Christmas is nearly here! We recently had a lunch with my department and followed that with a white elephant gift exchange. Several of my colleagues brought their children, and it was wonderful to see their excitement at picking and opening gifts! For those with young kids, this might be mundane, but we haven’t had young children in our extended family for quite a few years. At one time, one young boy was running circles around the living room table with a huge smile on his face!
Do you remember the excitement you used to feel at getting presents? Now consider that those childhood presents were just trinkets that soon passed away compared with the incredible gift that we are remembering at Christmas: “The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us” (John 1:14). “Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!” (2 Cor 9:15). We pray you recapture the sheer joy of “God with us” (Matt 1:23) this season!
Yet, there are people all around the world who have never read this good news in a language and form they clearly understand, even though over 2,000 years have passed. Nor have they read many other Biblical truths we are so familiar with. Currently, there are about 176 million people speaking around 2,200 languages who have no Scripture and who are waiting for Bible translation to begin (from progress.Bible. SNAPSHOT. December 2018).
This year we did celebrate the dedication of the New Testament or Bible into 31 languages! and Bible translation work is happening in over 2,700 languages!! People are often overjoyed as they receive the present of God’s Word for the first time!!! We are blessed to be a part of this work and are grateful to so many who support our ministry. “Thank you!”
We’ve reported work events in previous updates, so here are a few personal events that happened this year:
- Alan’s father and his twin turned 80, and Lynée’s parents celebrated 60 years of marriage.
- One niece (Carlie) graduated from high school, two nephews (Noah & Logan) graduated from college, and another nephew (Taylor) got married.
- It was enjoyable to attend most of these occasions and have a vacation in the mountains.
- Alan’s uncle Don and aunt Jerry passed away.
- We had a great visit to Georgia in October visiting many friends, family, and ministry partners and speaking on four occasions.
- At Thanksgiving, we visited Lynée’s aunt and her cousin’s family in Arkansas, and for Christmas, we are planning to visit Nashville and north Georgia.
We wish you a joyful and peaceful Christmas season and a fruitful New Year!
