Merry Christmas and many blessings to everyone for 2013! We hope and pray that you were all blessed during the Christmas season with that precious time with family, friends and new revelations of God's love for you. If it weren't for the gift He has given us, there would be no Christmas. And there is no Christmas for many who we meet each day. We are blessed to be a blessing - and in being a blessing, we are blessed.
It's been a crazy time for us this month. There has been fruit from ministry, and many of us know that usually fruit doesn't come for free! There have been many trials that have come our way since Christmas outreaches started, mostly to do with health in our family.
On 28th December, the first day of the Season of Praise concert which we've been planning for months (and it has been in our long term goal for years), our little boy's breathing pattern suddenly changed. He had caught a cold a few days earlier, but on 28th his number of breaths per minute increased by 75%. He was wheezing and using every muscle in his chest and neck to breathe. His oxygen levels were at a low 92% and white blood cell count raised to 27,000 (normal range is 5,000-10,000). A chest x-ray showed that he was fighting an infection in his lungs and he was diagnosed with pneumonia. Since then, I've been with him in the hospital, and the Season of Praise still went on and was a huge success. We are so thankful to God for giving us (including Eliyah) the strength and peace to push through this obstacle, as Noom was still able to lead worship at the concert and come back and visit us in the hospital a couple times a day. The concert finished last night and so did Eliyah's infection. He is still coughing every now and then with some phlegm, but his oxygen levels and breathing are back to normal. Even when he was sick he was a happy boy, except during procedures.
Below is a picture of the Season of Praise last night (29th). Thank you for all your prayers for this event! Many pastors and Christian workers came and worshipped and prayed together in unity. Relationships were restored, feet were washed and communion was taken as one big family and as a symbol of unity. In order for revival to come, we need to be unified, so this is an important step towards revival in Ubon.
Actually there would still be Christmas even without Christ, sadly. Firstly in many countries, specially in the West, people celebrate Christmas WITHOUT even sharing Christ one single thought (most think of Santa Claus and which present they will get this year....). Secondly because Christmas was ALREADY there before we started to celebrate Christmas because of Christ birth, it was a celebration of the Sun, the Sun-god actually. Konstantin just decided to put in a celebration for Christ birth at the time of the celebration of the sun-god and that is why we connect that season with celebrating Christ birth. Actually, Christ was NEVER born in December, most likely in April, as the sherperds would not be out on the fields at that time of the year (there is plenty of stuff on that on the Internet about dating Jesus birth date..). However, I do get your point from a more spiritual point of view but I just think that right should be right so please receive this in good spirit :-)
ReplyDelete