Dear Partners, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I hope this newsletter finds you doing well this Holiday Season. Christmas is a message of hope as we celebrate the birth of Christ. Unfortunately all over the world we are hearing and seeing hopelessness in our communities and the lives of people around us. What can change this? We can change this by being Gods hand extended by showing kindness, love and hope. The sacrificial birth of Jesus gives us that message of hope that can change peoples lives. We must never let the power of hope fade in our lives or those around us. I will never forget the one Christmas I shared with my parents in the small town of Pinebluff, Wyoming. My father was pastoring there and we were not able to go home to Oklahoma for the holidays. Mom and dad were very homesick and my siblings and I missed our grandparents. Suddenly there was a knock at the door while our mother was preparing Christmas breakfast. In those days it was not uncommon for people to stop by the pastors home to say hello. At the door was an elderly gentlemen who was wishing us a Merry Christmas. My father being the kind pastor he was invited him in to share breakfast with us. He ended up spending all day enjoying the Christmas festivities which ministered to our entire family. After the end of the day the gentlemen thanked us for our hospitality and left. My father saw he had left something behind and went after him but when he opened the door their was no one there. There were no foot prints in the knee deep snow. It was as if he was never there. That year our greatest gift to our family was our Christmas angel. This experience gave my parents great comfort and hope. This holiday season you may be dealing with hopelessness yourself. It might be grief of a lost loved one, financial loss, health for your body, lost relationships that need restored but whatever it is, there is hope. The bible says in Romans 15:13 TPT “Now may God, the inspiration and fountain of hope, fill you to overflowing with uncontainable joy and perfect peace as you trust in him. And may the power of the Holy Spirit continually surround your life with his super abundance until you radiate with hope!” This is my Christmas prayer for you that you radiate with the hope of Jesus. That it brings you life, help and wholeness. That you flow in the fullness of God. That you enter 2020 with a renewed hope of what has God called you to do. Thank you for your faithful support and love offerings we are able to continue to minister in local churches, conferences, women’s bible studies, missions such as sex trafficking abuse and homelessness, counseling, young adult ministries, church plants and providing sponsorship education for children in Honduras. Without your generosity this could not be made possible. Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year with all my love. Marilyn
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