Cameroon

Every year I sit down and write some sort of holiday letter. I say ‘holiday’ not to diminish Christmas, but as a reflection of the reality that I generally don’t get it written until school gets out the week of Christmas and I’m not sure I have ever gotten it in the mail before the New Year! Sound familiar to anyone?

2009 has been an eventful and life-changing year! Not in my wildest dreams would I have predicted last year that this Christmas I would be on the road that I am now walking. There are still many miles to tread and tasks to complete before I reach Cameroon, but each day brings it one day closer. Most years it is a letter of reflection, catching up relatives and friends on the major events and/or changes of the past year, the annual attempt so many of us make to reconnect with the many people from our past who seem to have faded from our everyday lives. This year is a little bit different. Not only am I tackling the task a bit earlier (hopefully soon enough to mail in time to actually call it a Christmas letter), but my focus is forward. Though I have spent many hours reflecting on the many changes of the past year, those reflections keep pointing forward. After all, what is Christmas but an announcement of the arrival of our One True Hope for the future?

Jewish holidays were/are generally feasts of remembrance; times for the people to recognize and be reminded of God’s hand at work in the history of their people. However, those same festivals and feasts of remembrance also look forward. They reach out to a promised future, searching for deliverance, anxiously awaiting fulfillment, seeking the arrival of the long-awaited Messiah. How blessed we are to HAVE that Messiah!

What is the manger if not the first step to the cross? That may sound depressing for a Christmas letter, but the manger MUST lead us to the foot of the cross, and the cross to the depths of the grave. For only from the grave can we truly see the resurrection and even begin to grasp the significance of the tremendous gift in Bethlehem’s manger.

Let us rejoice this Christmas in the arrival of our Lord and Savior, but let us also rejoice in the Hope He brings – hope of souls restored and an earth renewed, the hope of friendships reconciled and families transformed. Not only do we have reason to rejoice in the arrival of that tiny baby through whom all the prophesies and promises would be fulfilled, we can rejoice in His presence NOW and FOREVER! Pretty amazing, isn’t it?!

Thank you all for you support! Your financial gifts are greatly appreciated and your prayers are deeply treasured. Praise God for what He is doing and all He will do in the year to come! I still have a long ways to go on many fronts before I can leave for Cameroon this summer, yet my excitement continues to grow. Please continue to pray as God prepares the way.

In Him, our one true hope,
Merry Christmas!
Kristi