Wow!
Christmas is always such a wonderful blur. I really don’t feel like I have the capacity to take it all in anymore. The Christmas Feast went more smoothly and was more Christ-centered than ever before I think. As we may have told you already, our Tuesday Night Bible Study/baby church/Hope Fellowship really stepped up for the first time and took ownership of this event (which is by far the biggest outreach event we do all year)!
The shocking thing about that is that the majority of our folks have not officially accepted Christ yet and don’t really claim to be Christians. However, during the planning of the Christmas Feast they were very clear on two things. First, they wanted Jesus to be represented, honored, glorified, and clearly seen and proclaimed in each element of the event. Second, they wanted everyone present (all the visitors especially) to know they were invited (maybe even expected) to come back on Tuesday nights and join our Bible Study group!
So you have non-believers and brand new believers (who have never been part of a church before) planning, organizing, and pulling of a major, Christ-centered outreach in their own desperate community!
Who woulda thunk it?
Needless to say, it was a joy to see and be a part of.
(If you'd like to see video of the Christmas Feast in the Longhouse please go to http://www.youtube.com/user/SacredRoad.)
Delivering food boxes, Walmart gift cards, Christmas presents, and all sorts of goodies (like candy and chocolate) in the community was a joy too. This year we “adopted” 32 families in the community. We use the financial gifts that were sent by many, many of our supporters all over the nation to shop for food and gifts then spent three days driving on snow-covered back roads all over the rez delivering the goodies and wishing our friends a “Merry Christmas”.
The short visits and interactions were very sweet. I was amazed at the number of hugs we received this year and the number of tears. I was overwhelmed with the sense of “family” that I felt and that was expressed by the various people we visited. I have a hard time putting the value and the impact of those moments into words. In short, I’ve come to think of moments like that as “Kingdom Moments”.
Perhaps they are a tiny taste or a small glimpse, a sparkle, of the eternal Kingdom growing wider and deeper right in front of us. I’ve thought about this a good bit and I don’t think we really have the eyes too see it yet. I don’t think we have the capacity to “take it in and process it”. The beauty of the story of Redemption that the Lord is writing is so big and so intricate that we only take in tiny bits and pieces right now.
It seems related to the parable of the “old and new wineskins” maybe. New wine in an old wineskin would swell as it fermented and cause the old skin (which was no longer flexible) to burst and waste the wine. On the rez I have often gotten that swelling feeling. I wonder if at the time we pass from this life to the next there may be a bursting or even an explosion into His presence.
It’s a very different feeling from “swelling or bursting with pride”. At these moments I feel very small and very humble and very grateful to God for the privilege of standing right where I am at that moment. There is no where else I want to be but with these folks from the rez and my family and you in Heaven at those moments.
I have a hunch that Mary, the mother of Jesus, had that swelling feeling (spiritually, emotionally, and physically), as well as did, Joseph, the shepherds that came, and the wise men too.
Jesus came to establish His Father’s Kingdom on earth. He said, “I will build my church”. He has honored each of us as His followers/His children that He will use us in this great endeavor. What a joy. What an honor. What an amazing story we are all part of!
Thanks again for your prayers, your financial gifts, and for coming to be a part of what the King is doing here. We are eternally grateful.
Grace and Peace,
Chris
