Last Update for 2009

     Hey everyone, this is the last update for 2009.  We have have had a great year of preparing and being sent out onto the mission field.  So much has happened in 2009.  Cathy and I are still trying to figure out where the year went.  Thankfully God has prepared us and provided wonderful friends and family like you to lift us up in prayer.  God has used you all to provide so much for us this year in financial support and most importantly through your prayers.  Your prayers are felt daily and I believe that it is those prayers that give us the push to keep going when our own energy, patience, and endurance gives out.  We know that we always have people back home pushing us forward when we are too weak to do it ourselves.  God has planned it that way from the beginning. We have to have a on going relationship with Him to make it through and we have to have an on going relationship with those around us to complete His will.  It is a beautiful, synergistic dance of love and humility.  It is our privilege to serve with you all.
     We have just wrapped our time on the island, where God poured out His provision and blessings in a most opulent fashion.  Cathy and I have been here at the border for the last couple of weeks recuperating and preparing for the Christmas trips.  Over the next week or so we will be travelling to several villages that we work in to bring Christmas Love Packs to those who need them.  We want to thank all Lighthouse Worship Center in Purcell, OK and True Vine Church in Goldsby, OK for all their hard work in gathering supplies for and preparing over 1500 Love Packs to be given out this Christmas.   These Love Packs contain everyday personal items like soap wash, wash clothes, combs, etc. and also have some fun stuff for the kids like a small toy and stickers.  They will be handed out at children's services all over Mexico.  While we have what we need for this year, we already are preparing  for next year.  If you are interested in helping out with these love packs, just let us know by emailing us at justjoshandcathy@gmail.com.
     We will end the year somewhere in Mexico.  I am not sure exactly where we will be for sure.  When we return in early January we will turn right around the next day and head back in to La Haciendita to prepare for the Dayspring Missionary Training that begins the 20th of January and ends in mid August.  Please continue to lift us up in prayer.  We are praying for you as well. In fact right now I pray that you have a blessed time this New Year.  May God usher in 2010 with a fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit in your life.  May you focus more daily on glorifying God in everything you do.  Let this next year be blessed with your denial of your own flesh for the embracing of His Spirit more than ever.  Only you Christ, are worthy to be praised.  We love you and we love each other because of you, God.  Bless your body and draw in those who aren't a part of it yet.  Together God we give you all the glory, honor, and praise.

Adoration

      Hey everyone! It is Christmas time! (like you hadn't already figured it out.) We just got back into the states a week or so ago. It was nice to miss the big commercial push for christma$ that you usually have dredge through each year. It is always a struggle for me to really stay excited for Christmas, frankly because christma$ always got in the way. The places we have been in Mexico for the last several months didn't have much started yet for Christmas. It was nice. It was nice to come back and be able to get into the Christmas spirit. I haven't had the pleasure in many years. It reminds me of growing up. When I was a kid it didn't seem that Christmas took up so much bandwidth. We didn't even think about it until after Thanksgiving when dad would take us all out to go look for a Christmas tree. (Well that is except for a Christmas when we didn't get a tree till just a little over a week before!) It was a magical time, a spiritual time. Somewhere we lose that in the shuffle of growing up. I probably held onto it longer than most. I made a point of decorating the family tree and always looking for a way to bless someone for no reason. Through the years though I had lost my edge and just became another lemming charging headlong over the edge into christma$ burn out. This year it is like I found the reset button and everything is new again.

      I believe that there are many things that contribute to this reconnection with my long lost Christmas spirit. First of all this year will be the first year that Cathy and I will not get to spend Christmas with family and in their absence the heart feels the void. We have both grown to appreciate our families and networks of friends more than ever. We miss our moms, dads, brothers, sisters, extended families, pastors, church families, friends, and just about everyone else. This makes us remember how much our loved ones mean to us. Then there is also the fact that we won't be running around crazy this year to go to parties, to brave the malls, or to pick up that last thing that we promised to bring or supply. Instead of focusing on getting our list of tasks completed, we are blessed with time to savor this season. Finally I think that the most important contributor to this renewed enthusiasm for the Christmas season is that this is our first Christmas as missionaries. We are realizing more each day what it means to carry out Christ's last commandment on this earth. Christmas is not just about the birth of Christ. For if Christ was the son of God, lived on this earth a blameless life, and then decided to not die on the cross for our sins, would we still be celebrating Christmas? To properly celebrate Christmas, we must celebrate his birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension! To bring the glory to Him that He deserves we don't need another party or holiday, but just to obey His word. Christ told us that all obedience can be summed up into two principles: 1. Love God with all of your heart, mind, and soul and 2. Love your neighbor.

     This Christmas that is my challenge to you (and me). You don't have to be a missionary or live in a grass hut to really be serving God. I believe it is more of a challenge to be right where you are, especially in Western culture, and hold strong to your faith by loving others as Christ would. When you are in extreme circumstances, it is easier to rely on God for everything, to obey His every word, but at home we find it all to easy to limp along on our own terms.  So this Christmas the try this: Don't do some drastic reroute of value driven events, but do whatever you do with love. Go to the office party with love for your coworkers. When you visit grandma and grandpa in the nursing home, don't be rushed. Give them your love in time. Spend less time checking off your holiday task list and more time working on God's task list for your life. It has one item. There is a big number one with an asterisk by it. The task is “Adore Him”. The asterisk is “Adore Him by adoring others for Him, because of Him, by Him, and through Him.” So, I will end this Christmas message in a candy encrusted sentimental but pertinent fashion. O, Come let us adore Him, for He alone is worthy, for Jesus is our Savior...Christ the King.