BLESSINGS AT CHRISTMAS AND THROUGHOUT THE YEAR

Zwingli’s church in Zurich, Switzerland—built in 1100.

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”(Isaiah 9:6)

 With cheerful hearts we look forward to celebrating the birth of Jesus this Christmas. God has blessed us for more than 38 years to serve together with a passionate band of His people at Discovery Baptist Church. As we gather on Christmas Eve by candlelight to remember His humble birth, once again our hearts will be rejoicing together.

During this past year we added to our dear grandchildren two more little girls, Irene and Grace; that makes our total of blessings so far at 28.  A new role for our lives also began with the birth of our first great-grandchild, little Pippa who lives in Chile with her parents Jorge and Naomi.

As we are in the middle of our 50th year of marriage, we took a special trip to see amazing and beautiful Switzerland by train; what an unforgettable adventure. The photo shows us near the Matterhorn. Then we joined our two missionary kids and their families for a conference in Malta.

Resting at Gonergrat, Switzerland at over 10,000 foot elevation with view of the Matterhorn.

Now we look forward to 2019 knowing that God is in control of everything and we trust Him concerning all the days ahead—the comfortable and the difficult.

This is an early Christmas present with the dates of all of our family birthdays and anniversaries.

Blessings to you this Christmas,

Mark and Nancy

LONGING FOR GOD

This photo of some of Caleb’s family and me near a more than 5000 year old structure in Malta gives you a bit of a taste of the barrenness of that country. Mark and I remarked on the similarities with Israel’s landscape. Keeping this in mind consider the surroundings when these words were recorded about 3000 years ago. “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.” Psalm 42:1-2 I love this word picture comparison. Spurgeon gives us some great thoughts about these verses that should challenge us on a daily basis. “A camel does not pant after water brooks because it carries its own water within it, but the hart (deer) does because it has no inward resources. After being hunted on a hot day, it has no inward supplies, it is drained of its moisture. So are we. We do not carry a store of grace within of our own upon which we can rely, we need to come again, and again, and again, to the divine fountain, and drink again from the eternal spring. Hence it is because we have a new life, and that life is dependent upon God, and has all its fresh springs in Him, that we pant and thirst after Him. O Christian, if you had a sacred life which could be maintained by its own energies within, you might do without your God, but since you are naked, and poor, and miserable, apart from Him, you must come and drink day by day of the living springs, or else you faint and die.” Spurgeon

This Thursday morning I’m looking forward to being back with you for a spiritually encouraging time in Psalms 42 and 43. I also have a small treat of everyone from Switzerland :).