Christmas for Two Families

Presents for William, his wife, and five children were delivered to them this morning while the kids were in school so the parents could hide the gifts. Care of Grace Youth. Way to give youth!


Folks from Linda's work donated some money for this family. We originally thought of getting them a washing machine. But since they were delinquent with their electric deposit, we used it for that instead. At least they will not have to deal with their electricity being turned off.

Five kids in poverty have been shown love and mercy. They will have a merry Christmas.


We will finish the bed for a family at church tomorrow night. 204 holes have been drilled. Some mistakes have been made already. We drilled about 32 more holes than we needed and had to plug them. My mistake. Only our engineer, Keith, fully understands the drilling system. Maybe we should start over on the posts if they look too tacky. Maybe they will look alright after we sand them. We want to deliver the bed by Christmas Eve. The weather will need to get above 55 for us to spray it.

We have our mission statement. From Luke 6:36...be compassionate...
It does not say to do compassionate things. It says to BE compassionate. BE as in being. BE as in become the kind of person who is compassionate.

Dictionary.com definition of Compassion:
a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering.


Compassion seems to be a special class of love. You have to intentionally put yourself in the shoes of others in order to have deep sympathy and sorrow for another. Sounds like heart stuff. This is accompanied by a strong desire to actually do something about their misfortune. To do this, you have to move beyond yourself. That is where the transcendent reality is. Jesus is leading us to life in the kingdom. To get there, we have to move beyond ourself.

This is not something you talk about and get there. We need to practice. I invite you to practice with me. Let's do it together. Let's do it with unity of purpose. Where there is unity, there is community. Let's do community together. Let's get into the shoes of others and feel that deep sympathy and sorrow and see what it does to us.