Saturday, January 2, 2010

Happy New Year

Wow we made it to 2010, it is hard to believe. I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I am sure we all have many things to look back on in the past year and be thankful for and other things that we are thankful that they are now behind us. I hope you are all looking expectantly ahead into 2010 for great things that God is going to be doing in your lives. I wonder sometimes if God wishes that we would get as excited about what He is doing and wants to do in and around us as He does.

Christmas and New Years around here was a little different then most I have had in the past but this is a new season in my life so things should be different I guess. All 27 of us were together at the Wilcox's on Christmas Eve for a gift exchange and some great food. Unfortunately Jesse and Tanya were not able to be with us because Tanya had a baby at 9:30 the night before, little Zoe Joy.

Back Row: Me, Gezani, Tiffany with Chayah, Tyren, Melissa, Chanito, Debbie, Victor, Peter, Jonas, Christie, Tania Middle Row:Annelisa, Antoinette, Karmelie, Elias, Carlos, Christian, Peter
Front Row: Rachel, Miriam, Justine,Isaiah, Jordan, Mikaila, Amerel
(Christian, Christie, Jonas, Jordan and Justine are a new family that came as well as Melissa)

Jesse, Tanya and Zoe Joy Gellatly

The Wonderful Food


Cutting down their Christmas tree.


Good Fun, Good Food

Christmas Day morning I was doing my laundry and I thought wow I think this is a first time I have ever done my laundry on Christmas day. It is just that there are about 12 of us that use the wash tub for our laundry and you just have to take advantage of it when ever it is free. Later in the morning there was an open house at the Wilcox and many other missionaries and Christians from in town came out and we again had some wonderful fellowship and food together and then a very nice time of prayer and worship together. That night Tania, Rachel and Melissa had me over for supper. We at mexican food and we tried to make it feel like Christmas so we ate mints and sipped some Hot Chocolate or Tea and listened to Christmas Carols.

I haven't been working too hard. There have been several small projects that needed to be done around here so I have been making some shelves in the orphanage and putting up a few shelves in the Admin building. I am trying to get all these little projects done before Rudy comes in two weeks so that we can get started on finishing the Admin building. New Years Day I was helping the ladies put window stays and latches on there windows so that they won't blow in the wind and break anymore.

On Tuesday I went to the Prison with Tyren and Victor. They have been going to the Prison once a week for almost a year now. There are about 300 men in there. Annelisa and Rachel go once a week and work with the 12 or so women in the prison. I really enjoyed going as we met with about 40 of the men. Some who are Christians and others who are searching. Many other men just sit further away and watch and listen and we know the Lord is working in their lives as well. There are many Muslims in there and we try to respect them and leave by 11:30am because this is when they start to speared out their mats for prayer. In the past though several of the muslims have asked for prayer. As the Lord leads I would like to continue to be involved in the work there in the prison. While the men are in there it is such a good time for them to really think about their lives and what they are going to make of them. There are some men in there who were following the Lord and they had gotten away and they know God has allowed them to be in there so that they would turn back to Him. Father will do whatever is necessary to make us see our continual need of Him. Thank You Lord.

I am thankful that several of you have sent me prayer request that I can lift up to Father for you. It is a privilege to pray for one another. I thank you as well for your prayers for me. I am really seeking the Lord at this time as to just what He wants me to be apart of here. There are so many areas and things that I can be apart of such as ministry in the hospital, in the prison, working with children where there is a great need in several villages. The children come sometimes by the hundreds and they are searching for someone to tech them. As I was reading through Matthew yesterday I was noticing several times as Jesus was talking about the little children. He says "Except we come as a little child we cannot enter the kingdom of Heaven, Whoever receives a little child in my name receives Me, Suffer the little children to come and forbid them not" and the chief priests were displeased because the little children were saying "Hosanna to the Son of David" and Jesus saids to them "Yea; have you never read out of the mouth of babies and sucklings thou hast perfected praise." Jesus has a big heart for the children. There are also many who have accepted the Lord and need teaching and discipling and of course there is always lots of construction work to do but, I don't want to be just busy, I want to know what God has specifically gifted me for. Then allow the other members of the body to minister as they are gifted. I realize that God has sometimes gifted us in areas and we don't realize it, till we are in a situation where we need to meet a need. Satan as well wants us to be involved in some many things though so that we are not effective in any of them, so we need discernment.

We are very excited for 2010 we believe that God is going to be bringing in a harvest much bigger then we have ever seen or can imagine. What a privilege it is to be alive at this time. We see how many things seem to be pointing toward the end times in the world around us and this just makes us realize that our time is limited and the importance of redeeming the time. There are many people who still need to hear about Jesus and be discipled and taught the commands that Jesus gave us. What a privilege is ours to be apart of this.

1 comment:

Mom said...

OK, the new year is way past already Andrew, how about something new on here??? = )