The Christmas Story

For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this. - Isaiah 9:6

And he came to her and said, Hail, O favored one! The Lord is with you! Blessed are you before all other women! But when she saw him, she was greatly troubled and disturbed and confused at what he said and kept revolving in her mind what such a greeting might mean.

And the angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found grace with God. And listen! You will become pregnant and will give birth to a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus. He will be great (eminent) and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give to Him the throne of His forefather David, And He will reign over the house of Jacob throughout the ages; and of His reign there will be no end. And Mary said to the angel, How can this be, since I have no husband?

Then the angel said to her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and so the holy Thing which shall be born of you will be called the Son of God.

And listen! Your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is now the sixth month with her who was called barren. For with God nothing is ever impossible and no word from God shall be without power or impossible of fulfillment.

Then Mary said, Behold, I am the handmaiden of the Lord; let it be done to me according to what you have said. And the angel left her.

IN THOSE days it occurred that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole Roman empire should be registered. This was the first enrollment, and it was made when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all the people were going to be registered, each to his own city or town.

And Joseph also went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the town of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, To be enrolled with Mary, his espoused (married) wife, who was about to become a mother.

And while they were there, the time came for her delivery, And she gave birth to her Son, her Firstborn; and she wrapped Him in swaddling clothes and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room or place for them in the inn.

And in that vicinity there were shepherds living in the field, watching over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood by them, and the glory of the Lord flashed and shone all about them, and they were terribly frightened.

But the angel said to them, Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people. For to you is born this day in the town of David a Savior, Who is Christ (the Messiah) the Lord! And this will be a sign for you: you will find a Baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. [I Sam. 2:34; II Kings 19:29; Isa. 7:14.]

Then suddenly there appeared with the angel an army of the troops of heaven (a heavenly knighthood), praising God and saying,

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is well pleased.

When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us. So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known what had been told them concerning this Child, And all who heard it were astounded and marveled at what the shepherds told them.

Be blessed this Christmas season, to you and your family!

One Thing I Learned

So, that is what they always ask, what did you learn today?

I asked that of my neighbour's kid just yesterday, he is in fifth grade, he said nothing.

Well a close friend of mine asked me that last week, what is one thing that you are learning from your experience here? I was blank, but every day I have been seeking out God on that, and today I got it.

“It is often through suffering or walking with those who are suffering that we are most effective in ministry.”

Since the time that I have gotten here, I have experienced and witnessed more suffering than one needs to go through in a lifetime. My life is changed from serving the people of East Africa, the missionaries that is.

Within the first month that I arrived, I was at a crisis meeting, one of our TIMO (Training in Ministry Outreach) had an emergency evacuation from the place they were staying. They were being threatened with their lives, and accused of stealing the rain. My heart I am realizing empathizes tremendously for those that suffer. After that experience, I felt like I was laying my life down at the feet of Jesus.

Then, Aug 1 happened. The tragedies of all tragedies. My heart hurts for the families that I barely know. I had only just met one of the ladies yesterday. The other, I barely said hi to before. I now weep for them, even still.

The statement above was made by a dear colleague, he words ring true to my heart. Even as I was in my devotions the other day, and thought what can I do for two ladies that are strangers to me. God said that you are to be there suffering with them. God is so good in aligning the truth, I give him praise and glory for that. I heard that statement in June, and I didn't realize that in my time here that the suffering would be so great, that it isn't a hardship, but a true blessing.

He Loves Me!

He is jealous for me, Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden, I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realize just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.

And oh, how He loves us oh
Oh how He loves us,
How He loves us all

He is jealous for me, Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden, I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realize just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.

And oh, how He loves us oh,
Oh how He loves us,
How He loves us all

He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.

And we are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,
If his grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking.
And heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss,
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest,
I don’t have time to maintain these regrets,
When I think about, the way…

That He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.
Yeah, He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.

Yeah, He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.

How He Loves, by David Crowder Band

So I found this song last week, about seven days ago, according to my itunes I have listened to it over a dozen times this week.

This song really just spoke to me this week, as a great reminder that He loves me, me, one that may forget Him in times of needs but He loves me. What a great promise, a great reminder. God is so good to us all! I had to share this how it gives us hope in our journey's with HIM!

May you remember the love that the Father has for you in this season of Joy, during this Christmas season!

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.
1 John 3:1-3

Feliz Navidad

So, this week it is feeling more and more like Christmas!

My Christmas Shopping has begun, not quite finished yet, I am stumped on what to get for two people, and something that I am wanting to make...is not quite happening yet, darn it for procrasination!

But this week was a week of Christmas parties, the first one for all the missionary staff here was at this amazing restaurant, it was the best beef I have had here, it was melt in your mouth goodness, and despite being sick, I could taste every morsel going down. We then played a game that you had to guess the secret of someone in the room. Ok...not like dirty secrets but it was you wrote down something that people wouldn't know about you, and then we guessed who or what people did, it was interesting there was a old lady that had done motorcycle trips across the US that I would never guess, and someone had a pale blue moped with pink leather seats in high school, the best secret of the night was someone serenaded someone's else's daughter before he was married, the small details were that this person's daughter was 2 years old. It made for a good night of laughs.

Then today, we celebrated Christmas with everyone from International Services, it was great, there were alot of people that I had never met before which meant for lots of new faces. It was fun, we had lots of fun, don't be surprised if weird pictures are posted on facebook, don't worry I didn't do anything bad.

So, it is Feliz Navidad season, I hope you are enjoying the moment!

A compliment...is a compliment!

Ok, so here is one that you don't get every day!

I was complimented on my 'windows', no worries this is PG rated. But it is not every day that you get told that you have nice windows.

Windows = Sunglasses

Thought it would be the funny for the day!

Christmas All Around Me

Well, it has been a busy week, and it is starting to feel like Christmas is all around me, minus the snow! (Sorry Calgarians, I didn’t think that winter would hit that hard in December, but I agree that the weather outside is frightful, Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!)

I haven’t really blogged too much this week, but there has been so much that has happened I don’t know where to start, so I will start with the first big event...

AIM had their big conference this past weekend, it was great and spent a lot of time with the family! The conference was good, there were a few things that could have been done differently to actually mix and mingle with people. I didn’t really meet anyone new, which I was surprised by. It just goes to solidify my opinion of Christian’s, that some, not all, are so selfish, yes I am posting this on my blog because I think that people need to get their head out of the sand, their time to themselves is not as important as investing in a life that needs it, and because I may not be married or have children doesn’t make me different! So there, now that’s off my chest. I am sorry if I offended anyone, but it’s true you see that in church in Canada, and you see it here in a community of Christian’s from around the world.

So back to the conference, there was a good speaker, and he spoke a lot about spiritual warfare, which was interesting because I was thinking about that lots lately, just felt that I was going through it myself. I just felt lots of the physical ailments of it, with tiredness, migraines, and insomnia. He was very good, just reminded us to put on the armour of God, and bathe in prayer. This weekend I finally felt like my body had gone through a revival and I have been sleeping better and haven’t been hit by a migraine yet this week, which I Praise God about!

The weekend was very relaxing, and the kids had a blast at the children’s program, Cassidy just kept saying how awesome it was, and so totally cool! I spent a couple of extra days up there, spent some time with the kids, we had a water fight, after we spent a long time filling up the buckets outside to play in. Had late night talks with Cassidy (just girl talk), I tried to convince her that the First Noel was really the First Joelle, she didn’t believe me, but then I heard her try and tell Titus that, he didn’t believe her either. Ella and I played church, and she preached and sang, I fell asleep. That smart girl figured it out, came over and took my sunglasses off.

So then I came back for a couple days of work, and then the weekend hit.


Today was great, it was the biggest event of the year, the Christmas Craft Fair, and it was amazing once I got there of course. I was running late this morning but made it to the fair, it was splendid, there were tents set up where there is all these vendors of crafts of venues from throughout Nairobi, it was great, I started my Christmas shopping, and pretty pleased with what I have found. So now that it feels like Christmas – Feliz Navidad

Well that is all for this week, I have been listening to Christmas music this week, bobbing my head to some Boney M, and Hokus Pick Christmas tunes. Just found the some new tunes by Toby Mac and David Crowder, totally having a great music week!