Advent 2023

  These weeks since Thanksgiving have been full of reflection as Chris and I approach the thirty year mark of our years in ministry as Christ’s Children Ministries. We have been thinking of the hundreds of children, youth, adults and families who have passed through our lives–some for short periods and some as permanent parts of our family and community. 

     And as we reflect, we have also had cause to remember our faithful donors who have contributed financially to keep this little non-profit going over all these years. It is through your kind and generous donations over these many years that we have been able to live, minister, work and raise our three boys here in the city.

     As most of you realize, our organization is unique, in that we know almost all of our donors in some kind of personal way. Many of you are friends who have known Chris and I since we were young and have chosen to support the call we felt to serve children and families here in the city. You have been our faithful companions in ministry across the decades. Some of you are friends we met along the way, as God brings us together. You are people who have become special to us by your choosing us and supporting us faithfully. Each time we open letters, make deposits and do bookkeeping, we see and remember and give thanks for each of you.

     We know that some of you pray for us very faithfully and we have felt the strength of those prayers over the years. We meet regularly with another couple, dear friends who have also spent their lives ministering among those who are marginalized and disregarded here in the city. Over the years, the four of us have seen many who have come to live and minister here who end up moving on, often to places where the call is not quite so demanding or so filled with obstacles and heartache. When we meet with these friends, we talk about the things that have been able to keep us here, still working and praying and loving people in the name of Jesus. By God’s grace, we have been able to keep our eyes on Jesus–not on the markers of success or stature or respect that the world gives. If we needed that, we would have folded long ago. I am also convinced that one of the things that has helped us weather the many heartaches and hardships of these past thirty years, is the faithful prayers of God’s people. 

     Thank you for praying for us. It is such a challenge to be people who hold and carry the hope of Jesus in places that are so often filled with despair and brokenness. Your prayers have been able to carry us along, especially me, when sometimes my heart is so heavy that I can only pray through the Spirit. The comfort I have derived from knowing that my broken heart is being carried by some of you who I know are praying for me, for us and for the people we love so much, is beyond measure.

     And somehow, we have made it all these years…sometimes with some extra and sometimes, with just enough, God has provided for our needs. And we are thankful. Every time a donation comes in, we see and know where it has come from and the people who have offered it. I think of the many, many funerals that I have attended of God’s people over these many years who were those who supported us. Just last season, I attended the homegoing celebration of a widow who had sent us a monthly donation across decades. Even as the numbers of our donors become ever smaller and people’s circumstances change, we are thankful for each one of you who supports us through your gifts and your prayers. We are trusting that the grace of God and the prayers of God’s people will continue to sustain and keep us on this path of lifting up our beautiful Jesus and his great love here in Minneapolis. May the beauty and the power of Jesus’ great love be a blessing in this Advent season as we prepare to celebrate the miracle of God choosing to become one of us.