Monthly Archives: December 2010

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Our Prayer for our Neighbourhood

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Oh God,

Help!

We appeal to You to rescue us.

Please let your glory flood into our neighbourhood and wash away the evil.

Please move out those who do not want to change.

Please move in people who do want to change.

Forgive us for our sins. They are many. We are sorry.

Please don’t let us get away with stuff. Correct us when we do stuff that grieves You.

“The Lord disciples those He loves.”

Let Your Kingdom come.

In Jesus Name, Amen.

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Third Advent Sunday

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The theme for the Third Advent Sunday in churches is joy. May God surprise you with joy this Christmas. Even if you are expecting it, may it still come in surprising places and ways.

Joy to the world, the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing.
No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as, the curse is found.

Here are four more Christmas paintings from our family days in November.


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Deanna Writes a Lemon Story

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Bella needed a long list of items for her science experiment today. We had everything but a lemon. Right then some new church chairs arrived in a delivery truck. As the guy pulled out the chairs, a lemon rolled out and hit the ground. The guy gave me 2 more lemons that were rolling around in the truck! Nothing too small for God! I love His sense of humor!

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Sherry’s Good-bye Party

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The Youth here love Sherry. They baked a couple of cakes and had a good-bye party for her last night. As they gave testimonies about how Sherry had blessed them some could hardly talk for the tears.

“Thank you for loving me when I had no hope and wanted to give up.”

“Even though you had difficulties in your life you never gave up. Now you are so full of love.”

“I know it is hard to live away from grandchildren because we miss our grandparents so much. We really appreciate you coming and being a grandma to all of us.”

“Even though I look cold-blooded you are taking a piece of my heart with you.”

“I don’t know if I can open my heart again. It is so hard to say good-bye.”

Etc.

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Our Neighbourhood This Week

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Last Sunday before church Deanna, Bella and I walked our neighbourhood together, praying and being friendly. At one corner a normally cheerful group were quiet and really sad. The man’s 21 year old sibling had been shot and killed that morning. Deanna sat with the Mom. The corpse arrived a few minutes later. He was beat up pretty bad before he was shot. People here always stay up all night with the body in a coffin in the middle of the room. It is their way of saying good-bye. That was Sunday. Monday they buried the fellow. Ivanildo went. On Wednesday a gunman came to kill another friend. His Mom ran out in the road and stood in the way after the first three shots and protected her son. They are now travelling. On Friday a five year old girl died of dengue in one of the houses we walk past.
As we walked past one of the houses a teen-ager was leaving his home, talking loudly to his family inside as he was closing the gate. “I am going to see if I passed at school this year. If not, I am going to become a drug trafficer.” They talk like this is a profession. Bricklayer. Truck driver. Drug trafficer. Drugs and robberies seem to be the dangerous professions. We don’t really have gangs like you hear about in some cities.
I am surprised at the amount of pain in our neighbourhood. These forty days of doing a prayer walk every day help me understand a little better. And if you are with people in their pain, you earn permission to be with them in times of celebration.
Here are some photos of our neighbourhood. 
The first one is the prettiest house on the walk.
The second one is a typical street.
The last two are taken from our front gate.
END.