Last year when our oldest son, Chuck Jr, and his family visited us we all drove up to McAdenville to see the Christmas lights.  This is a small town that is know for it’s Christmas lights throughout the community. Below are some of the sites we saw last year.

In a vision I was given a new Day-Timer refill for 2009. As I looked through it, I was surprised to see that it didn’t have all of the extra pages such as calendars, maps, dividers, expense and mileage pages, address book, five-year planner, etc. It was simply one blank page per day; no frills. As I contemplated the meaning of this vision, I believe the Lord was telling me that this coming year will require that we take one day at a time and respond with simplicity. It is a time when we need to stay with basic essentials as we redefine and restate our priorities in life. Streamlining our lives will result in less resistance and will give us the ability to flow with the moving of the Holy Spirit.

2 Corinthians 1:12 For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience that we conducted ourselves in the world in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God, and more abundantly toward you.

Friends sent me this video and I wanted to share it with you. Retooning The Nativity

An ice storm to compare with some of the Northeast’s worst made a mess of the region Friday, leaving 1.25 million homes and businesses in seven states without power as it forced schools to close and toppled ice-laden trees and power lines onto slippery roads.

Most of the outages were in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maine and New York, and it was expected to take several days to completely restore electricity. The storm wreaked havoc from Maine to Pennsylvania, leaving a sparkling, ice-covered landscape that was too destructive for many to find beautiful.

“This is pathetic,” said Bob Cott of Portland, Maine, who lost power. “I’m already sick of winter and we have nine days to go before it officially begins.”

**full article By DAVID TIRRELL-WYSOCKI can be found on My Way News

Hey Mr Gore it is snowing in New Orleans.  What was that you said about Global Warming????

This is our second week working with Operation Christmas Child.  Most every day that we get home we are very weary, but it is a good kind of weary.

Last week they had what is called Media day at the warehouse. Franklin Graham and his wife and son came down from the headquarters of Samaritan’s purse which is in Boone, NC.  A stage was set up and guests were invited including the local TV stations.  The Christmas box lines were shut down so the volunteers and staff could attend.

There was a children’s choir that sang Christmas songs and short video’s of the children across the world receiving the boxes showing the excitement in their faces as they opened the boxes.  There was a video of a group of 4 children ages 4-7 who set up a lemon-aide stand in front of a busy store to raise money for Christmas boxes.  They interviewed them and filmed them selling the lemon-aide.  One of the little girls said it made her feel good in her heart.  They raised enough money to provide 170 boxes.

A touching story was told by a young lady who was from Russia and had been a recipient of a Christmas box.  Her story was that she was abused by her step father.  When she was nine her mother had a baby boy and her mom handed the baby over to her giving her full responsibility to care for the child.  She also had a sister to mother.  She found it very hard to care for them and try to provide them something to eat in the midst of being abused.  After awhile it became so hard that she notified the police thinking that being in an orphanage would be better.  However, the three siblings were separated and the conditions were not good.  She was constantly told nobody loved her.

Things were so bad at the orphanage that she ran away only to return when she could not survive on her own.  They shaved her head as punishment.  Then on Christmas they were told that they were getting gifts. She had not gotten gifts before.  They handed out Operation Christmas Child boxes and she got one letting her know that there were people who cared.

Eventually this young girl and her two siblings were adopted by an American couple.  When Christmas came her new mom helped them put together Christmas boxes that would be sent to make other children feel that same love she had received in the Russian orphanage.

Chuck and I stood among the crowd with tears running down our cheeks.  It is hard to imagine that one box could so touch a child. As of today over a million boxes have been processed and ready to ship.  That is a million lives that will be touched by the love of God. We are so grateful to have a small part in this ministry.

Chuck and I have now started full force  working for the second year for Samaritan’s Purse/Operation Christmas Child.  We are blessed to have been chosen to work there again. However, compared to many there we are rookies.  There is one gentleman that is now working for his 8th or 9th year, left his home and wife a 100+ miles away to stay with his son who lives in Charlotte and work with the ministry.  If that is not a big enough sacrifice he is working sick with an upper respiratory infection.

This year we are both doing slightly different jobs.  The job that I did last year, as well as 24 other jobs, has been eliminated by a machine. That is sad for the people replaced but a very good thing for the ministry.  The machine will allow the process to happen much faster and efficiently.

A friend of ours at church was hired this year for the first time and she was overwhelmed with emotion on the first day of how people had responded to this wonderful ministry.  It is not just about getting a Christmas gift to a child, it is about getting the message of Jesus’s love to those children and their families.

Yesterday I opened a homemade Christmas card written by a child.  She had decorated the outside with stickers and colors.  Then on the inside she wrote a note to the child receiving her box.  By the time I finished reading it I was in tears.  She explained that she bought a “toy duckie” so the recipient would have a friend to sleep with.  Then she signed the card, “Your friend that you do not know”.  Do you see the heart of this child to think about another child needing a friend to sleep with?

This year there seems to be more resistance by the enemy for some reason.  That should not be a surprise really because spiritual warfare has moved to another level in all Christendom.  Many are having personal, family and health problems.  But most feel this is an open door to serve the Lord and bless a child and feel very privileged to be there and are pressing in to overcome.

Tonight I was looking though a Christmas catalog that I received in the mail.  As I turned the page I came to a picture of their pecan logs and there I stopped and took a trip down memory lane.

Approximately 36 years ago Chuck and I met a lady named Zoe that attended our Church in Ridgeland, MS.  We soon found out that Zoe and her family were a divine appointment in our lives.  She and her husband, Wilson and their two daughters Lisa and Ida lived in a small delta town 40 miles north of where we lived.

Wilson was a quite, gentle man who love his family very much. He was a very hard worker and a generous man.  He suffered a lot in his body and yet he never let most of us know how much he was hurting.  While we knew him he rarely left that delta town, but encouraged Zoe to join her friends in her pursuit of more of God which included traveling to different meetings.

While my children were small and our finances so limited I did not get to travel either.  But my several visits alone on weekends to their home gave me spiritual and physical renewal that helped me through some hard times and bonded me with the whole family.

Later as Zoe and I were able to travel together we always stopped before returning home to get Wilson his favorite candy, pecan rolls. Wilson joined the great cloud of witnesses 18 years ago on the same day his grandson and namesake was born.  We all still miss him and tonight was a night of remembering the good times.

Recently I found that his grandchildren have facebook blogs and we are now friends.  The circle of covenant friendship continues.