God Sent Forth His Son. ISSUE NO. 181
DECEMBER 15th, 2007
“For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”
Luke 2:11
“For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world through Him might be saved.”
John 3:17
“MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A BLESSED NEW YEAR”
Dear Friends,
Emie and I, our children, and the Filipino ministry teams send you our warm greetings to you this Christmas and New Year. May the Lord give you a wonderful Christmas as you focus on Him, and powerfully bless your New Year as you seek anew His guidance and direction for 2008. “Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.” Ps 37:5
There are many gifts that will be given and received this Christmas; there will be family gatherings, good meals, and much activity. There are many emotions on Christmas; some people are happy, some are stressed out with all the activity, some are lonely. But when one begins to: “focus your eyes upon Jesus”---as the song says, “the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.”
When we simply and honestly focus----on the greatest and most priceless gift ever given---God touches our hearts and minds with His love, His peace, and His joy. “And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the Inn.” Lk 2:7 Even though we are very familiar with the events of Jesus’ birth, it is still truly amazing that the Creator of heaven and earth, when He came to this earth on a rescue mission (to save our lives), was born in a manger---because there was no room elsewhere for Jesus. If Jesus were to knock on someone’s door tonight and ask to spend the night what would be the responses of different people? Some people might say, “well ok, but we have a pretty full house---so would You like the cot or the couch?” But others would say: Wow! Yes of course. We have a full house but you can have our master bedroom, and we will sleep on the hide-abed, cot or whatever. We are honored and You are welcome in our house.”
Well, Jesus says in Revelation 3:20: “”Behold, I stand at the door and knock, if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and dine with Him and he with Me.” Jesus knocks on the door of every Christian’s heart and invites us to fellowship with Him. When He knocks on your door of your heart or mine, let’s give Him the best meal in the house (not the leftovers), and the master sweet (not the cot) if He is spending the night. Let’s give God our best---because He gave us His best
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Last night we took a 19-month-old baby girl named Erica to the hospital. Her parents
Jury & Arilina are Christians from a small island village that has no doctor. While their daughter had never been sick before, she now had a fever and cough that was not going away. They had only minimal medication on the island and it was not helping. Another problem they had was that they were poor and had no budget to cover the needed medical treatment available in the City.
We received a cell phone text message 2 days ago about their problem and told them to bring their daughter to Tacloban on the 1st available boat trip. We took them and Erica to a baby doctor and found out she had acute phenomena. We were able to get her checked into a local government hospital and bought the medicine needed for treatment. We have prayed for and are continuing to pray for her healing---and also as mentioned, trying to provide proper medical attention that will assist in hopefully---saving her life. (While writing this newsletter I asked Emie to text Jury to see how Erica is doing. We just received a reply after writing this section, that she is improving.) We will visit her later today.
“Whoever receives one little child like this in My name, receives Me.” Mt. 18:5 ---Jesus
You have received a new family picture with this Christmas newsletter. In most newsletters I talk mostly about the ministry outreaches and only a little about family. [I will simply share that all areas of ministry are doing well over all. The radio broadcast, churches, children & youth ministries, & evangelistic outreaches are reaching new people for Jesus, Christians are being strengthened and encouraged in their faith, the poor are being helped in a variety of ways in the name of Jesus.] As many people send out a family letter on Christmas I would like to share in this newsletter a little more about our 6 children and how they came into our lives.
In the picture at the top, left to right is Gordon, Emie, & Nonoy (20); middle: the triplets---Faith, Joy, & Hope (2); bottom: Hugh (6) & Gracia (9).
Nonoy (Jean-Paul): is Emie’s nephew and when he was 7 months old his mother left him and his father Tony (Emie’s brother). When Nonoy was 1 year and 4 months old Emie came and visited her brother and him for 3 days. During that time there was a love & bonding between Nonoy and Emie and upon her departure Nonoy was crying. Her brother Tony (a professional musician) asked Emie if she could take care of Nonoy and she said yes and since that time taken care of him as her own son. Nonoy was 5 when Emie and I were married and is now studying at Bible college in Cebu, is a very good Christian Musician, and was recently assigned to pastor a church in Cebu on the weekends.
Gracia: (some excerpts from Emie’s testimony letter to the department of social services) {We were requested one Sunday by 3 young boys to visit their home as requested by their mother…the boys ushered us into their little house made of Nipa and Bamboo. We saw the mother laying on the dirty looking mat, (she) was skin and bone, dying with her baby girl Maria who was also dying of disease.<> I was sad and moved with compassion to see their poor and pitiful condition. The mother talked to me with tears in her eyes saying, “I am dying, please, I have no one to trust my baby. I will give her to you, please take care of my baby.” With tears in my eyes I assured her that I will take good care of your child and we will take you both to the hospital.” We rushed them immediately to the City Hospital, but she died in the arms of her eldest son. The doctor declared her dead on arrival. We helped the family with all the things they needed for the funeral and burial.}
Maria we took to a baby specialist and she was confined in a hospital for 8 days. She had been diagnosed as 3rd degree malnourished (she was 1 year & 3 mo. Old, and weighed 10.3 pounds) she also had TB, phenomena, scabies, and worms. With much prayer and help from the doctor and medicine, the child recovered from her critical condition. Gracia (Maria) is now 9 years old, energetic, sociable, she loves the Lord, and loves to sing and dance. We changed her name from Maria to Gracia, because truly only by God’s grace she survived.}
Hugh: Emie and I received Hugh when her was one month and 16 days old, after his mother decided to give her child to a Christian family because of poverty. Her husband had left her and abandoned her with her 3 little children when she was pregnant. Hugh is named after my father. He is an active young 6-year-old boy, can learn quickly when he applies himself, and has an artistic ability to draw well, and can sing well. Both Hugh and Gacia can pray well, and even pray for blessings upon all of you who are ministry partners as I have taught them to do so.
The triplets: Faith, Hope, and Joy: Wow! Emie had received a phone call in Nov of 2005 from some other adoptive parents and asked if she would like to adopt more babies. Emie replies: “you mean another baby?” The lady said no, I mean babies—triplet girls. The mother died giving birth and some of us other adoptive parents offered to each take one, but the govt. does not want to seem them broken up but hope to find someone to adopt all 3. <>This is not a minor decesion, it required prayer. The girls were having some health problems and the govt. wanted to see that they were healthy before they were sent to a willing family. A few weeks after the phone call Emie was visiting a lady who was sick in the EVRMC hospital and when visiting her, was informed that 2 of the triplets were there in the hospital. Emie wrote about that day: “Out of curiosity I decided to visit them. I was ushered into their room and I saw them laying, sickly looking twins” (these two are the identical ones out of the three.) “I found out they had been hospitalized for more than a month already. I cuddled one of the identicals who was at that time awake. When she was in my arms she talked to me (baby talk) but I was touched while she was talking—the message I got in my spirit is this: ‘Please take me home.’ I prayed for them, and went home. But their pitiful faces were in my mind. I called my husband who was in the States at that time and we prayed. Two weeks before Gordon’s arrival he agreed to take the triplets to our home.”
They are now 2 years and 3 months old and Emie and I have can say they are very energetic, a great blessing as are the other kids. Emie describes the triplets as follows: “Faith is the singer among the three. She loves to eat, likes to climb and dance, and she will probably be a good cook in the future because she loves to be in the kitchen and is very observant when someone is cooking. Hope is very affectionate, but is a warrior, and also the peacemaker among the three. She is a hugger and worshipful. She comforts someone if they are crying.
Joy is like her name--joyful, she is humorous but sensitive and can easily get offended. She is very organized. She loves to arrange messy thing and she wants her toys to be in good shape and takes good care of them. She is very observant and sociable and also likes to keep herself looking beautiful each day.”
We have six children of whom many could have ended up in an orphanage, but by the love of God they are in our home. They are our God given children. We teach those who are old enough to pray for you, please pray them, and for Emie and me, and that we will have the wisdom and strength to raise them well and to love and serve the Lord.
Please pray for the 16 churches we have helped establish, and that many more churches will be pioneered, and thousands of more people come to know Jesus as Savior and Lord through Eternal Life Ministries Int’l outreaches. Thank-you for your friendship, prayers and investments in helping us share the gospel of Jesus Christ. God Bless you always.
In Christ’s love,
Gordon & Emie
Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come unto Me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.’
Matthew 19:14
