Dear Friends:
The Sacredness of the Season
One of my favorite Christmas cards is a winter scene of a cardinal perched on a bare tree branch. The snow is softly falling. The words are simple, “Quietly He comes.” I’m reminded of the times I stood on the porch of our farmhouse in Indiana and listened to the snow fall. There was a sense of the sacred in the falling snow even as a child. Parkland PatientsBob Striler continues to visit our palliative patients. He assesses their needs and becomes their friend. It is a time of quiet waiting with them as they seek from us what they need. Sometimes it is simply to be there, it may be to read to them or purchase their first bible or to pray. It is a time of carrying within us the Presence they seek. Our Dental Equipment/Supplies AngelOrley White continues to arrange for donations of dental equipment and supplies to LIAI. He not only picks them up and delivers them to the warehouse or other sites but also arranges for many needs to be met in the process. Orley gathers donations from his neighborhood and delivers them to Mable and James Armstrong and other areas in need. CroatiaA donation was made last December that has allowed us to provide food each month to several families in Croatia. James and Laura Albright, with the help of a little church in Samabor, have been able to bring much needed assistance to the elderly in a war torn area of Croatia. While visiting in March, I was able to accompany them on their monthly visits. For years I’ve realized that money, or the things money can buy, has little to do with happiness. And yet I was amazed at the quiet sweetness of these people, going about daily life without enough money to even buy adequate food. One woman was confined to her bed in their tiny little shack. Her husband cares for her. When we arrived, he was sitting on the porch enjoying the sunshine on a cool spring day. Everything was clean and well cared for, void of anything except bare necessities. This Christmas we will be buying each person snow boots or a sweater depending on his/her needs.
|  | The Bob Striler Servant’s AwalrdSaturday, November 8 at a fund-raising banquet to honor James and Mable Armstrong, The Bob Striler Servant’s Award was presented to Mable: “Recognizing a lifetime of giving to the forgotten people by using her boundless energy and creativity to wrap her arms around a hurting community.” |
We also presented her with a framed poem, that reflects the essence of Mable’s work: | I pray each morningthat I be not blind,to the Christ who movesthat day among my kind.I dare not turna hungry man away,lest it be Christ, unfed today.I dare not see one languishingin bed, lest it be Helying there instead.In every needy one I see,must have my help,for oh,it might be He. |
The Armstrongs and their little congregation are seeking to build a small sanctuary on the property they currently occupy. Angel Food MinistryWe provide food for several families each month through “Angel Food Ministries.” For $25 we are able to purchase approximately $75 worth of food for each family.
Conclusion
Most of us understand the sacredness of the ground on which Moses stood at the burning bush. There are other such instances that show us the need to be silent before the Holy. And yet how late have I seen that the Holy is all around us!
“Days pass and the years vanish and we walk sightless among miracles. O Holy One, fill our eyes with seeing and our minds with knowing. Let there be moments when your Presence, like lightning, illumines the darkness in which we walk. Help us to see, wherever we gaze, that the bush burns, unconsumed. And we, clay touched by Thee, will reach out for holiness and exclaim in wonder:
‘How filled with awe is this place and we did not know it.’ “ …from MY GRANDFATHER’S BLESSINGS BY Rachel Naomi Remen May He come quietly into your hearts this Holy Season.
God bless,
Rae England
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