No snow here but lots and lots of rain and cooler temperatures do make us feel like it is Christmas here on the island.
As we end 2011 and celebrate Christ' birth, we would like to share this quote from Shane Clairborne regarding Advent---we feel it explains well our reason for choosing to live where we live and do what we do...we pray it will encourage you as you follow Christ in the way He has called you "for such a time as this"...
"Everything in our society teaches us to move away from suffering, to move out of the neighborhoods where there is high crime, to move away from people who don't look like us. But the gospel calls us to something altogether different. We are to laugh at fear, to lean into suffering, to open ourselves to the stranger. Advent is the season when we remember how Jesus put on flesh and moved into the neighborhood. God getting born in a barn reminds us that God shows up in the most forsaken corners of the earth.
Movements throughout church history have gone to the desert, to the slums, to the most difficult places on earth to follow Jesus. For some of us that means remaining in difficult neighborhoods that we were born into even though folks mahy think we are crazy for not moving out. For others it means returning to a difficult neighborhood after heading off to college or job training to acquire skills--choosing to bring those skills back to where we came from to help restore the broken streets. And for others it may mean relocating our lives from places of so-called privilege to an abandoned place to offer our gifts for God's kingdom. (The last point describes why we are here.)
Wherever we come from, Jesus teaches us that good can happen where we are, even if real-estate agents and politicians aren't interested in our neighborhoods. Jesus comes from Nazareth, a town from which folks said nothing good could come. He knew suffering from the moment he entered the world as a baby refugee born in the middle of a genocide. Jesus knew poverty and pain until he was tortured and executed on a Roman cross. This is the Jesus we are called to follow. With his coming we learn that the most dangerous place for Christians to be is in comfort and safety, detached from the suffering of others. Places that are physically safe can be spiritually dead."
Please pray for our neighbors here--those who are hungry for light---like the shepherds--- who over 2000 years ago were told ---"Today in the city of David was born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord."
those in the elementary school here...
and who play on this basketball court with an incredible view of the glory of God...
and please pray for land such as this which could be used for a playground/community center...
We wish you all a very Merry Christmas---check the right-hand panel for our prayer requests and a special Advent prayer for you too. Our Christmas letters have been sent--if you didn't receive one please email us and we will get one to you. Thanks for the cards we are receiving---use the address on the right to send us your cards.
By God's grace and for His glory,
The Dave Schwulst family