This Christmas was very challenging for us as a family. Money was very tight and we had no extra money to buy presents for our kids this year. We were faced with having to move, quickly because the house we were renting went into foreclosure. You can imagine how alarming this was to receive notice that we would possibly have to vacate our home in 15 days. This was two weeks before Christmas.In the mean time we are planning a Christmas Program and Outreach for our Church. But God miraculously provided everything that we needed. Alex was given a 100.00 gift card to Target and one of our generous faith partners was prompted by God to send the kids money for Christmas.
I had already told the kids that we were going to bless other children this Christmas instead of thinking about gifts, We would honor the giver of every perfect gift! We launched "The Big Give Campaign" hoping to bless 25 kids with a gift. God once again miraculously provided more than enough. We were able to bless 30 kids and there parents too. The lesson I learned, God's multiplication system is waaaaaay better than ours. I found so many great bargains that it was just amazing, toys that normally were over 29.99, were as cheap as penny's on the dollar and ridiculously clearanced. Not to mention my coupons and discounts. He provided down to the penny. As a church planter, I consider these moments as winks from God! I can tell you honestly that our walk of faith has been taken to new levels. We have learned to be content whether abounding or abased. We find pleasure in the simple things like watching a redbox movie and eating popcorn as a family. During the Christmas holidays we made new family traditions like driving around looking at Christmas lights and stuffing our stockings with lots of fun goodies. We spent lots of time with our church family and shared some of there family traditions as well. Our First Christmas Program was a big success, everyone did such an amazing job.
Lessons learned, no matter how big or small your congregation is, God is still building His Kingdom one person at a time. Pictured above is a cake that one of our most faithful members bought with his own money. John Paul is a middle school student who serves in any capacity we need. He has such a servants heart for someone so young. Most of our members are poor economically, but not poor in spirit and zeal!! John Paul taught me a valuable lesson on faith and outlook. His father was in jail for Christmas and things at home were not going good, but you would never know that by his actions or attitude. He stayed positive for his mom and little sisters. But most importantly I never heard him complain one time about his circumstances, he made the choice to count it all joy instead. We had a dessert bar reception following the program, with every dessert imaginable. But in my opinion nothing tasted better than John Paul's cake.
