Dear Friends:
Our Christmas Fiesta will be held on Saturday, December 13. We are busy organizing everything with the Pastors and volunteers. We will have worship, preaching, a meal together, and fun & games, all capped off by distributing the gifts to the children that you sponsors are providing! We expect about 350 people to attend. This year, we are planning our event at the new civic center in Palomas, so we will be unaffected by the weather, but it takes a lot more planning to move everything over to the new site, as we need to move food, figure out how to keep it hot, move tables and chairs, set up the sound, all of the games, and, of course, all of the presents. I am already feeling exhausted just thinking about it!
But, what a blessing it will be as we celebrate the birth of Jesus together! What a special time, as we think about how God himself came to earth, identifying fully with us, and living an amazing life to show us how to live and how to love! There is no gift that can ever match God’s gift. When Jesus was talking to a Samaritan woman, he told her that this gift could be compared to giving “living water” to us. John 4:10 Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water." NKJV
This is a symbol that has great meaning to observant Jews even today. They are required to bathe in “living” water in ritual cleansing activities. They must ritually cleanse themselves whenever they become “dirty” by some action or event that has caused them to become impure under God’s laws (Torah). It happens frequently for most people, and so they are often going through ritual cleansing to allow them back into God’s presence. Living water is water that comes from a Spring or a river, and therefore is moving and pure, as opposed to dead and stagnant water found in ponds. So the living water represents God’s active power to cleanse, renew, and purify. Jesus, told the woman that he could give her “living water”, and that with it, she would never spiritually thirst again. Jesus has the power to permanently cleanse and set free. He has the power to bring God’s constant love into our lives. There is no other gift that can do that. So, as we follow our theme this year from Deut. 24:15 “As for me and my family, we will serve the Lord”, we understand that as the Lord gives us His gift of the Holy Spirit, we and our families can know that we are not only forgiven, but clean before our Creator.
This month, we talked to our families about God wanting to “break through” in their lives. Our Pastor at the Light, Jason, led a series on this topic a few months ago. We talked about all of the problems we have and how we need His divine guidance and grace to chart the path to overcome them. We all need breakthroughs! It is really sinking in with some of them, and this month, we even had a lady ask if she could bring her friend to the classes. Praise be to the Lord for breakthroughs!
With the elementary kids, we had a great project about Thankfulness.
Here are some prayer points that we hope you will pray for our families and the ministry in Palomas!
Favor in bringing items across the border for the families. This can often be time consuming and expensive, as they charge us a tax for bringing in items from the US, but there can be a lot of discretion in how much they charge us.
That the families in our program will experience breakthroughs the bring glory to God and relief to them.
That the Pastors and church leaders will have the full gifts and fruit of the Spirit manifested in their lives to lead their congregations into God’s Holiness.
That the congregations of Palomas will both grow and grow stronger in the Lord!
That the parents will raise their children in love and obedience to the Lord.
That the children will be able to resist the deceptions of the devil that are all around them!
That the teachers in the schools will have a passion for teaching the children well!
That we will be able to implement well all that the Lord is showing us to do—Youth Pastor training, special training for students who are behind and for those getting ready to take college entrance exams, and growing God’s kingdom!
We are so thankful for each of you, our faithful supporters! You are making a BIG difference in Palomas! May the Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace.
Jim & Pat