We have just returned home from a truly magnificent experience with our church family at Sammamish Pres. The Mission Committee decided many months ago to partner with World Vision in providing Caregiver Kits for the caregivers of Aids/HIV patients in Tanzania. The goal of purchasing 500 kits was set...the presentation was made to the congregation....and we were off and running. It soon became obvious that the goal was set way too low. The culmination of the process was our "One Life One Night" tonight - in which over 400 people from the smallest to the oldest gathered in every nook and cranny of the church facilities to be organized into groups and begin to walk around each assembly table, writing a note of encouragement and hope to a caregiver to be placed inside each and every kit and then filling our bright orange plastic containers with all the necessary equipment--from cotton balls to gloves to medicines. We packed 1,762 caregiver kits which will touch 17,620 patients with a total of 352,400 caring visits. WOW! Isn't that incredible? And that's what Christmas is really all about, isn't it?
For Christmas this year, we purchased a Caregiver Kit for everyone in our family - so our kids, my brother and sister-in-law, and our nieces and nephews were all represented in that endeavor. Our thanks and love to each of you!
One of our 11-year old girls celebrated her birthday today - her young friends were invited to contribute to purchasing caregiver kits in lieu of birthday presents, and her party was coming to the gathering this evening and participating in the assembling of the kits. What a witness to all of us--young and old!
And now we are only ten days away from the celebration of the birth of our Lord Jesus! May the next ten days bring peace and joy to your hearts, as you hear from friends via the mail, listen to the music of the season, and rejoice at the great gift God gave to each of us.
Saturday, December 15, 2007
The True Meaning of Christmas
We have just returned home from a truly magnificent experience with our church family at Sammamish Pres. The Mission Committee decided many months ago to partner with World Vision in providing Caregiver Kits for the caregivers of Aids/HIV patients in Tanzania. The goal of purchasing 500 kits was set...the presentation was made to the congregation....and we were off and running. It soon became obvious that the goal was set way too low. The culmination of the process was our "One Life One Night" tonight - in which over 400 people from the smallest to the oldest gathered in every nook and cranny of the church facilities to be organized into groups and begin to walk around each assembly table, writing a note of encouragement and hope to a caregiver to be placed inside each and every kit and then filling our bright orange plastic containers with all the necessary equipment--from cotton balls to gloves to medicines. We packed 1,762 caregiver kits which will touch 17,620 patients with a total of 352,400 caring visits. WOW! Isn't that incredible? And that's what Christmas is really all about, isn't it?
For Christmas this year, we purchased a Caregiver Kit for everyone in our family - so our kids, my brother and sister-in-law, and our nieces and nephews were all represented in that endeavor. Our thanks and love to each of you!
One of our 11-year old girls celebrated her birthday today - her young friends were invited to contribute to purchasing caregiver kits in lieu of birthday presents, and her party was coming to the gathering this evening and participating in the assembling of the kits. What a witness to all of us--young and old!
And now we are only ten days away from the celebration of the birth of our Lord Jesus! May the next ten days bring peace and joy to your hearts, as you hear from friends via the mail, listen to the music of the season, and rejoice at the great gift God gave to each of us.
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
Advent - a time of preparation!
Can you believe it is December already? And the time of preparation for the birth of our Lord Jesus! What a delightful and busy time, with the beauty of all the Christmas music, the lights in the neighborhood, and plans for our family to join us here in Washington. We are very excited about this month!
We had a delightful few days with my cousin Carl and his wife Sue - Carl is the son of my Dad's sister. Its never been our good fortune to be anywhere near my cousins, even as we were growing up. Now, in our retirement time, it is marvelous to know that we will have some time together with Sue & Carl, who live on the Olympic Peninsua in Sequim (which I misspelled in our Christmas letter--oops!) Carl is a retired National Park Service ranger, and both of them are a wealth of information on this area. We plan to go to their home tomorrow for a couple of days to do some exploring in their area. They came over in their 5th wheel, bringing us some additional items to make our apartment living just a little bit better.
Are you ready for another small-world story? Here is Carl with Stan Humann, a member of our new church family. It seems Carl and Stan were at Washington U forestry school together and had not seen each other since then - over 45 years ago. You can imagine the conversation they were engaged in after church as they played "catch up" on classmates and careers. Carl had noticed Stan's name and address on a card by our telephone while he was here, and commented that he had gone to college with a person by that name...and now you know the rest of the story!
One of the trips we took (twice) over the holiday was to Snoqualmie Falls. It is breathtaking! The first trip the combination of the steam/water rising up from the falls, and the lowhanging clouds from above, made a visual sighting of the falls nearly impossible--tho we could occasionally see 4 kayakers down below us. So we returned on Thanksgiving Day, which was clear as a bell. When you come to visit us, this is a "must-see" spot.
We ended our holiday by shopping for our lights to decorate the balcony of our apartment, and Sue surprised us by "wearing" one of the strings when we returned to the truck. A great way to begin the holiday season--with a personally decorated cousin! What a neat sense of humor!
Now as we all prepare for the celebration of the birth of our Lord, may your days be filled with a sense of peace from the Prince of Peace...and may you enjoy your time with one another, with the stranger in the grocery store, the delivery man who brings a package to your door, and especially, time with Jesus.
Love, Mary and Jerry
We had a delightful few days with my cousin Carl and his wife Sue - Carl is the son of my Dad's sister. Its never been our good fortune to be anywhere near my cousins, even as we were growing up. Now, in our retirement time, it is marvelous to know that we will have some time together with Sue & Carl, who live on the Olympic Peninsua in Sequim (which I misspelled in our Christmas letter--oops!) Carl is a retired National Park Service ranger, and both of them are a wealth of information on this area. We plan to go to their home tomorrow for a couple of days to do some exploring in their area. They came over in their 5th wheel, bringing us some additional items to make our apartment living just a little bit better.
Are you ready for another small-world story? Here is Carl with Stan Humann, a member of our new church family. It seems Carl and Stan were at Washington U forestry school together and had not seen each other since then - over 45 years ago. You can imagine the conversation they were engaged in after church as they played "catch up" on classmates and careers. Carl had noticed Stan's name and address on a card by our telephone while he was here, and commented that he had gone to college with a person by that name...and now you know the rest of the story!
One of the trips we took (twice) over the holiday was to Snoqualmie Falls. It is breathtaking! The first trip the combination of the steam/water rising up from the falls, and the lowhanging clouds from above, made a visual sighting of the falls nearly impossible--tho we could occasionally see 4 kayakers down below us. So we returned on Thanksgiving Day, which was clear as a bell. When you come to visit us, this is a "must-see" spot.
We ended our holiday by shopping for our lights to decorate the balcony of our apartment, and Sue surprised us by "wearing" one of the strings when we returned to the truck. A great way to begin the holiday season--with a personally decorated cousin! What a neat sense of humor!
Now as we all prepare for the celebration of the birth of our Lord, may your days be filled with a sense of peace from the Prince of Peace...and may you enjoy your time with one another, with the stranger in the grocery store, the delivery man who brings a package to your door, and especially, time with Jesus.
Love, Mary and Jerry
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