Praise: My hernia surgery [12/9] went well, and recovery appears to be on schedule. I am about two weeks from getting back to full exercise, and a month or so from heavy lifting. I had a good, but brief visit with my siblings and their families Christmas week. Pray for my niece and family, as she is expecting …
Finishing Well*
by Gary G Hoag (November 15, 2024) Wise stewardship can be the key to lasting impact. By thoughtfully preparing for life’s uncertainties and ensuring our work blesses generations to come, we honor God’s design for flourishing lives, families, and communities. They sowed fields and planted vineyards that yielded a fruitful harvest; he blessed them, and …
A Christmas Reflection by Chuck Swindoll
“So, as you celebrate Christmas, this season, sing the carols, enjoy the food and exchange the gifts. But don’t let the season pass without remembering the prophecy, the history, and the mystery that surrounds the original, must have, indescribable Gift: that tiny baby, wonderfully wrapped, silently delivered… Eternally adored.”
Elf
by Dan Rupple May 6, 2021* The 2003 Christmas comedy, Elf, a popular family favorite, stars Will Ferrell as Buddy the Elf. As a child in an orphanage, one Christmas Eve, Buddy mistakenly crawls into Santa’s toy bag and ends up at the North Pole. There he is raised as an elf, but Buddy is not able to do …
St. Francis and the humble nativity.
By Lauren Terrell * Eight hundred years ago, in 1223, St. Francis of Assisi created the first recorded nativity scene. What compelled him to recreate the setting of Jesus’ birth for others to see was not pageantry and spectacle but a realization that many had lost the true spirit of Christmas. It is believed that St. …
Our Family’s Christmas DAF Tradition
by Katie Brubaker* There are two teenagers in our family. When they were toddlers, I read somewhere about a family that set Christmas gift expectations with a little rhyme. My husband and I adopted the idea and added a line about giving. If you ask our kids what’s under the tree, they’ll tell you: Something …
Watchful and Faithful
by Joseph Slife* LISTEN> The Advent season (the weeks just before Christmas) is my favorite time of the year. With every strain of "Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus" and "O Come, O Come Emanuel," I'm reminded that God is working toward a good end, even amidst the world's trouble and turmoil. When the time is right, …
December Prayer Update
PRAISE: Five of six new languages of “JESUS” for war-torn Sudan have been completed in just four months for tribal peoples in Northeast Africa. Upon full completion, these languages will help reach up to 400,000 people. This is such a God thing! The Asia Film Equipment video is beginning to see a good response. (Your past prayers for its …
A Praise of Thanksgiving Bring Him Glory!
November Prayer Update
Praise: Last month I asked you to pray for our language recording efforts. One of my colleagues this fall has been training an in-country partner in a restricted Northeast African nation to record “JESUS.” By Christmas there will be five new translations completed for this war-torn region of the continent. Five more unreached, remote people groups will …
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