Have A Blessed Christmas! - Whitford Update
We made it Back!
Praise the Lord! After four days of gruelling travel we’ve finally arrived safe and sound to our home town in northern British Columbia to celebrate Christmas with family and friends. Like most of the 40 Harvest training center families, we left Chicago last weekend under severe winter weather advisories. The roads were extremely slow, treacherous and many vehicles were in the ditch. One was even upside down in the middle of the highway, so for safety’s sake we chose to wait out the storm overnight in Madison Wisconsin.
Thankfully the weather broke the next day which brought clear skies, dry roads, but increasingly colder temperatures across the northern plains. After 15 hours we bunked down in Bismarck North Dakota and woke up the next day to -35 Deg F! We soon crossed the Canadian border into Saskatchewan singing our national anthem and downing some Tim Horton’s dark roast and Timbits (eat your heart out Dunkin Donuts!) Late that evening the bright city skyline and warm smiles of close friends welcomed us back to Calgary, then one more day of hard trucking brought us safely into Fort St John BC.
Merry Christmas!
As we break for a couple weeks and transition from training to active church planting, we want to thank you our church, family and friends for your ongoing faithful prayers and generous support over these past four months. We definitely feel so loved by your ongoing faithfulness and sacrifice on our behalf.
We pray you’ll make the time amidst the busyness of the season to truly worship Christ Jesus our Immanuel, God with us. Ponder the wonder and beauty of the amazing truth that God himself put on flesh and lived the perfect sinless life on our behalf. “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor 5:21). We rejoice in the righteousness and everlasting love of our Saviour.
One of our favourite Christmas carols is Hark the Herald Angels Sing written by Charles Wesley and modified later by George Whitfield. Sometimes we sing these carols without focusing on the deep truth to be found in the lyrics. Take some time to sing these lyrics and ponder the everlasting joy to be found in the finished work of Christ this Christmas.
Hail the Heaven-born Prince of Peace!
Hail the Son of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings,
Risen with healing in His wings;
Mild He lays His glory by
Born that man no more may die
Born to raise the sons of earth
Born to give them second birth
Come, Desire of Nations, come,
Fix in us thy heav'nly Home;
Rise the Woman's conqu'ring Seed,
Bruise in us the Serpent's Head.
Adam's Likeness now efface,
Stamp thy Image in its Place;
Second Adam from above,
Work it in us by thy Love.
Hark! The herald angels sing
"Glory to the new-born king"