God is Faithful

Well, it is Christmas Eve. The snow is falling outside my window, covering the world in white, and as I reflect on the events of the past week, I am astounded once again at the faithfulness of God. If you read our post Project Christmas, you may be wondering by now how the big Christmas Party for all the kids in our neighborhood went.

Paul reminds us in Ephesians that God is able to do more than we could ask or imagine. This was demonstrated to me once again this Christmas as God far surpassed my wildest expectations in pouring out his blessings and love on the beautiful people in the Stevenson neighborhood.

When we posted last, it was to issue a call for prayer and support of Flora's dream to provide presents to all the kids in the neighborhood. People had told her that dream was too big, but we were confident God would provide, as He always does. Not only did God provide, He poured out abundant blessings.

The garage after unpacking the load of toys from KLF!

We initially asked help to provide presents for 50-60 kids, but over the past two weeks, that number grew to well over 80. God was not surprised, and he provided in advance for every need. By the end of it all, each kid had several awesome gifts: there were bikes, Mp3 players, transformers, barbies, stuffed animals, basketballs, footballs.... you name it and God provided it.

Aaron and I returned from a trip to Dallas last Wednesday to begin the huge task of wrapping presents and getting ready for the party. We got into town at about noon on the 16th, which left us about 54 hours before the big party! We hit the ground running, spending most of the afternoon on Wednesday cleaning, organizing, and doing a little shopping. We already had many toys in the garage provided by our friends and family, and then on Wednesday night, we got the call from Rachel at Kingdom Life Fellowship (Aaron, Ben, and Josh's church home) that she was ready for us to come pick up the presents they had for us.

We didn't really know what to expect, but we knew we would be grateful for whatever God provided. Aaron was more than a little overwhelmed when he arrived to find enough toys to completely fill the pick up truck. There were several huge trash bags full of toys for boys and girls, plus even a few bikes for little girls!

Some friends came over that night to help wrap, which we proceeded to do until 1 or 2 in the morning. The next day we got up early and spent the morning shopping for some specific wish lists that kids had given in letters to Santa. At about noon, Aaron and I started wrapping again. We were at it for most of the rest of the day with only a brief stop for dinner and another small shopping trip that evening. Our friend Cambria and her sister Morgan jumped in with both feet from Wednesday night on and were there helping us get ready pretty much every moment of every day. In this, perhaps more than anything else, I saw God's provision; we definitely could not have done it without them.

Cambria and Morgan. They were such a blessing!

In addition to getting presents wrapped, sorted, labeled, and organized into families, we also had to organize crafts and snacks for the party. For the Christmas party, there were several stations of crafts and games for the kids to enjoy. They could decorate Christmas cookies, make Christmas cards, play Christmas bingo, get their faces painted, or decorate a homemade Christmas ornament (good idea, Angel!).

The party was a huge success! I led some Christmas songs at the beginning for about 15 minutes. Kids eagerly got up on stage with me and helped lead Rudolph the Red-nosed reindeer, and we especially enjoyed singing Feliz Navidad. We even had a soloist. 15 year-old Olivia sang through the first verse of Silent Night a cappella, after which we all joined in.

Singing at the party. The woman in red is Flora, and the little girl with whom she is playing is my niece!

Olivia singing "Silent Night."

We then launched into craft/game time, which was basically 45 minutes of joyful chaos. It was a little crowded in the small church building, but nobody felt anything but joy as the mass of kids rushed the stage, eager to make crafts, eat cookies, or even get their faces painted.

Decorating Christmas ornaments.

Mmmmm...Christmas cookies!

What a smile!

Lee Jay painting Whitney's face.

After craft time, Aaron read aloud the Christmas narrative from Luke, and we began the crazy process of handing out the presents. There were hundreds of gifts, and it was not easy to get the right gifts to the right kids in a timely manner. It got pretty crazy at times, but by the end of the night, there were only a few kids who didn't end up with the presents prepared for them, and everybody had some great toys!

Aaron reading the Christmas story.

I think God accomplished some really important things at this party. He poured out His love on the kids, making each one of them feel special and valued. He provided us with opportunity to meet many more families from the neighborhood, people who we had been praying for and thinking about all week as we prepared presents and checked the list of names over and over. He put a renewed hope in Flora's heart for His plan for the Stevenson neighborhood and forged a special relationship between our community and her family.

This party got me especially excited for next year and the all the things God has in plan for the Allelon community and the Stevenson neighborhood. We have been viewed with a good deal of suspicion by folks in the neighborhood this semester. This, of course, was no obstacle to God, and we have been blown away by all He has done in us and through us over the course of just one short semester. Still, I am excited because after this party, we are familiar faces to many people in the neighborhood, and hopefully they were given a glimpse not only of how much God loves them, but how much we care for them also. I think this Christmas party was God's tool to open up many doors for new relationships!

There is much more that I could share, a million inspiring stories of how God's Spirit was evident in St. John's that night. It was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. We want to thank each and every one of you who prayed and supported us this Christmas. Thank you for listening to the Lord and being willing to give of yourself in order to spread His love. The point of everything we do as followers of Jesus is this: His kingdom come. His kingdom definitely broke through in a big way last Friday.

Allenia after opening one of her presents.