The Story Behind the Card

This year, Partners International sent out a beautiful Christmas card that was made from a picture taken by our graphic designer and photographer, Robert Huggins, during a visit to the country of Ghana last summer.

But, what many don’t know is the beautiful story behind this woman.

In the northern part of Ghana, there are still many tribal villages that believe if a person gets sick or dies, it has to be the result of “black magic” by a witch. The village then literally goes on a witch hunt to try and determine which of the old women was the one responsible. When one is implicated (falsely), they are ostracized for life and relegated to living in a remote community with other so-called “witches.”

Last summer, a team from Whitworth Presbyterian Church visited Ghana including Robert, his wife, Megan, as well as Nancy Fritz, wife of our VP Greg Fritz. Our partners brought them to one of the “witch villages” where they had a wonderful opportunity to minister to these women. At one point, Nancy was asked to speak and she shared the Gospel clearly and openly with the women. Amazingly, 45 have since asked to receive Christ as their Savior including the woman you see on this Christmas card!

So, the smile you see on this woman’s face is the smile of one who has truly learned the meaning of Christmas!

The Carol of the Gospel

A couple years ago, I was in China just before Christmas and visited a large city mall which I was surprised to find as colorfully decorated for the holidays as any here in America. On top of that, Christmas carols could be heard being piped throughout every store. I was amazed that although sung in English, they were not just the frivolous songs of Santa and Rudolph but many of the great carols that share the story of our Savior’s birth.

It’s interesting that despite so many attempts these days to extract Christ from Christmas, God’s message of truth and love continues to permeate other cultures around the world through the propagation of these wonderful songs.

My wife, Anita, recently reminded me that the original purpose of carols was that they be sung outside the walls of the church as a proclamation of the Gospel for those who had not heard it before. That is why so many of these songs have powerful lyrics that proclaim the basics of our theology. Look, for example, at this verse from Hark the Herald:

Hail the heaven-born Prince of Peace! Hail the Sun of Righteousness.
Light and life to all He brings, risen with healing in His wings.
Mild He lays His glory by, born that man no more may die;
Born to raise the sons of earth, born to give them second birth.

Or consider the theology in this line from The First Noel:

Then let us all with one accord sing praises to our heavenly Lord,
That hath made heaven and earth of naught,
And with His blood mankind hath bought.

A couple weeks ago we were hosting two young Japanese students studying here in Spokane for a semester. One of them from a Buddhist background had all sorts of questions about the meaning of Christmas. But in the midst our explanations, we discovered that not only had she heard Silent Night before, but already knew it by heart and could sing it in her native language of Japanese!

I can’t help but wonder in how many other people of the world God has already planted His seed of truth by means of them hearing, loving and learning Christmas carols.

What Matters Most To God

Yesterday at the breakfast table, I read a Christmas letter from some good friends that started out with this sentiment: “We trust you are doing well, especially in the things that matter most.” That got me thinking about what it is that really does matter most. I have to admit that much of my mental attention this month has been on the daily income trend of the organization. Having barely survived last year’s downturn in December gift income, it’s easy for me to think that what matters most is the number of those dollars coming through the front door each day.

But stopping to pray with Anita there at the breakfast table, I was struck with how many other things really do matter more than income dollars. They include friendships and relationships, involvement in a Kingdom-impact job, our three children each walking with the Lord, good health and, most of all, assurance of spending Eternity with our Lord. Ultimately, what should matter most to me is what matters most to God.

A few hours later, I shared with our Spokane office staff during our weekly chapel/prayer time how Jesus revealed in Luke 4:16 some of the things that matter most to God: good news for the poor, freedom for prisoners, sight for the blind, release for those in oppression and, “to proclaim the year of God’s favor.” What a privilege it is to be part of an organization that is promoting exactly these things through our network of worldwide partnerships.

If this work matters so much to God, than what does that mean for us?

One thing I feel it means is beginning each day with a renewed commitment to make ourselves available to God for “what matters most.” Therefore, I am calling all our local staff here in Spokane to dedicate from 8:45 to 9:00 every morning to join together in a time of corporate prayer. It will be a time of sharing some scripture, thanksgiving and bringing before our God some of the specific needs of Partner’s ministry. I invite and encourage all of our extended Partners family members to set aside a similar amount of time on a daily basis to pray for our ministry.

When you step back and realize the huge goals and objectives we are attempting for God’s Kingdom, (not to mention a $2 million income goal for December) it is so clear to me that we will not ever succeed without God being at the very center of all our endeavor. This daily commitment of prayer is one small step I believe we must make to keep us, in turn, centered on Him.

Female Child Soldiers!

I admit that by now, I thought I had heard most all there was to hear about the evil mankind perpetrates on fellow mankind. But this past week I was blown away by the report that came from PI's own Tom and Claire Chandler traveling in Sri Lanka.

While visiting some relief projects our Ministry Partner is managing among thousands of people displaced by the recent civil war, they discovered one refugee campe that had over 1800 girls all under the age of 18 who had been forced to serve as child soldiers by the Tamil Tiger rebels. Separated from their parents, they are now waiting for the Sri Lankan government to determine what should happen next. Amazingly the authorities have allowed our local partner to host a special Christmas program for the girls and offer them a gift as well as some health-care supplies.

For years, I've been hearing about the way that young African boys are kidnapped and forced to carry a gun for the ruthless militias that roam the jungles of DRC and Uganda. But I had no idea that young girls have also been the targets of such incredible evil. Reading some UN reports on the Web, I've learned that girls are known to be even more compliant and obedient than boys and therefore can be easily manipulated to carry out any order - even to the point of shooting other child soldiers. Even more sickening, is to read that often, besides acting as front line foot soldiers, these girls end up being sex slaves of the older commanders. In some situations now, up to half of the child soldiers forced to serve these guerilla movements are girls.

Thank God that for the moment, the civil conflict is over in Sri Lanka and hopefully there is now an opportunity to offer some rehabilitation to both girls and boys who have been child soldiers. Perhaps starting with this Christmas program, our national partners can begin to bring restoration to the broken lives of these children by sharing with them the love and healing touch of Christ.