Forgiveness

This year I've revisited the basics of my faith; forgiveness being one of the cornerstones of what I find it means to be a christian. I've been forgiven through Christ of the great debt I owe for all of my hate, selfishness, pride that eats away at me like a cancer disfiguring my soul and tainting my perspective... My record of wrongs has been erased and washed clean with his blood as payment for my sin. In exchange for my filth he gives me a promise that he will cause all things to work together for good, he gives me life, love, and hope for a brighter tomorrow. He makes me whole and heals my personality flaws, physical ailments, and the core of who I am. It is almost too much to comprehend. As a result of encountering so much of his goodness, I know that his royal pardon from punishment requires me in turn to forgive others regardless of how great or small their offenses are against me. Like Jesus, I have the ability to pardon others through forgiveness not as a reflection of who others are, but as a reflection of who I am as a daughter of the king. To me, forgiveness is releasing others from punishment and giving them permission to live happily ever after. Forgiveness is the door to life because without it parts of me begin to die while I still live and I cannot walk this road in faith assured of salvation. Without it I open the door to all sorts of havoc to be wrecked in my life. As I forgive others I too am forgiven.

"If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins." Matt 6:14-15

December in Redding

Here are some highlights...

KRCR Christmas Party

Gary's Dodge Ball Championship (KRCR team) Cheer Section

Our beautiful Christmas tree. The string with brown paper bags is a swiss tradition were each of us takes turns opening the bags over 24 days of Christmas. They are filled with fun goodies and surprises.

Kristina and Stephen building the ginger bread house in the kitchen

(Swiss friends visiting for a few weeks-soon to be missionaries in Nigeria)

Gabriel making yummy swiss christmas cookies and Damaris serving us her amazing fried bananas with currie. (They are our wonderful house mates. Hope you get to meet them when you come visit.)

Highlights from School

Yey, Lots of exciting things happening lately. One of the lady's in school we know, had ear ache accompanied by several other complications, after several of us prayed for her, she heard popping in that ear and a release of pressure. The never ending ear ache ended. Woohoo!

There have been some incredible testimonies of healing and provision in school over the last several weeks. Four of the lady's in Jessica's core group, that meets once a week to pray and fellowship, we were contending for financial breakthrough, two of which had less than one hundred dollars to their name. All four lady's received and continue to receive miraculous financial provision. Hundreds of dollars were pledged on a consistent basis to one, 2 others received several unexpected checks in the mail to cover expenses, one who was short on her sales for the month, almost by half, far exceeded her quota on the last day to the amazement of her boss. Praise the Lord!

Speaking of bringing home the bacon, mornings are early for Gary as he continues to work for Redding's local news station KRCR in the morning and and for ibethel.tv. He gets up at 3am almost everyday and doesn't stop till late at night juggling being a camera man, editor, and school of ministry student.

This last week he was given his first editing project for Bethel. He is currently editing the footage from the church's Holiday Feast in which the needy of the city are invited to a steak dinner. Family's from the church sign up to host a table which means decorating it with their fine china. Cloths and toys are given away and a Santa photo op is set in the lobby for the children. Most of the 900 attendees this year were homeless or severly low income, some of which Gary ministers to on his Saturday soup kitchen outreach. Damaris, our housemate, ministers to many as well in the morning breakfast outreach, where she is a server and greeter; often riding on the church bus that provides transportation in the community to and from the church. Bethel will eventually offer the video as a training tool for other churches to have their own Holiday Feast.

Jessica has been working with the supernatural school of ministry for children teaching a puppet AMT. Here are some of the wonderful and animated Jr. High students she works with each week. Yes, Skeeter has temporarily lost an eye, sniff.

For those of you interested in the coolade we've been drinking this year, here's a list of the life changing books we've been reading up until christmas for school. We've been learning a lot about our identity in Christ, kingdom principles, and of course how to operate in the supernatural.