticking with us! I’m preaching on the implications of God being with us this coming Sunday, and I need to preach the message to myself. It’s been a tough and discouraging few months on a national scale in , with many very negative trends taking place. I have allowed it to get me down, and need to remember that God has it all under control. It’s in His hands. Yet my faith is so fickle. I waver so easily. Discouragement kicks in. At different times, you probably feel the same. Well may God help us to keep our eyes fixed on Him through the coming year – may 2007 be a cracker!
God bless you LOADS, thanks again for being with us on the journey. I’ll leave you with a Christmas story from a visiting missionary sharing at an orphanage:
“We told them about Mary and Joseph arriving in
Bethlehem . Finding no room in the inn, the couple went to a stable, where the baby Jesus was born and placed in a manger. Throughout the story, the children and orphanage staff sat in amazement as they listened. Some sat on the edges of their stools, trying to grasp every word.
Completing the story, we gave the children three small pieces of cardboard to make a crude manger. Each child was given a small paper square, cut from yellow napkins I had brought with me (no colored paper was available in the city).
Following instructions, the children tore the paper and carefully laid strips in the manger for straw. Small squares of flannel, cut from a worn-out nightgown an American lady was throwing away as she left the country, were used for the baby's blanket. A doll-like baby was cut from tan felt we had brought from the . The orphans were busy assembling their manger as I walked among them to see if they needed any help. All went well until I got to one table where little Misha sat - he looked to be about 6 years old and had finished his project.
As I looked at the little boy's manger, I was startled to see not one, but two babies in the manger. Quickly, I called for the translator to ask the lad why there were two babies in the manger. Crossing his arms in front of him and looking at this completed manger scene, the child began to repeat the story very seriously. For such a young boy, who had only heard the Christmas story once, he related the happenings accurately -until he came to the part where Mary put the baby Jesus in the manger.
Then Misha started to ad-lib. He made up his own ending to the story as he said, "And when Mary laid the baby in the manger, Jesus looked at me and asked me if I had a place to stay. 'I told him I have no mamma and I have no papa, so I don't have any place to stay.' Then Jesus told me I could stay with him. But I told him I couldn't, because I didn't have a gift to give him like everybody else did."
"But I wanted to stay with Jesus so much, so I thought about what I had that maybe I could use for a gift. I thought maybe if I kept him warm, that would be a good gift. So I asked Jesus, 'If I keep you warm, will that be a good enough gift?' And Jesus told me, 'If you keep me warm, that will be the best gift anybody ever gave me.' So I got into the manger, and then Jesus looked at me and he told me I could stay with him-- for always."
As little Misha finished his story, his eyes brimmed full of tears that splashed down his little cheeks. Putting his hand over his face, his head dropped to the table and his shoulders shook as he sobbed
and sobbed.
The little orphan had found someone who would never abandon nor abuse him, someone who would stay with him - FOR ALWAYS.
I've learned that it's not what you have in your life, but who you have in your life that counts.”
What’s your gift to the Birthday Boy this Christmas? In my weak and feeble but heartfelt attempts to bring Him pleasure, I choose to echo doctor Walter Wilson’s words: “My Lord, I have treated you like a servant. When I wanted you, I called for you. Now I give you this body from my head to my feet. I give you my hands, my limbs, my eyes and lips, my brain. You may send this body to
Africa , or lay it on a bed with cancer. It is your body from this moment on.”
He's worth it! Come Lord Jesus!
Simon Guillebaud
Great Lakes Outreach
www.greatlakesoutreach.org
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