Recently, I wrote about our financial need as missionaries. I am concerned that my letter may have sounded like Deb and I were having a tough Christmas. So, it seems important to tell you that we feel mightily blessed by God this Christmas of 2018.
The week before Christmas, when it looked like I would have hip surgery, four of our five children made plans to fly to Boston in order to be with their mom during surgery. They were coming from as far away as Jackson, Wyoming, Chicago and Simpsonville, South Carolina. They were willing to drop everything and come at a moments notice to make sure mom would be alright. We have 5 children and 11 grandchildren. Our children love each other and desire to spend time together and even inconvenience themselves to do so.
Not only has God blessed our family, He has also given us a strategic part in the building of His church. Boston and Beyond a globalized cities initiative is almost vetted and ready to go. The purpose, plan and procedures for B&B have been thoroughly explained in a number of our prayer letters, so I won’t repeat that here. However, I do want to emphasize that we sense God’s presence in this endeavor and are extremely excited about joining our Savior in the Great Commission mobilized cities of the world.
In addition to these things, Deb and I have each other. We have been married for 40 plus years now, and I can honestly say we continue to fall more deeply in love each year.
Beyond this, we have a wonderful close knit church family that is living the gospel in East Cambridge Massachusetts. Our plans/dreams are biblically correct, and our fellowship is helpful to each other and pleasing to God. We are making progress.
I have not taken the space or time to write in detail about the meaningful friendships we have outside of Boston, our extended family, of our faithful supporters, or of our missionary team, which is growing both numerically but more importantly organically (we are becoming one in spirit). Suffice it to say, all these relationship round-out the blessing bestowed upon us by God.
In conclusion, it is true, Deb and I have some financial and physical challenges to face in 2019–so what, you do probably as well. The point is this, God is blessing our socks off. Our Savior is continuing to save us, and we have no doubt that 2019 will be more of the same.
So, this Christmas 2018 is a blessed Christmas all the way around.
Bill
