Mele Kalikimaka

Woke up to a cold, rainy morning.  Stayed in bed a while longer.  Snuggled up with my Angel Baby Doll and gave thanks.

Put on a new long sleeve t-shirt (gift from a neighbor), heated some Chocolate Truffle Coffee, made tea for my butter cup, cut a couple of hefty slices of Cracker Barrel Apple Pie (gift from a friend), put a thick slice of extra sharp cheddar cheese on each and nuked!

Consumed above listed goodness while checking some email and tweets and discovered...

Christmas Opener: Just Come Home from NewSpring Production on Vimeo.

...this in a tweet by @perrynoble , pastor at Newspring church in Anderson, SC.

Just had to share it with Y'all!

** Mele Kalikimaka = Merry Christmas for you non-Hawaiian types!

Hope

"The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope." --Barbara Kingsolver

He who began a good work...

I have to share this devotional I received from a friend, Glenn Burris, Interim President of Foursquare Gospel Church:

Come, Emmanuel

Good morning!

John Mason Neale was born on January 24, 1818. He trained to be an Anglican priest at Trinity College in Cambridge. By most accounts, he was brilliant; a man who could write and speak in more than 20 languages. But he was also feared. In religious circles in the United Kingdom, many feared his intelligence and his insights. He was considered too evangelical, too progressive, and too much a free thinker. Many were afraid he might possibly gain too great an influence.

Instead of getting a parish in London, the church sent him to the Madiera Islands off the northwest coast of Africa. In a sense, he was exiled to this far away place in hopes that he and his ideas would never find root in England. Even in his isolation from mainstream Christianity, he could not keep his dreams submerged. He established the Sisterhood of St. Margaret, from which he began an orphanage, a school for girls, and a house of refuge for prostitutes. Often frail and sickly, Neale continued to steward his unique gifts and passion despite serving with physical limitations and in an obscure place.

Driven by his love for the Scriptures, he not only read the Bible, but he would also read any Scripture-based writing he could get his hands on. He came across an obscure Latin chant called “Psalteroium Canionum Catholicarum.” Some scholars estimate that a monk first compiled these words sometime prior to the 9th century. The text inspired Neale and he decided to translate it into English. The words reverberate with promises concerning the Messiah from Isaiah 7:14 and Matthew 1:23.

Neale, intentionally pushed into obscurity by his assignment, reintroduced the world to Emmanuel, God with us, and Israel as a representative of God’s passionate desire to bring redemption and restoration to all. He empathized with Israel’s “captive, lonely exile.” In the third verse of probably the oldest and still sung Christmas carol, we read:
    “O come, O Dayspring, come and cheer,
    Our spirits by thine advent here;
    And drive away the shades of night,
    And pierce the clouds and bring us light.”

   Chorus: “Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.”

Now you know the rest of the story. A minister, destined by men for obscurity, rose out of the darkness to share his gift of writing with the world. Don’t ever allow your mind to wonder concerning the purposes and plans God has for you. No man, no system, no power, no demon, and no scheme can ever hold back what the Lord has commanded concerning you.

“Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Phil. 1:6 NIV).

Come, Emmanuel, come...

Merry Christmas!

To view in a browser and share with others -
nationalchurchoffice.createsend2.com/T/ViewEmail/r/EEB6D3FF15AF9E32/E035FAC9157698092540EF23F30FEDED

IF only one...

IF you could only take one memory into eternity with you, what would it be?


For me, it'd be seeing Christ in my wife's eyes. What more could I want than to look into her eyes for eternity and see everything that is good?


Selah 

Life Worth Living

---

We labor for those who thirst. The least of these. We pray for opportunities to share this passion that is born of our surrender to GOD in Christ and service for the kingdom of light!

It reaps eternal benefits and oh the joy when you open the mail and see...

... that we do not labor in vain, and that GOD's Word never comes back empty.

In every presentation, seeds are sown and those who thirst will be served!

---

Tema Dump - Hope for the Future

---

This is the Dump, you can see the smoke coming off of it. This shot off of Google Earth.

This is where the children live that your $50 sponsors out of the Dump and into school. Providing a meal per day, a uniform and an education.

---

YOU are their "Hope for the future."

---

Re-Entry - African Beat

---



We're back not one full day yet and have unpacked and are doing laundry, paying bills, processing many thoughts and images.



A pastor friend of ours stopped by and listened to our stories. It's important to have this. He & his wife are coming over for lunch tomorrow. It'll be nice.



I had to take a nap afterward though. I laid there feeling like i have this better than gold gift and when I share it with others, if they don't seem as excited about it as I do, then somehow it is devalued.



So I almost feel like just closing the doors, taking the phone off the hook and being alone with my thoughts for a few days, maybe a week at least. Let them process themselves out of our frontal lobes.



Fan into flame the ones that we don't want to let die away. And gradually move back into the "swing of things" here.



The enemy was busy before we left and is at it again on our return. We'll not even entertain it's futile efforts to steal our joy!



Amen!



---



We're listening to some Ghanaian music and feeling home sick for Ghana.



So many things, like breakfast this morning. We had no milk, so we figured we'd go get some good old southern grits and eggs. One place don't open for breakfast any more and the other is shut down.



So we went to the store and got some milk for cereal with blueberries and banana.



It's just not the same. We had "Rice Watah" in Ghana nearly every morning with sweet bread and strawberry jam and of course fresh pineapple.



We're not greeted by the pitter-patter of tiny feet on the tile, entering our bedroom to play and get a toffee before having to get dressed, eat and go to school.



Our place is in great shape, Frances took great care of the house, plants and our fur babies while we were gone.



---



Anita and I were just talking about Sunday service in Ghana. Rev James would allow us to speak and burning the time he would normally use for a sermon, and not feeling very well due to some lingering effects of malaria, he would lead worship and the celebration of Christ in our lives was ON!



He's not a great singer, but has passion like I do. And every body and voice rises to join with him as he praises his King.



He took the time, after a long day of travel to Norway, to call and speak to each of us before we left.



We love him more than we can express. He's never asked us for a single thing.



I've some things to process, there are many needs there and we'll set up programs for them so you can seek GOD to find your involvement in them and assist us through pray & sharing these causes far and wide.



We may be back in the USA but our hearts are lingering in Ghana.



Tears already stinging our eyes. We've hung a few gifts on the wall and placed a few on shelves.



Reminders of our role in the Kingdom. Hope that we will once again, be in Ghana, serving side by side with our brothers and sisters there.



It's a place where there is no division because of any thing. It's a place we long for and hope for and pray for.



I can't fully articulate all that it is.




Once that African Rhythm is in you, you just can't shake it off!

It is simply wonderful!



And it is wonderful that GOD brought Anita and I together and that we share the same passion to serve the least of these.



Wonderful is HIS name!



---



David Lee Waters Sr.,



---