Merriest of CHRISTMAS greetings to you all. Thinking often of you all and praying for you. May the Lord be with you in a special way during this Christmas weekend and bless your steps for 2021!!!
“She will give birth to a Son; and you shall name Him Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” Matthew 1:21
“. . . Christ Jesus, who, as He already existed in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied Himself by taking the form of a bond-servant and being born in the likeness of men.” Philippians 2:5-7
ZOOM CELEBRATION VIDEO
Thank you to everyone who was able to join the Celebration Zoom call on December 14. It was a wonderful time of praising God for what He has done in 2020 and for getting me to 100%. If you missed it, and would like to watch, here is the video recording of the call: https://vimeo.com/491004317 (contact me for password)
FLIGHTS/LANGUAGE/HOUSING
Since reaching 100%, everything else has been moving at lightning speed.
-Flights booked to leave CT on February 15th with a stop off in Florida and then continuing on to Nicaragua on February 19th.
-My teammates recommended a wonderful Spanish teacher and we start online classes the first week of January.
-Thanks to my very gracious teammates, they are already hunting for housing for me and have found a great possibility (very close to my teammates, a grocery store, and just off the south highway in Managua). Waiting to hear back from landlord about the deposit and a few other questions.
HEALTH
As part of prepping for departure, ABWE requires all missionaries to get routine blood work before leaving. On December 1st received back the results and was surprised to find problems with high blood sugar and imbalanced cholesterol. Thanks to the testing requirement, these problems were discovered early and are reversable through major diet changes and exercise. So with God’s help I’m making these vital lifestyle changes and hopefully after a full year of being careful the numbers should return to a normal range.
GOSPEL OPPORTUNITIES
Recently while at STAPLES for a last-minute, late-night print job, I had an opportunity to chat about Jesus and the gospel with the college-age clerk who is trying to figure out what direction his life should go in after college.
Another day, at MACY’S, a clerk from Indian mentioned how lonely Christmas will be since her family is all in India. As I empathized about how hard it is to be overseas on holidays, it led to a chance to talk about Jesus and invite her to our church where she can connect with people.
CHRISTMAS HUGS TO YOU ALL