Dear Friends and Family,
“Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever; a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom. You love righteousness and hate wickedness…” (Psalm 45:6-7, NIV).
As we read these verses in chapel this morning, I was reminded of their New Testament quotation in Hebrews 1:8-9 where they refer to Jesus, the Son of God, “the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being” (Hebrews 1:3, NIV). As Christmas approaches and our longing for the birth of Christ gradually increases through the Advent season, I am reminded to have hope in this God who rules with justice, who lifts up the humble and fills the hungry with good things (see Luke 1:46-55, Mary's song as she awaited the birth of her son). We long for this God who came to be born among the poor and broken in the backwaters of the Roman Empire but who came proclaiming a Kingdom of love and healing and peace and restoration for the whole world.
I pray that your longing for Him this season might be sweetly tinged with hope, will full confidence that He is making all things new. I want to thank you all for your partnership in this ministry of the proclamation of the Kingdom of love. Here in Galati, Romania, we rejoice as we see that children on the path to illiteracy are now reading, teenagers who were on the street are now finding new life and sustainability and youth who have been told over and over of their worthlessness are hearing that they are cherished and honored by the God who created them in His image. Thank you for allowing us to continue to discover Jesus here, to daily find that He has hidden Himself among the most marginalized and the most forgotten. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to touch Him.
As the holiday season quickly approaches, we are planning a big Thanksgiving feast for the Saturday after Thanksgiving (Thursday and Friday are work days in Romania!) for our entire community. Personally, I am very excited about making homemade mac and cheese for the occasion! Then at Christmastime we will have two evenings of caroling around the city with the children (the 23rd and 24th) and will then have a huge party on the evening of Christmas day. We will play games, share stories, worship and pray, open presents, eat lots of food and eventually drift off to sleep together at the Valley House.
In other news, our team of five continues to meet bi-weekly as we pray about, plan for and dream about a new WMF field in Moldova. So far, Adriana is the only Moldovan committed to serving on staff, but we praise God for the ways in which she is already taking great initiative by volunteering with several local non-profit organizations in Moldova and looking into different options for fund-raising. Additionally, Iosif (a Romanian from Galati) and I are committed to this new field as well. There are two others from Galati who are seriously praying about their involvement. We are feeling more and more confident that God is calling us to take the next concrete steps in the near future. At the same time, however, we are aware of the great amount of work that needs to be done before leaving Galati, thus, we are in no rush to leave. Right now we are thinking that the move will happen sometime in 2009.
Also related to Moldova, I have been invited to take a trip to Kathmandu, Nepal to be a part of the Word Made Flesh International Field Forum in February of this coming year. There will be leaders from WMF fields from around the world there, and I have been asked to come representing the new field that we are praying about in Moldova. The focus of this field forum will be on parternships between different international WMF fields and how we can de-centralize the western leadership of the organization. I think I have a lot to learn at the forum and am looking forward especially to meeting many other WMF staffers from around the world.
As we enter this new year, I'd like to let you all know about several new ways in which you can continue to partner with Word Made Flesh into the future.
1. We recently opened a bank account for the new WMF field that is developing in Moldova, so if you feel called to join us in the adventure ahead in this country, please mark the appropriate box on the response form and write “Moldova” in the space marked “country.”
2. Next, if you remember from my April 2008 prayer letter, just over 20% of my annual budget is allocated for travel expenses (see http://www.wordmadeflesh.com/community/staff.php, click on my name, then “View John's Prayer Letters” and then “April 2008” to see my May 2008 to May 2009 budget). One way for me and other WMF staffers to not have to spend so much on travel would be for us to use frequent flyer miles for flights instead of directly paying for them. If you happen to have extra frequent flyer miles that you are not planning on using or that you would be willing to gift, please send me an email at john.koon@wordmadeflesh.com.
Thank you all for your continual interest in and support of this ministry. “I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge-that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:17b-19, NIV).
Grace and peace to you all,
John Koon
OP6 CP256
Galati, 800.760
Romania
614.364.4098
PRAYER REQUESTS:
1) Continue to pray for the children who come daily to the Valley House as they finish up the fall semester. Ask that they would continue learning and growing and that we might have wisdom and love in all of our interactions with them. Also continue to pray specifically for S., R. and C., the three children with whom I work each day. Pray especially for R. as his family is in the midst of a complicated housing situation. Ask that things would be resolved as quickly as possible.
2) Pray for the Klepac family as they are on medical leave in the States and as they are making some very big life decisions. Ask for peace and wisdom to be poured over them.
3) Finally, pray for our community as we discuss what it means for us to be a WMF field that sends. Besides all of the logistical preparations for sending a team to Moldova, we need to be prepared as a community to know what it means to support the staff we send. Also pray for Adriana, Iosif, Magda, Rachel and myself as we meet bi-weekly for planning and preparation for Moldova.
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