Dear Partner,
"Wait" That was the name of the YouTube music video my wife wanted me to watch. It's turned out to be one of my favorite songs the past month. However, at the time she wanted me to watch it, I had my heart set on viewing a football game. Imagine my frustration when I found out the particular version of the song I was watching with her, lasted for over ten minutes. There was a guy who worked on staff several years that would instruct me whenever I used the word "ironic" incorrectly. I think I'm using it here correctly when I say, it's "ironic" I was forced to wait to turn the channel while watching a YouTube video of a song entitled "Wait". Much of Christmas is about waiting. When you were a kid, the week before Christmas vacation seemed to last forever, and the last hour before the final class would end, you would watch the clock and wait. The Night Before Christmas story is all about "waiting" for Christmas morning. As Christians, the Advent describes the period of waiting before Christmas arrives. Simeon, mentioned in Luke 2, waited until he was 200 years old to see the birth of Jesus. For Mary, how long do you think the 9-month pregnancy seemed to her as she waited for the birth of Jesus? The waiting she had to go through along with Joseph must have seemed like an eternity. And do you think maybe when she agreed to the whole virgin birth thing, she may have thought briefly that the baby would be born the following week, not 9 long months later. I mean it seems to me the whole "virgin birth" miracle is the biggie. The secondary, easy miracle would have been for him to have been born the following week after the announcement, not after months of waiting. Mary had to wait a long time to validate her story that Jesus really was the Messiah. In fact, she actually got tired of waiting. So tired that at a wedding party, when things were about to go bad for the hosts, she told Jesus, like only a mother could, after 30 plus years of waiting, "Jesus, we need wine, now." No more waiting!
I look forward to Christmas this season like many of you do. Although with maybe not the same excitement as from when I was a kid, I'll still wait for Christmas morning to arrive. It provides a few glimpses of joy and light in what sometimes can be a pretty dark world. While the presence of joy and light can fill some of our days, they generally are not here to stay. And while we may know peace for weeks or even months, we all know that the next phone call, text or email could end all that in a moment. But, the waiting for the Christ of Christmas 2000 years ago allows us to wait with great anticipation our future. Max Lucado writes in a book I'm currently reading "We are not happy here because we are not at home here. We are not happy here because we are not supposed to be happy here. We are 'like foreigners and strangers in this world'." (I Peter 2:11) The older I get, the harder it is to wait for what God has prepared for eternity. I find myself like a kid who can't sleep Christmas Eve with excitement for the morning to come- waiting. Because of Christmas, I’m waiting for heaven and what Paul says, "no eye has seen, nor ear heard everything God has prepared for those who love Him." Until then, we wait.
Merry Christmas to you and your family,
Craig & Lora
The following is a list of projects that we sent you back in October.
Camper Scholarships
New Roof on Rec Hall
New Roof on Sweet Shop
New Ceiling Tiles and Lights in Sweet Shop
New Doors on Camber Cabin
Gutters on Camper Cabins
Gravel in Front of Camper Cabins and Sweet Shop
Pavilion with Fire Pit
When we first sent this letter out, we were at 25% funded. Now we are at 50% funded. We need to raise $50,000 by the end of the year so that we can begin to put all the pieces into place to make all the things on this list happen this summer.