December is a crazy busy month, isn't it? I wish I had planned a little farther ahead on what I do NOT need to add to the schedule. It is so easy to lose sight of the real reason we celebrate a day in December called "Christ"mas.
The weekend after Thanksgiving my family gathered at my mom's house to decorate the Christmas tree. This has become a tradition since my parents first separated. It still reminds all of my siblings and I of the ways that we banded together and grew closer after experiencing the loss that divorce brings to a family. Even after my brother and I each married and began our own family traditions, we choose to bring our families together to help my mom decorate as a reminder that she is not alone during the Christmas season.
I wanted to share with you some moments from our decorating festivities this year.
You may all have similar experiences with finding a strand of Christmas lights that really works. I mean, one that does not have large patches of bulbs that refuse to light up. This year we worked hard to resurrect our ancient strands of lights with replacement bulbs, only to string the entire tree and have the wiring give out. Ok, time to unwind that strand from the tree and try again!
While my brother tried to drape another strand of lights on the tree, David gave himself the project of trying to fix the strand that had not worked. He spent a few hours investigating the electrical currents each bulb produced and checking the fuses in the plug. Finally, he pronounced the strand "dead" and proceeded to fashion a light testing device out of the end of this Christmas light strand.
A week later, my mom was trying to decide if she needed to purchase new strands of Christmas lights since she ended up with so few functional strands of lights. David sat down in the kitchen to test light bulbs with the light testing device he had fashioned the previous weekend. From the living room where my sister and I were adding ornaments to the Christmas tree, we heard a loud snap and saw a spark flash from the wires in David's hands. Apparently, the wattage needed to light an entire strand will melt one singular bulb. David was fascinated by the results his experiment produced - the melted glass bulb in his hands. Yes, he unplugged the sparking wires right away. He also had burn marks on the fingers that were grasping the bulb when it melted.
David had a splendid time with this experiment. I was just grateful that he didn't shock himself or cause more bodily harm. I kept saying, "I'm so glad you didn't kill yourself..." I think I was the one in shock! We had a good laugh about the incident and threw away the remaining tempting wires and dysfunctional Christmas lights. However, I think this Christmas incident will create another memory and serves as a great reminder of the work to which God has called David. He is a tinkerer and loves to fix things, create new ways to do things, and just work on solving mechanical problems. Thank God that his servants who are taking the gospel to new regions need those skills put to use! I am so glad that God allows my husband's skills, interests, and passion for reaching the lost with the gospel to all be melded into one pursuit.
Please join us in seeking God's favor this Christmas season:
Pray with us that God will provide our support in abundance by April of 2015. We want to join the work at MMS Aviation and begin training soon!
Praise God that Cadence International hired a new IT specialist to fill the role David is vacating so we can follow God's call to mission aviation. We are excited that this man accepted the position Friday and was available to start work the following Monday! David is spending this week (his last week at Cadence HQ) training his replacement. Praise God for always being in control of the timing to work these things out.
Pray for David and I in the days following Christmas and into the new year. We are planning several trips to visit churches and share our ministry with potential ministry partners. Our trips begin December 26th and may not end til we reach full support! We are anticipating only 5 days in the Castle Rock area between trips in January.
Pray for rest, time to invest in prayer and our connection with God, and patience with each other during the stress of travel. Pray for wisdom as we deal with travel challenges involving food and other health issues. We need an outpouring of God's grace just to endure these extra challenging days and seasons.
Pray that the message of hope in Jesus Christ will touch lives this Christmas and bring more children into God's kingdom!
Praise God for having sent his Son to be born in human flesh as our Savior, the Light of the World. Praise him for giving us a reason to live telling the rest of the World about Him!
Pentatonix: Mary Did You Know? on You Tube Everybody's favorite Christmas song....
