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.

Project Christmas

Hey everybody, WE NEED YOUR HELP.

Let me tell you a story. This past Thursday, I was at the weekly neighborhood lunch hosted by Pastor Riley. I sat down for a while to visit with Flora, the assistant pastor over at St. John's Baptist, a small congregation in our neighborhood.

Flora is a very sweet lady, who, despite many hardships, continually allows herself to be poured out by God in service to her neighborhood (our neighborhood!). She especially has a heart for the kids in the neighborhood.

Over the week before this lunch, a few of our friends had already randomly dropped off some bags full of Christmas presents for kids in the neighborhood. We had been planning on getting presents for the 7-10 kids with whom we have become very close over the past few months, but as the presents began to accumulate, we started to get the funny feeling that, as usual, God had a plan for Christmas on Cockerell Dr. that far exceeded our wildest imaginings.

That day as I listened to Flora pour out her dreams about Christmas for the 40-50 kids in the neighborhood, it became clear to me that God had already been working in advance to allow us to support Flora in this divine dream. She wants to share the love of Jesus with all these kids just like we do. Plus, she actually knows many of the kids, kids who we are still longing to meet!

Flora has been trying to put on Christmas for all these kids for a few years now, but she hasn't been able to get enough presents or money to buy presents to really do it the way she wants for all the kids, and a lot of times the presents that are donated are just the junk that people don't want anymore, which provides kids with junk but not a whole lot of the Creator's love. People have been telling her that she is dreaming too big, that she shouldn't bite off more than she can chew.

When I heard her say that, I told her with full confidence that God would provide the presents for every kid this year because He is able to do far more than we could ever ask or imagine. And what is more, He loves to pour out good gifts on His children. I told Flora that we couldn't dream too big for God, and that the four of us would join her in her dream.

God will provide. He always does, and every time He does, we are blown away by the immensity of His love and faithfulness.

If there is one thing I have been learning over the past few weeks, it is that we are called to be the answers to our prayers. We often pray for people and find that God is calling us to be His hands and feet and to be the answers to our prayers. Josh, Aaron, Ben, and I are ready to do whatever God asks of us in order to show the perfect love of Jesus Christ to every kid in the neighborhood. We want to ask if you would be willing to join us in becoming the answer to this prayer.

If you want to help, here is what you can do:

1. Pray that these presents won't just be more stuff for the kids, but that they will be tools for showing them how much God loves them.

2. If you are in Abilene, go out and buy a 1, 2....10 presents and bring them to us (unwrapped) at 465 Cockerell Dr., Abilene, TX 79601. Just call before you come or if you need more info about what to buy (214-206-7708).

3. If you do not live in Abilene, but would like to be involved, you might consider donating some money to help us get presents. Perhaps we could even have a community shopping trip with Flora (who knows a greater number of the kids) or with some of the kids we know really well so that we can all experience together the joy of shopping and buying presents for others. You could send a check made out to Josh Love to the address above (in #2) or you could call the phone number above to work out some other way of donating.

We are thanking God in advance for all your prayer and support. Praise God who is bringing in His kingdom in the Allelon community, the Stevenson neighborhood, and around the world!