16
December, 2012
Chères amies et
famille,
I’m not accustomed to
writing Christmas letters, so this will be a combination of an update along
with my thoughts on Christmas. It is my hope that this letter encourages you
and is a blessing in this Christmas season.
Over the years, the
meaning of Christmas has evolved for me. I knew that it was the birthday of
Jesus, but it wasn’t always the focus. It used to be a time for looking through
every catalog I could find and making a list of all the toys I wanted. And then
it was a time for just being with family and eating a lot of good food. It has
become so much more than that for me now. It is a time for being with family
and remembering the coming of Jesus. Christ’s birth was the beginning of the
end and the start of something new.
Probably the strangest
thing is that this is the first time that I’m missing Christmas with my family.
It doesn’t seem quite real, like I’m in a dream. In just a few short days, we
will be on Christmas break and I will be off to see London, Paris and Switzerland
and I’m blessed to have a travel companion. I’m a bit sad to be missing this
time with my family, but God has blessed me with another family. We have our
dysfunctional moments. Times when we’re annoyed with each other, and times like
the other night where we just spend time together, talking and laughing.
This past week
concluded our final week of teaching for the lecture phase. Twelve weeks of
intense teaching, cover a variety of topics. Out of this time I have experience
God. I found it really telling when during the base Christmas Party, the
speaker from the first week approached me and said that there was something
different about me, to which I replied “I feel different.”
Tradition dictates that
I ask people what I want for Christmas, and the one thing that comes foremost
to my mind is prayer for my time in Senegal. I ask that you give two months of
prayer, whether that is once a day or once a week. I’m going into enemy
territory, and will be living right next to a mosque.
1. Pray
that I and the team would be protected from both physical and spiritual harm.
2. That
I would continue to grow in my faith, and not be swayed by the enemy.
3. That
the hearts of the Senegalese would be receptive to the gospel.
In
closing, I would like to once again thank those you for being there to support
me both financially and spiritually. It means a lot to me that I have you, and
I want to bless you this Christmas season. That you would remember the reason
for the season, and rejoice in our inheritance through Jesus Christ.
Joyeux
Noël, Bonne Année et la Bénédiction de Dieu.
Sincèrement.
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