Operation Christmas Child

Advent calendar verses from yesterday and today:

The mountain of the house of the Lord… all the nations shall flock to it, and many peoples shall come. Isaiah 2:2-3

After me comes he who is mightier than I… he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. Mark 1:7-8

Each year we participate in Operation Christmas Child. We pack a box for a little boy Gabe’s age and for the past two years we make a little girl one for Julia to give too. It is so exciting and fun to put together a special gift to share the love of Jesus with a child in need! Gabe also got to contribute to and help pack two extra boxes this year: one in his Cubbies group and one in his Mission Friends class.  Since I co-teach a Mission Friends class, we let the kids in our class help decorate our boxes this year with Christmas gift wrap as a group project. After the boxes have been collected, I bring Gabe into the sanctuary at church to show him all the boxes the church members gave. Every year, a group of volunteers from our church travel to Atlanta to a large collection site where they help prepare the boxes to be shipped out. This year my sister went and last year my dad went. When the kids get older I hope we can go too. I think this is such an excellent ministry and I plan to get involved every Christmas!

Gingerbread Babies!

Around here, we love the book Gingerbread Baby, by Jan Brett. So imagine our surprise and delight when we saw this scene waiting for us at Grandma and Papa’s house when we stopped by this morning!

Ok, so it wasn’t that scene exactly, because we had to recreate it when we got home to get the picture (Gabe’s idea). But we were so excited that my mom got the book and two gingerbread babies for Gabe and Julia (one boy, one girl – so CUTE)!

The kids love these soft gingerbread babies – Gabe brought his to bed tonight :).

Thanks Mom, this was a great surprise!

Nativity Set for Kids

Prepare the way of the LORD; Make straight in the desert
A highway for our God. Isaiah 40:3

My mom gifted Gabriel with a sweet little nativity set made of painted wood either last year or the year before, and it has been such a lovely addition to our Christmas things. It is great to have something that’s just for the kids as we open box after box of decorations. I have enjoyed seeing Julia play with them this year too!

Here’s a cute scene I captured from last Christmas, when Gabe was three – he did this when I wasn’t looking and I discovered it after he was down for a nap:

He had taken all of his nativity figures and lined them up on the table with the “grown up” nativity.  Notice the angel tucked into the background :). I just thought it was so precious! You can find lots of play nativity sets online, but I only saw one link to this specific set, in case you’re interested: Child’s Nativity made in Sri Lanka.

Happy First Day of December!

I love Christmastime! The music, the decorations, the wonderful family times and especially the times spent reflecting on God’s most precious gift to us – his only son, Jesus Christ! I bought a cute count-down-to-Christmas wall decoration at Hobby Lobby the other day, so this morning Gabe got to put the little wooden candy cane in the pocket for day one where he found this Bible verse I had tucked inside:

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.

Isaiah 7:14

When he got home from school, he also had an advent calendar in his back pack with daily Bible verses leading up to Christmas day. Here’s the one for today:

Arise, and shine, for your light has come! Isaiah 60:1

Praise the Lord! And here’s a fun flash back to last Christmas for you :)!

By-the-way, if you are a scrapbooker you should head over to my other site, where I have a free Christmas themed Digital Scrapbooking kit available! Here’s the link: Scrapbook Ideas. Enjoy!

~Merry Christmas!!~

Merry Christmas to all my friends and family, I love you and I hope you are enjoying this wonderful day!

I have been thinking long and hard about what to share with you today. I know I have not been very good at keeping this blog updated now that I am working so hard on the Scrapbook Ideas blog. But I have been thinking all week about how to share something meaningful today that will in some way capture my joy and gratitude toward God for His gift to us this Christmas. But as creative as I am, I am just not very eloquent with words and I have a hard time really expressing how I feel sometimes! That’s why I was thrilled yesterday when my friend Heaven dropped by unexpectedly with a big yummy basket of fruit and goodies, and….. a new poem!!! If you haven’t already read the first poem I shared with you written by Heaven, you can see it here. After I read Heaven’s Christmas poem, I just had to call her and ask permission to share it with you – it’s perfect :). And THEN Heaven shared some more touching things she had written, and I just have to share them all with you.

Even though Heaven is a brand new believer, and this is her first Christmas as a Christian, God has already taught her so much – and it really shows! She is a real blessing in many people’s lives :)!! I hope you take the time to read these so you can be blessed too!

Nails Of Agony

The conception was a miracle
one that God alone could make
to father flesh with beating heart
for our sins ~ to forsake.

The light faded up above them
as the time was drawing near
a child was to be born that night
a child to hold – so dear.

There was no place of comfort
no one ~ had the room
to help Mary be at ease ~ to have
the babe come from her womb.

Darkness fell across the land
all but ~ one star shining bright
gave vision to some wise men
who journeyed towards that light.

Wisdom indeed ~ to travel towards
the light that shone above
where lay the new born Jesus Christ
who is ~ eternal love.

His son, His life, His hearts desire
He knew what lay ahead
His flesh, His Son’s own beating heart
would stop and He’d…….be dead.

For you
for me
for everyone
to save us from all wrong
He took the nails of agony
for our pain ~ to be gone.

He gave His Son ~ Immanuel
then He opened his arms wide
He welcomed home His selfless Son
and held him close ~ with pride.

His broken flesh was mended
The sins He took were ~ washed away
thank God ~ for His miracle Son
born upon ~ this day.

By
Heaven Mahle

Isn’t a beautiful picture of God’s gift to us? And Heaven also shared a story with me this morning about what happened last night when she read the poem above at her church last night. It is so touching, and here it is in her words:

Everything I write ~ I write with my hearts ink.
It was 11pm Christmas Eve 2007, my first PROPER Christmas. I had written a poem …
…Nails Of Agony, I loved it, of course, I was always a little tiny bit privately proud of my poems!

I’ve written many yet shared few, the few I shared had impact, I like that, it means to me then, it was so worth writing, an inked journey from my heart to another’s heart makes it all worthwhile.

The last service I attended I cried through the entire hour, I had no tissues with me and neither did any of my friends! I wiped my eyes and sodden cheeks with my scarf! So this time I came prepared! I brought with me a little towel. So…

…We’re in church, I’m sat and I’m ready for my first proper Christmas. The seats start to fill and so do my feelings. All these people are here for one thing, to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. The babe born in a manger ~ for US. The reason he was born ~ for US. The suffering he bore ~ for US. I’m overwhelmed inside and I have my little towel close by! I see more people enter the church, the more come inside the more I think…
…There’s already been three services here today and yet – they still come. I think of other churches, other towns, other cities and other countries ALL with churches being filled with people, people who come to thank the Lord God for the birth of His son – the baby Jesus.

My hearts ink ‘Nails Of Agony’ (written after my last tearful service) is on the seat beside me. I want to share it, I want the world to hear it! Something holds me back, something always does, I think it’s my fear of failure, I want to blow my own trumpet for the world to hear but I don’t rise from my seat! My husband has different ideas! He took the poem up to our pastor, Alan, he spoke for a minute, I watched, I hoped but I didn’t know. Didn’t know if my hearts ink would be of any use to him or the service. I hoped, shyly I hoped. I understood how important this service was going to be and who am I to squeeze into that most precious time – I’m no-one.

Alan came over and asked me to read my poem on the altar. I said yes, of course, I’d love to!! Then I thought….oh what have I done?!

WOW!! Me? Worthy? My words to share with all these people? Really? At this most precious time ~ I could barely believe it!!

The time comes, I walk to the altar, I read my poem, I look to the floor and I go back to my seat! I’d watched all those people come inside and yet now I couldn’t face one! I think that was my proudest moment ~ ever!! I know it was my most humbling moment ever. I barely heard the round of applause, I knew it was there but to my ears it was almost like a cloud because they couldn’t be applauding me.

I’m back in my seat and the lady next to me leans over towards me, I see a tear sat on her cheek and I feel awesome! My hearts ink had journeyed to another’s heart. I was happy to see that tear! However, then the lady spoke! She thanked me for the poem I’d written a week before called ‘Come And Dance With Me’
She said it had really helped her and her family. I was confused and I didn’t understand! I thought I’d only given that poem to Alan. It had been inspired by words from Jimmy, one of our pastors, during a service. He spoke of a woman called Donna who was across the road singing a song about dancing on a grave and she was singing this song barely days after laying her mother to rest. I was so touched and hence the poem ‘Come And Dance With Me’

So, all at the same time I was getting over the fact that others felt my words were worthy enough to be shared that night, trying to listen to the service which had carried on and wondering why this lady had spoken of a different poem! I just said “thank you” to her and turned back to the front!

The service was done. Another pastor came to me and held out his hand. I smiled and listened as he filled in the blank! The lady I was sat next to was his wife, his wife was called Donna and it was her that Jimmy spoke of, it was her that was singing, it was her that had just laid her mother to rest and it was because of her I wrote ‘Come And Dance With Me’ ….now it all made sense! The pastor told me his wife had wanted to meet me after she’d received the poem from Alan. Well…I jumped up and I hugged Donna so tightly, not just once but twice! I was so happy to know that through my words, given to me by God, I’d been able to help, it was real, I’d made someone feel a little better. If you’ve ever had that feeling like I did….it’s like my heart was filled with popping candy!

I have to ask…. who do you think sat us next to each other in church that night? I think we can all work that out!!

I thank you Lord for the things you do and for the way you work with us. I received the best Christmas gift – ever!

Thank you – thank you – thank you!

Happy Birthday!

Wow!!!! There are no such things as coincidences :)! In case you are wondering about the other poem she mentioned, I have that one too :):

Come And Dance With Me!

Dance on my grave ~ for I ask you
Be happy, rejoice and sing

Dance on my grave ~ for I beg you
Smile all the smiles you can bring

Dance on my grave ~ for I tell you
Now, I’m as happy as I could be

Dance on my grave ~ for I want you
To come and dance – with me

Dance on my grave ~ for I need you
To celebrate with your step

Dance on my grave ~ for I love you
Don’t you ever, ever forget…

…to dance on my grave ~ and be happy
That God gave me the chance

To live my life now up in Heaven, so…
…come to my grave – and dance.

By Heaven Mahle

I’m so glad that Heaven is willing to share these with me and my blog readers, it is so awesome to see what God is doing in her life and how it is so quickly spreading to influence the lives of others. That’s how God’s love works, isn’t it? At the Christmas Eve service I went to last night, we were all lighting candles while we sang some Christmas carols. As we passed the flames from one person to the next down the pews, the pastor said something that is so true – when you use your light to pass light onto the next person, it doesn’t hurt your light at all – it just helps it to spread! Let’s remember that as we spread the light of Christ’s love to the world!

A few pics from this morning…