RABBONI...which is to say, Master

I would like to share a prayer request with you today. Dr. Brad Blake and his wife Jennifer are back here in the states from mission work they are doing in Nigeria. The picture to the left is a few years old. It was taken when they were leaving Nashville to go to Nigeria for the first time. The Blakes are looking for a new sponsor for their work. Both Brad and Jennifer are children of missionary parents, and are doing a wonderful work among the Muslims of northern Nigeria.

Raising support is always a trying ordeal. I can testify to the struggles involved. The Blakes are also facing another challenge that I would like to ask you to pray about. Jennifer is the daughter of Barry and Darlene Becker, two of the closest friends Barb and I have on this earth. Barry was an associate minister with me for 12 years in Hanover Pa, and is now the pulpit minister for the church there. At the time that I started studying the Bible with Barry and Darlene, back in the early 70’s, Darlene was pregnant with Jennifer. She was born just before they both obeyed the gospel. We have known Jennifer all of her life. The second prayer concern involves Jennifer’s mother Darlene. Darlene has begun to lose her short term memory. The doctors are baffled as to why, but it has become a great concern for all as you can imagine. What makes this situation even worse is that Barry and Darlene, for many years, have cared for their son who suffered a brain injury due to a car accident a number of years ago. Now Darlene is suffering from the same short term memory problem she has dealt with in their son for years. As you can imagine this has become a major task for Barry to deal with as well.

Brad and Jen have made a long term commitment to reaching the Muslim population of northern Nigeria. They have three children who were born in Nigeria. They love what they are doing, so please pray for their support needs, and pray for Darlene and the frustrating memory lose she is experiencing. Barry and Darlene are pictured in the center of the second picture, with Barb, Joyce and Joyce's girls Emily and Sydney.

I lived through the turbulent 60’s, and the Watergate scandal of the 70’s. Nixon brought closure in Vietnam but will always be remembered most for Watergate. From Nixon’s shadow Gerald Ford emerged as our only non-elected president. For decades the media made light of this quite giant of a man. Gerald Ford was a peace maker. When he pardoned Nixon much of the world was up in arms, but this man realized that our country needed peace and time to heal.

In my estimation Gerald Ford never got the respect he deserved while he lived. Now that he is gone, maybe history will be kinder, and see the true greatness in this leader of our nation. He once said, “I am a Ford, not a Lincoln.” His strength was in not trying to be someone else, but humbly being himself. RIP

Joyce's girls, Emily and Sydney

In the early 70's I read L.E. Maxwells little book, "Born Crucified" and it changed my life. I began to see for the first time that that little baby in the manger was destined for a cross, and instrument of death---for me. I ran across this short story that illustrates the real value of the gift God gave us. Our focus is normally on the Manger and then on the Cross.

An African boy listened carefully as his teacher explained why Christians give presents to each other on Christmas day. "The gift is an expression of our joy over the birth of Jesus and our friendship for each other," she said. When Christmas day came, the boy brought the teacher a seashell of lustrous beauty. "Where did you ever find such a beautiful shell?" the teacher asked. The youth told her that there was only one spot where such extraordinary shells could be found. When he named the place, a certain bay several miles away, the teacher was left speechless. "Why ... why, it’s gorgeous ... wonderful, but you shouldn’t have gone all that way to get the gift for me." His eyes brightening, the boy answered, "Long walk part of gift." God came from heaven to a manger, from a manger to a cross, from a cross to the grave and from a grave back to heaven. And we ask, "Why all this trouble, God?" And God would say to us, "Long walk part of the gift."

Barb and I would like to wish each of you a very Merry Christmas and a God Directed New Year. And may we never forget, "Long Walk Part Of The Gift".

Allen and Jen's three children, from left to right. Kaleb. Irisa, and Lukas

Today is our daughter’s birthday. She is *&%# years old. (She would kill me if I told J) Joyce as well as Allen our son have always been special in their own ways. Joyce was always out going, and made friends easily. When we moved back to Pennsylvania in August of 1980 I remember her taking our dog on a leash and walking up and down the sidewalk on our street until she attracted some of the other kids in the neighborhood. Today is much the same. Her winsome smile and bubbling personality still attract friends.

Joyce has had some challenges in her life as we all have, and it makes me so very proud to see her grow through these. She is a great mom and a wonderful Christian, and that makes me very proud. Happy Birthday Sweetheart. We love you!

Christians are often accused of having to take a leap of faith to believe what they believe. While faith is involved I would not describe it as a “leap”. If you want to talk about a “leap” of faith take a closer look at Scientology. I ran across this comment and link at Virgil Vaduva Blog.

Every once in a while I drop by Xenu.net aka Operation Clambake, which is a Norway-based web site run by Andreas Heldal-Lund. Andreas has been the target of Scientology lawyers for many years, but Norwegian laws have been protecting him and his efforts to expose the Scientology scam so far. In relation to his site, I also found a very humorous "Illustrated History of Scientology" that is a must watch if you know little or nothing about what Scientology is all about. This IS actually what Scientologists believe: Click here!

Our Christmas Drama, “God Moments” was another huge success, and in my personal estimation was the best yet. “God Moments” was written by two of our Madison ladies, Kelly Hughes and Katrina Waltenbaugh. Kelly is director of our drama work and has done a wonderful job. She also produced and directed this years drama with the capable assistance of Mark Carver, who is a professional lighting director for many national stars and programs.

God Moments is a play within a play. The story line is based around a church putting on a Christmas Drama and the controversy that arises over casting a young mentally challenged boy by the name of Nicky. His involvement last year resulted in a fire in the church building and some of the more haughty members are questioning the wisdom of casting Nicky again this year. We were given a window into the challenges faced by all the families involved and how they come to grips with their own problems and unite in the process of doing the play. Angels are cast through out the drama showing God at work in the dynamics of all that is going on. In the end Nicky becomes the hero and saves the day.

One of the highlights of the evening was the angel chorus singing “Mary Did You Know” accompanied by the praise team.

Durant, a singing group in the tradition of Acappella, opened the evening with songs of the season. Three of Keith Lancaster’s children are a part of this group, and yes they are as talented as their father and mother.

Most importantly, there was a host of visitors from the community for both performances.

Click here if you would like to see more pictures!

I shouldn’t be, but I am amazed at how the story of Professor Jack, continues to reverberate through the lives of people who were touched by him or have read his story. I was sitting waiting for worship to begin yesterday when a lady came up to me and told of how Jack’s story had touched her. This lady had actually grown up in Detroit and knew exactly where Case Park was located. When she lived there she had been mugged/robbed over 6 times by homeless folks and was terrified of them. She now lives in Nashville and works for a firm that works with the Salvation Army Kettle program in front of their building. During her time to be the bell ringer, after being soaked in a pouring rain, she was approached by a homeless man. He was obviously mentally unstable, but did not appear to be a physical threat. She told me of his antics and then she told me she invited him to stand under her umbrella and get out of the rain. By this time we were both in tears as she told me how the story of Professor Jack had helped her deal with the fear of the homeless she had lived with for years.

Josh and Kara Graves, (Josh is one of the ministers for the Rochester, Michigan church), started the ministry to the homeless in Cass Park. There work continues and here is a post from Kara’s Blog about their most recent visit.

"Today, our group headed to Cass Park again. We are now going to be going every third Sunday of each month because it is so meaningful to all of us that go.

I first want to thank everyone who has been so supportive this time, giving of your time making soup, buying long underwear, and donating money. I was overwhelmed by all of the donations and help we received!

We headed down to Cass Park with my trunk and Josh's trunk full of long underwear, my backseat stocked with about 70 dozen chocolate chip cookies (in Jack's memory, he had asked for us to bring some because they were his favorite), and others carried the hotdogs, soup, chapstick, grills, bread, pop, and fruit! Stephanie came up with the amazing idea to have pre-stamped envelopes with paper and pens so that they could write letters to family.

I wish I could have pictures for you but I don't, for one, the pictures in my head are too beautiful that a real one would never do, and we have worked hard to be friends and be relationships for the people there, not tourists with their cameras who want to do their good deed.

We arrived around 2, the long johns were all gone at 2:15 (I bought almost $500 worth of long underwear plus all the donations to give you an idea of the need and the amount of people there). We fed everyone until around 4:30 when we left.

Let me tell you about someone we were able to spend time with. Francis has become a special person to us, we have been keeping in touch with him for a couple months now and he was the one that called us when Jack died. Francis pays for a bus ride back and forth to his job at Somerset mall cleaning (for those of you not in Michigan, Somerset is a very ritzy mall where I can't afford much at all). Think of how hard that would be, working at Somerset and then riding a bus back to a shelter in Cass Corridor, I can't even imagine. He is from Jamaica and the most beautiful person I think I know, he has a smile that will melt you to pieces. Francis is trying so hard to get back on his feet after being in a car accident that caused him to become homeless for the past 6 months." Click here for the rest of the post.

There are so many stories from our toy give away yesterday. Friends of a recently baptized couple told me that they were going to be coming to Madison. They had visited a few times and just loved it. David, Connie, and Abraham had many great encounters. Dawn spoke to the young lady in the picture. "She told us she was getting ready to have to quit her job because her day care costs had increased and she couldn't afford it. Teresa took her to Creator's Kids and got her kids enrolled and she can now continue to work."

In addition to the stories we know of there are many we don't know about. You never know the true end result of touch a life for God. We just need to continue to plant seeds, water when we can, and trust that the Father will give the increase in time.