Dear Friends,
I want to thank you for your prayers over the past few weeks. As you know, I traveled with a small team to the Republic of Moldova. John, April and I visited a number of organizations working in various capacities to help at-risk children and young women. We had a busy week, but we learned much. Now we are praying that God would show us the steps that He wants us to take over the next few years. Pray that we would hear His voice. Pray that He would give us divine appointments with Moldovans that have hearts to serve among the poor. And pray that all the logistical problems, such as visas and accommodation, would be resolved.
Paul, Lenutsa and I spent the last week of October at a retreat in Turkey put on by Trinity church. It was good to take some vacation time to get away. It was also good to be with other missionaries and to reconnect with old friends. If you think of it, please pray for Trinity church as they are going through a major change in leadership. It is a very sensitive situation that really needs our prayers.
After we returned from Turkey, we hosted a "Ministry to Jesus" team. Four friends came from Omaha to lead us in worship and also lead us in some provoking discussions about the Desert Fathers. We are thinking and praying about how to implement the different things that we learned and experienced.
This month we received Annie Schenzel, who will be serving with us as an intern for the next 7 months. It is great having her in our midst. We are praying that this time will be fruitful for her life.
Now for some news that we are grieving: The McAvaddy family decided to return to the States. They had their baby at the end of October and felt that they needed to not begin their next contract with Word Made Flesh. Please pray for the McAvaddy's and for our community that we will know how to process this and that we will continue to walk together with our Master.
Also, please pray that our community would have a fresh vision of who God wants us to be. Pray that we will be more vulnerable and more intentional in relationships. Pray that we will live and serve out of our intimacy with Jesus. And pray that we will be bold in inviting the children and their families into relationship with us.
We have a lot of celebrations coming up for the month of December, so pray that God would reveal Himself in a special way during the holidays. I want to thank all of you who ordered Christmas cards. It was great to see that the work of the children will be a blessing to many for Christmas. We count it a privilege to celebrate the Advent with you.
Thank you for carrying us in prayer.
With you in His service,
david and lenutsa
Offering Our Children in Mission
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.” We are approaching Christmas, which has become focused on gift-getting and on children. But, for God the Father, Christmas is about the giving of His only begotten child. When seen from the Father's perspective, Christmas is about giving of the relationship that is most dear to Him.
In our community we have many children. In fact, even the adults are children – and I'm not just talking about what some call us when they see some of our immature quirks. Each one of us is our parent's children. When our parents and grandparents “give us” to serve among the poor, they participate in God's giving.
This reminds me of something that Martin Luther said: idolatry has something to do with that for which we sacrifice our children.
In the Old Testament, God tells His people not to sacrifice their children to idols as the pagans do (Leviticus 20). But we don't live in a society that kills their children on the altar… or do we? It's not that we don't live in idolatrous societies but that we've de-sacralized our vocabulary. The fact that our children are dying very real deaths through abortion or war exposes our idols of selfish family planning and national security. The reality of our children being raised by day-care and television exposes the idolatry of the American dream and consumerism. And we know well that idolatry is simply worshiping that which we are not created to worship. So, we can reformulate Luther's thought: worship has something to do with that for which we sacrifice our children. How do our children reflect our worship?
We think of Abraham and Isaac (Genesis 22). God calls Abraham to sacrifice the son of the promise, and Abraham obeys. Abraham doesn't make an idol of the promise but surrenders all so as to ultimately worship God. Hebrews tells us that Abraham offered his son with faith that God would bring him back (Hebrews 11:19). But God didn't demand Isaac's blood as the pagan deities did; rather, He taught us how to offer our children. The result of Abraham sacrificing to God was not death but life. Isaac is a model for believers to present their lives as a “living sacrifice” (Romans 12:1).
Of course, we see in Abraham a prefiguration of God offering His Son. The Son is given as a Gift so that the world may see and know the Father. But the purity of God's Self-giving unmasks the world's claims of goodness and selflessness. The world rejects the Father's Gift, sending him back towards heaven on a cross. In a world that denies the reign of God, our worship to Him also takes the form of the cross: open palms, outstretched hands, and surrendering our lives.
The offering of our children in worship is costly. Some have sacrificed comfortable and competent hospitals to birth their children among the poor. Some have sacrificed their youth and, therefore, accepted the reality that they may never have their own children. Some have adopted children that have been abandoned or neglected. Many parents and grandparents have offered their children and grandchildren to live and serve in far away and often dangerous places. Our worship has something to do with that for which we sacrifice our children. This costly worship is done in faith that more will call themselves children of the Father and join us in worshiping the Giver of Life.