Dear Family and Friends,
Since I am too late to wish you a Happy Christmas (as many British People say), I want to wish you a very Happy New Year. Whether 2011 has been, for you, a year of joy or a year of trial, or something in between, I hope God has blessed you with a greater sense of who He is, His grace towards you, and an ever keener desire to love and serve Him As we approach a new year, entrusting it to the loving care of our Heavenly Father, I am mindful that our enemies, sin, the flesh, and the devil, are, as ready to seek our harm as ever, but also that, if we are in Christ, God, who is able to make us stand, has redeemed us with His own precious blood to make us a nation of kings and priest to Himself and so has undertaken to guide, sustain, and bless us. As we go into this New Year, may you be continually blessed with a sense of the friendship of the Almighty God our King, Savior, Father, and Friend!
I also wanted to take a few moments to look back on 2011 and share with you three gifts God gave me this past year:
First Graduation, when I began University in the fall of 2007, the spring of 2011, seem incredibly far off. Four years later, that spring has now come and gone. It’s hard to believe. In some ways, those years were years of difficulty and struggle and, in other ways, years of blessing and growth. I look back and thank God for the gifts that were symbolized in my graduation this May. I thank Him for His sustaining care, for success in my studies, and for the friendships He gave me.
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| Receiving my diploma |
Second, Provision to serve in England, We serve an awe inspiring God and too often I think we have too little views of who He is and what He is doing. At the beginning of this year (2011), I had been accepted to work in England, after I graduated, and I had begun to support raise, yet I only had about 17% of the support I needed. Even by July, I had only raised half of what I needed…and then God opened the flood gates. In just a month and a half, He provided the rest, in a clear confirmation that He indeed wanted me to serve Him here. This experience was definitely faith building, and in the end it powerfully demonstrated that my provision is from the Lord. So I want to first and foremost thank and praise Him for the wonderful gift of providing for me to serve here. However, I also want to thank each one of you who have given or are praying, or both. What I am doing, supporting the Church here in England, is not possible without your support, and I do not take that for granted! Thank you all so much for your prayers and support!
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| Mum and I at the Airport in D. C. |
Third, A Growing Heart for England. Something that has become clear over the last several months is that God has placed me here in England for a reason. I have been told, in fact, that I am more English than the English. (I’m sure there was a little exaggeration involvedJ). But the point is that God has given me a personality that really fits well over here. Secondly though, God has been giving me another gift, and that is a deepening heart for the spiritual need here. It is no small thing to leave one’s family, nation, and culture behind and set up in a different land, and one feels this, more than ever, in these times of the year. However, there is a reason, and that is the many, many lost souls of this land and the incredible need for good churches where these lost souls and also starving Christians can here God’s Word and grow in knowledge and love of Him. Just before Christmas, I was organizing the distribution of the Christmas edition of an evangelical newspaper around the neighborhood where the church meets. Please pray that God would use these to bring some of the people who live in the neighborhood to visit with us. Please, pray for the planting of more good churches here, for men to lead them, for the training of ministers, for the raising up of people to be in core groups etc. This is where my heart is and, no question, that is one of the biggest gifts God gave me this past year.
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| Preparing for Distribution |
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| Christmas Edition of the Evangelical Times |
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| The first batch folded and in bags ready for delivery |
As I look back, I cannot help but be blessed. My Heavenly Father has indeed showered me with gifts this past year and I praise Him for it. Thank you for taking the time to read this, and I wish you a Happy New Year!
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