I am very excited as I write. One week from today I will be boarding a plane to return to the orphanage in Kenya. God continues to stretch and grow me from the lessons that I learned from my first journey to Kenya. (read below) Soon after our return, a few of our team members from the summer began to conjure up a new plan to spend Christmas with our new Kenyan friends. We have asked churches and individuals to help us be able to give each child and adult a present for Christmas. That is exactly what we are going to do. We are carrying totes full of presents, toys, toiletries, candy, etc.
Our team is so excited to celebrate the birth of our Savior with 59 new believers who will celebrate Christmas with a whole new perspective this year. We will spend time discipling Christians there while also building relationships so that we may share Christ with others. We will have a VBS/Daycamp beginning December 31-January 5. The week before we will celebrate Christmas and help the orphanage with some odds and ends jobs.
Please pray for this team. There will be 13 of us in all (eight of us are returnees from this past summer's project). Pray that God would use our team to bring Himself glory among the nations. Pray that our hearts would be changed because of our time in Africa. If you would like to be added to the prayer list, please contact me: sbfentress1@yahoo.com.
Once again, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!
12 December 2007
Merry Christmas!
Isn't it just like God to set the stage for the coming of the Savior of the Universe precisely the the way that He did? He definitely has a track record of using unexpected, undeserving, unworthy participants to fulfill His will in the most unusual ways. Just look at the genealogy of Christ ... talk about some skeletons in a family tree! We have murderers, adulterers, liars, cheaters, and thieves, to name a few . Some were guilty of all of the above! God uses imperfect people to carry out His perfect plan of redemption.
The story He wrote is certainly not the one I would have written. I would have made the King of the Jews come from a logical, royal family. He would have been born in the Rome Hospital or a nice hotel, at the VERY least. There would have been billboards announcing his birth years in advance. You know the billboards that say, "My son is coming to save you . - - God." Everyone would have immediately believed in Christ if I were the author of this story.
Instead we have a lineage of criminals, an average teenage virgin for a mother, a barn, a feeding trough, angels, shepherds, and skeptics. Is this really the best that you can do, God? One consistent lesson that God has been teaching me throughout the last several years is that the story that He wants to write for our lives is VERY rarely the life that we would choose for ourselves. The logical, simple path is RARELY God's best for our lives. Oftentimes, the path that makes the most sense is not God's plan either. The story that He has written about Christ 's entrance into the world is perfectly flawless .
The story He wrote is certainly not the one I would have written. I would have made the King of the Jews come from a logical, royal family. He would have been born in the Rome Hospital or a nice hotel, at the VERY least. There would have been billboards announcing his birth years in advance. You know the billboards that say, "My son is coming to save you . - - God." Everyone would have immediately believed in Christ if I were the author of this story.
Instead we have a lineage of criminals, an average teenage virgin for a mother, a barn, a feeding trough, angels, shepherds, and skeptics. Is this really the best that you can do, God? One consistent lesson that God has been teaching me throughout the last several years is that the story that He wants to write for our lives is VERY rarely the life that we would choose for ourselves. The logical, simple path is RARELY God's best for our lives. Oftentimes, the path that makes the most sense is not God's plan either. The story that He has written about Christ 's entrance into the world is perfectly flawless .
Thankfully, today, God still uses imperfect people to carry out his perfect plan of redemption. One of the greatest joys of the Christian walk happens when we surrender our life to the story that God wants to write for us....even if it doesn't always make sense to us.
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