Dear Family,
The weather has turned from beautiful dancing leaves to gracefully descending snow, and we all know what snow means, Christmas! I am so excited to be here for this holiday season, the cookies, the songs, the wrapping paper, the tree, and the celebration of the King. I get goose bumps just thinking about it. I have also been thinking about Jesus’ birth in the chaos of an urban area; what would that look like today? Where would He be from? Instead of Jesus of Nazareth could He be Jesus from Chester? In processing a contemporary birth of our Savior I wrote this; She walked the halls of school
Belly bulging from under her hoodie
They are beginning to take notice
Tiny fingers of the Messiah form within her womb
Two legs, ten toes, the Prince of Peace kicks
As the temple is passed
He is about His Father’s business,
A foreshadowing of what is to come
Where will this Creator be born?
What living water will bathe Him tonight?
The cloth around His perfect being is borrowed
Crying in His Salvation Army crib
Rent not paid,
The Angels sing,
“Rejoice, Rejoice, Praise to the Lord
The Savior is born in the ghetto,
Follow the gunshots, seek the sirens
His street light will not be burnt out tonight”
In John 1:46, Nathanael asks Phillip if anything good can come from Nazareth. That is how people feel about Chester. Can anything good come out of Chester? And the answer is yes. This ghetto is being filled with new life, in October a mother came to the Lord at Highland House. She is the beginning. She has ideas for the church; she is excited to raise the child she is carrying in the ways of the Lord. God has blessed our staff, allowing us to be “in” on His plan for the city. Praise Jesus, the Child from the slums, the Sacrifice for my sins, He is at work in Chester.
Please Pray with Highland House that Lord continues His work in Chester. Pray for homework club every Tuesday, so many children come, and so few helpers have time to lend a hand. Pray for the Chester/Upland school district, the rumor is that come January the doors of the public schools will be closing. And please praise our King who entered the world 2000 years ago for constant love and grace to us, sinful and undeserving people.
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