In the way of a post-Christmas reflection, I'd like to tell you about our annual staff Christmas party at HELP International Ministries.

This has been a year stock-full of blessings, but—no matter how much we plan ahead and no matter how much is set aside in advance—it always seems that when it comes down to the end of the year we are always unprepared and under budget for celebration. I was caught up in a mad scramble, trying to keep salaries and utilities current; Deborah was panicking over our annual question, “How are we going to pull it off this year?”

It is a highlight of our year together as coworkers to blow off all the steam and pressures of work and have an afternoon of fun, presents, games, laughter, and thanking the Lord for all he has brought us through in the year. And, at least in the Philippines, there is no substitute for festivities.

You can probably relate when I say that many of the functions we attend at this time of the year are more of a chore than a joy. But our own staff party is something unique (just ask Jeff and Liz Folland—adoptive parents from Australia who were here with us this Christmas). There is literally anticipation all year long as to what new ribaldry will be cooked up for the coming Christmas party. And of course there is a lot of planning and anticipation for the presents we buy for one another and that we buy for each of our worker's children.

For us, much of the anticipation is anxiety over whether it will come together at all. It wasn't until almost the last imaginable moment that we received the go ahead from the Department of Social Welfare and Development for our Christmas Care project. Each of our children are placed temporarily in a very special and fortunate home for the holidays. The children are spoiled with attention, some twenty families are blessed with the opportunity to receive the Lord into their homes over the Christmas season in a very special way, and it also gives our baby home workers a well-deserved break.

In the midst of all the preparations and last-minute things to be sorted out, we set our expectations toward the BEST CHRISTMAS EVER. Among the many things we had to be thankful for, foremost in our minds was certainly Dennis' continuing return to health from the brink of tragedy. He continues to gain strength and energy, putting in a marathon week of preparation for the Christmas Care project. He made more phone calls in one week than I hope to make the rest of my life.

Many of you contributed specifically toward this celebration, and we thank you for a great time. We had a gift exchange among ourselves, but the food baskets for each family and the presents for the children were supplied by donations. There was such a pile of gifts (food baskets for 18 families and gifts for 63 children) that it dwarfed the Christmas tree.

But this question of how we are to get all these presents under the tree is a serious question as well. If our Christmas giving to one another is a (usually commercialized) effort to reflect and express the Love that God has shown to us, then a Christmas party is no dreary expectation that has to be fulfilled to keep people happy. It is that dual miracle of Christmas: giving and receiving.

The question that remains for us as we direct our steps into the new year is, “How will we receive as faithful stewards the many blessings that God has poured out for us?” The crisis of Dennis' illness has forced us to work together in ways that we have never done before. It is forcing a rethinking of how we do many of the things that we do—from the most trivial to the most general. Please pray for us as we face the very real challenges ahead of us that we would learn how to understand all that happens to us under the rubric of divine grace. “For we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, and have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).

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