Merry Christmas!!!!

10 days till Christmas, can you believe it?!? Truly the older I get the more quickly time passes. Though the CWU students have had their finals and most are already back home enjoying a much needed break, Kyle has been going full speed ahead with books to read, papers to write and meetings to participate in. The finish line thus far for him is this Friday the 16th so please pray he accomplishes all that needs to be finished tonight and by tomorrow evening :)




Winter here in Ellensburg :)











The fog turned to frost and all the trees are covered in it! It feels like we are in Narnia when its winter all of the time. Its beautiful!!





In other news, there is something a stirring here that I wanted to tell you all about...About 3 weeks ago at Starbucks I was talking to a co-worker, lets call him Jack, about how much I LOVE Christmas: the songs and how they are mostly all about Jesus, the beautiful lights, the sense of family and love and appreciation, ect. His response: he has a bad Christmas about 89% of the time!?! Pretty much that means he has a crumby Christmas every year :( So I started a quest to make this the best Christmas he has ever had. With the help of my co-workers and my bible study we have been able to give him home-made Christmas cookies, free refills at Starbucks, and encouraging notes. An invitation to our church's Christmas Eve service is still to come.

Then about a week ago a friend posted on his Facebook page that he and his family during their family night were picking out Christmas gifts for Jesus based off of Matthew 25:40 which says, "“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’" Further reading just before that we find...

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’"

Typically I read this as literally visiting someone in jail or giving the shirt off my back to a homeless person and since I had done neither I felt like I was failing big time! But when reading about my friend and his family giving away presents in the name of Jesus it made other opportunities in my life come alive. Jack, from work, confided in me recently that he won't be able to buy anything for Christmas since he doesn't have the money. He has a teenage daughter and a son in 5th grade. He has been through a rough divorce and though he is doing the best he can to provide for his family he seems to be falling short. Another friend from work who goes to church with me and I are rallying together to help donate some funds for his Christmas. I want to bless my friend and show him in a tangible way that there is a God bigger than his current situation and that God's people are generous, humbly looking not only to their own interests but also to the interests of others (Phil 4:2) This is the beautiful opportunity that I mentioned above that the Lord has presented to me.

I hope that this year is a year that we all can really grab a hold of the age old saying that "It is better to give than to receive" and we can bless someone in the name of Jesus :) May all your Christmases be merry and bright!

Oh! Also, if you are looking for a way to share your faith with others this Christmas and want to give to Jack's family, just send us back an email and we will try to work something out :)