Our God Is With Us- Immanuel!

Immanuel-

Our God is with us!

And if God is with us

Who could stand against us?

Our God is with us-

Immanuel!

For all those who live in the shadow of death

A glorious light has dawned.

For all those who stumble in the darkness,

Behold, your light has come!

7:30 AM here in the northwest- and I think I might be waiting in vain for the sun to rise! With the fog and dark clouds, it seemed yesterday it just never really “rose”! Michael Card’s song Immanuel has both run thru my mind as well as belted out from my Ipod these weeks here. The message of hope- God with us, our Light has come!

We can’t hear “Immanuel” without thinking of 2 significant stories from our time in Honduras. It is not an uncommon name here, but was meaningfully given to 2 special babies. The first was the very tiny son of Kaylin, a young lady we’d ministered to during her pregnancy, knowing full well she would not survive the pregnancy. She had a fatal heart defect, and it seemed unlikely her baby would come to term. But unlike most mothers here, she named her in-utero baby before birth,  Immanuel.  Kaylin died within hours of Immanuel's birth, and her sister Delmy has raised him.  He will celebrate his 4^th birthday soon, truly a sign that God is with us.

The other Immanuel just turned 3, and is the son of 2 radiologists in La Ceiba. They themselves discovered while she was pregnant that their baby had a spina bifida. They came to John, begging him to find them good options in the US. He did, thru a sequence of miracles, and their Immanuel was born in Houston with the best of prenatal care and postnatal surgery. Today, Immanuel walks with braces, and is developing normally, with a shunt for his hydrocephaly. To see his sparkly eyes, one knows for certain that God is with us.

God delights in making Himself known to us in very personal ways. “Behold, your Light has come”.  We pray that in the midst of whatever you are going through in your journey right now, this Christmas message of an unchanging God that is “with  us” will ring clearly.

John and I will be in our home in WA thru the Christmas season, finishing up needed remodeling.  We have made 2 trips to see friends and family here, but think the snow will keep us closer to home now until we return to Honduras.  We are sensing more and more of a need to return to our children and grandchildren in the Tulsa area, so more on those plans in the future. We covet your prayers as we seek wisdom and direction for God’s perfect timing. For those that are scholarshiping students, both nursing and highschool, we will be in touch about how those arrangements will continue. May you have a blessed Christmas!  Thanks for all your incredible encouragement of us. John and Penny

Sabbatical update!

John with Kaitlyn, Dan's firstborn

John Axel, Dan's secondborn, with Gran

 After just 2 short weeks in Tulsa getting dental checkups, an orthopedist checkup for John's bad shoulder, and many visits with family and friends, we flew to Moses Lake, WA, which will be our homebase for the rest of this Sabbatical. I'm thankful for foto memories of the grandchildren and nieces and nephews, as the visits were all-too-short.

Visiting our inspirational "fluffy friend", June

Immediately on arrival at our home here, John got busy insulating the attic better to prepare for the cold winter. Where would we be without our trusty friends, the Kirks, who are there for every major project, lending a hand and great wisdom? We made decisions slowly on a kitchen remodel, painting the whole interior of the house, and ordering flooring. We are now in the waiting mode, as with the holidays we couldn't get cabinets in until late January. Flooring awaits the rest of the cabinets- so looks like we will not be enjoying the finished product this time home! We have bare plywood floors and makeshift living areas, not wanting to move the furniture back in before flooring is installed. We will be camping while here!

Great-niece, Pati, on Oregon trip

Some of the great nieces and nephews on an AM hike in WA

We left the mess before Thanksgiving and took a week's trip south to visit 2 nieces and a nephew, with a total of 14 children between them, coming and going from S. Oregon! The reason for the trip was to spent a long weekend with John's cousin's church, who have come to visit us in Honduras for 6 years. It was a great reunion of about 20 that have visited us at one time or another, with a feast Sunday after church and a program, sharing their 2 weeks with us this October. 2 "frequent flyers" from N. California also made the trip up to participate in the reunion, so we felt well-loved and honored!

Great niece, Cadence, being photogenic for me!

We've had a chance to share our Honduran adventures with a small local church here in Moses lake, plus participating weekly in Sunday School in another supporting church. We are spending much good time with Penny's sister and her husband here, so feel like we have family even tho the kids are far away here. We spent Thanksgiving with sister Shellie, and enjoyed her 3 children in the absence of ours.

We've settled into a routine, up at 440 to go to the local gym in the frosty dark, home for hot showers and coffee with Quiet time, then begin the daily dirty-work of home remodeling. Feeling blessed.

all dressed-up for dinner out with niece Robyn and Nate in Vancouver