This Christmas I am reminded of the human response to the young couple, Mary and Joseph, in great need. The inn keeper obviously content with his full house could not see past his own comfort to sacrificially arrange even a small room for this weary couple that was expecting a child. How tragic to have missed this glorious opportunity to be a part of the greatest miracle ever, “The Birth of the Promised Messiah”.

So often we read this story and quickly pass judgement on the inn keeper. However today there are people just like Mary and Joseph knocking on the door of our hearts and I wonder what our response is. I recently received this testimony from Joni Whitehead, our Director of Employment Placement, and wanted to share it with you this Christmas season.

Danny was basically living on the streets. He was employed, part-time, and had just left work. He was jumped in an alley way. He went to Baylor hospital to receive treatment. He waited and waited and just decided to leave. As he was walking down the street, obviously beat up and bloody, Justin and Melonie Childress passed him by. They turned around and asked if they could help him. They made sure Danny had the medical attention he needed and eventually asked Danny to live with them. This was 18 months ago.

Justin brought Quinton Gross (current optical graduate from Cornerstone Academy – Melonie is on board of Cornerstone Academy) to our orientation and immediately realized that Danny would be an excellent prospect for our machine shop training. Danny graduated from our class this September and has already proven himself a worthy employee and has landed a job at our employer partner APC. Even though hospitalized for a week during training, Danny called to make sure he was not missing any assignments. Danny has continually shown us that he is sincere about his walk with the Lord and is thankful to his Savior for the opportunity to be self-sufficient and have meaningful employment. On the day of our graduation, Danny was involved in new member orientation classes with Village Church in Dallas. After attending for many months, he is now a contributing member of his local church.

What a joy it is to celebrate the love of Christ by opening our hearts and homes to people who are miracles waiting to happen. Each day I am humbled by people like Melanie and Justin who are a part of the BridgeBuilders movement.

Medically we received a great report. The CT scan revealed that everything is stable…the first time in my life I have been called “stable”. There is no cancer anywhere else in my body and the 1 cm mass in my upper right lobe of my lung is unchanged, the doctor is uncertain whether it is cancer or scar tissue.

We are grateful to God and for your prayers that brought this great report. We are prayerful about next steps and whether we should consider surgery to remove this mass or simply continue the treatment we are currently on. Your prayers for us are the greatest blessing! We have you in our prayers and wish you a Merry Christmas!

Join me for Christmas Day in Bonton (south Dallas) at 1:00 PM. Bring clothes, toys, and a heart to share the love of Christ.

These past weeks we continue to marvel at God’s miraculous blessings. This Christmas season it is amazing to ponder the calling God had for Mary and Joseph to believe Him for the miraculous gift of the Messiah. Mary and Joseph’s faith is an incredible testimony of trusting in God and fulfilling their God given purpose for their lives even though it didn’t make sense and was humanly impossible. Our God is a miracle working God. Remember when He calls you to His purpose He prepares you; He protects you; He provides for you. Ultimately, He receives praise through your simple act of obedience to allow Him to work through you for His glory. It is all about our Great God and His Good News. “For unto us this day a Savior is born.”

In this season of miracles we rejoice as a ministry in the many new men and women God is calling to walk with us in this movement of God called H.I.S. BridgeBuilders. Just last night our Board voted unanimously to employ Brad Popoff as our Chief Operating Officer. Brad and Tracy and their 3 amazing sons are clearly an answer to prayer and are heaven sent. When Brad shared with me in our Friday morning Bible study that he was sensing God was calling him to a new season in his life, I had no idea that would be with our ministry. I was humbled by Brad and Tracy when we toured the ministry and Brad said there was one thing still holding him up from moving forward, saying “I am unworthy.” In my heart I knew this was God’s man for our ministry. We are all unworthy to be called by our great God to serve Him, but what a joy it is to get to give back daily to our God, who has given us abundant and eternal life through Jesus Christ.

Medically, I go to do a full C.T. scan today and will blog the results next week. We are expectant of a miracle for the glory of God.

As we celebrate the birth of Christ this Christmas, we should be humbled that God so loved us that He sent His Son to save us from our sins. The great need in our time is for us who claim to be Christians to go and tell the Good News. We gather weekly, but few go. We miss the exponential power of God’s church by continuing to study, pray and praise, but not going into all the world and proclaiming Jesus as Lord. Who would have a company and never expect the employees to go call on potential customers? This is a great plan for bankruptcy. When attacked by an enemy, we must send the military to take back what is ours and to defend our nation. The church is losing ground here in America. We are at war spiritually and yet we seem comfortable with the fact that we have gathered, given a few dollars (1% to 2% of our income), and then go about our daily living while others are daily dying apart from Christ.

This past month I have been thrilled to see Clifton and Rodrick and their families, as well as Mary Anderwald go to our San Antonio ministry at Thanksgiving and share the love and light of Christ. My Dad marveled as these former drug dealers ministered so powerfully to the community and even to a hurting Pastor who was staying with my parents. This week, Ken Touchette, who volunteers to lead our optical clinic, is with Clifton in W.V. serving hundreds during their Christmas outreach and prayerfully exploring how to set up an optical training and dispensary ministry there. Rodrick and Lisa have already been to London and Romania and are looking forward to our next opportunity to go. The Lord said, “greater works would be accomplished through His disciples than when He was here.” This greater work can only happen if we fully surrender our lives to God’s will and His heart. We must quit just going to church and realize we are the church commissioned by Christ to go and make disciples here and around the world. Join me in praying and asking God for His power and His heart to Go and Tell the Good News. The world is wiating, God is calling. My prayer is that we would all say, “Here am I, send me.”