December 6th, 2020
Dear Friends,
Here we are only a few weeks away from Christmas Day! Many of us wondered earlier in the year how we would manage all the challenges presented to us. Back in February, when the Covid-19 hit Kirkland, WA, Christmas 2020 seemed a very distant thought.
I remember once asking my grandmother how she handled living through WWII with four little children. She told me that of course they were afraid, but everyone was going through it together. I’ve relived that conversation a number of times this past year and have been thankful for the strength her example has given me. This year we have needed each other, haven’t we?
For Dan and I it has been a very full year. It began with Dan’s parents needing care as his mother fell and broke her hip and wrist. We were so relieved when she healed up well and is now also doing well in the treatment of the cancer she is fighting. We are hoping that soon she will not need any more chemotherapy. Thank you to all who have been praying for Dan’s parents. They are so appreciative of your loving care.
Together we celebrated the last high school graduation in our family in June. Clark, our youngest son, finished high school leaving me without any more students! After thirty-five years of tutoring and home educating, this autumn felt a little funny. No textbooks, no grade book, no sharpened pencils! We are so proud of all our children. They have all worked very hard and are doing well. John is in college; Clark will begin next year. Grace is working on her master’s degree and Daniel also will be finishing his.
This summer Clark and I went to work on a new website for Ceaseless Love Ministries. We would like to announce that it has been launched and you can visit it at ceaselesslove.org. It is a work in progress and we want to thank Clark for his patient help in creating it. We found out we make a great team!
Many have called us this year at Ceaseless Love Ministries needing help and care. We have been honored to join each one in any way we can to bring comfort and practical help. Dan and I have seen a number of our dear friends called into glory. We pray for their families as they carry sorrow in their hearts this Christmas. Some have been in need of patient advocacy, which has been made more challenging by the restrictions in hospitals because of the virus.
This year we have also been working with several single mothers with children. There are great needs in these situations and we ask you to pray for us and for them, both for wisdom and provision. It is a work the Church often neglects because it is complicated and difficult. This, however, is not an excuse. What answers can the world without Christ offer? Christ has given us His Word and His Spirit of wisdom and love. Let us not hold back from doing all we can to provide for and protect these precious ones who are oppressed, vulnerable and forgotten.
If God has comforted you this year in the midst of the many hardships that have faced our nation and our world, remember that He has equipped you through that experience to comfort others. He has given you a wonderful gift! The Apostle Paul writes in the book of I Corinthians 1:3-4 – “Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort we ourselves are comforted of God.”
God does not ask us to give what we do not have. He gives to us out of His abundant heart comfort, love, prosperity, health, wisdom, and time that we might rejoice and then He asks us to give out of the treasure He has given us to bring that abundance to others who might not know Him well enough to ask or whose needs are overwhelming their faith. Where there is need, there is, somewhere, the provision of God for that need. Let’s be seeking God this Christmas for His comfort and blessings first for ourselves, and then look for the need it was intended to overflow into.
At Christmas we reflect on the great mercy of God in sending Jesus to this world to redeem us from the great affliction of sin. Sin, evil, and wickedness separate us from God. He can have no part with it. But we rejoice that in His Son, He made a way for us to be reconciled with Him. This was all because of God’s great mercy. The commentator J.C. Ryle writes,
“Mercy has truly been called the darling attribute of God. Power, justice, purity, holiness, wisdom, unchangeableness, are all parts of God’s character, and have been manifested to the world in thousands of ways, both in His works and His Word. But if there is one part of His perfections which He is pleased to exhibit to man more clearly than another, beyond doubt that part is mercy. He is a God that ‘delighteth in mercy.”(Micah 7:18)
We praise God for His mercy as we see Him meet many people in their terrible pain and need. He loves us so much more than we will ever know.
May your Christmas be healthy and joyous! Where there is fear and sorrow, let the comfort of Christ’s Presence be welcomed. We pray that this New Year will be one where peace and righteousness prevail.
With warm greetings and ceaseless love,
Marie & Dan