Merry Christmas!

Dear Friends and Family,
We hope this finds you with joy in your hearts as you are celebrating Jesus Christ during this Christmas season.  This is our first Christmas here in the Philippines, and even though we are missing our families during this time of the year, we are thrilled to be here and making new memories here.  We hope that during this season that you will take the time to have a lot of quiet reflection and worship of our Lord Jesus.  This is my prayer for myself as I can get caught up in so much of the busyness of the season that I forget to worship Christ in a way that is pleasing to Him and increases my intimacy and love for Him.  Let's not be sidetracked this Christmas season!

In terms of our language training, we have both finished the second section of our studies.  What we have left is called "Bridge Course", which deals with learning how to do our ministry and learning how to read and use the Bible in Tagalog.  We should be finished with our language school by February or March.  Right now, we are in the process of figuring out what church we will be partnering with in ministering to street children.  There are a lot of decisions to be made and conversations that need to take place. We ask that you pray along with us, that we will seek the Lord diligently, and that we will patiently listen to his voice and direction.  We are excited about being able to partner with others in ministering to street children.  There will be a lot that we need to learn regarding how to work with street children as we don't have any experience yet.  Pray that we will have teachable spirits and humble attitudes.  Another item that you can be praying about is that Becki and I will be able to find language helpers.  After we graduate, we will need people to help us with the "consolidation" of all that we have learned and helping us learning to speak it better.  This is an important stage as we don't want to forget all that we have learned but learn to use it in an effective manner to build relationships with Filipinos and  to minister effectively to street kids and their families.

We thank you for praying for the health of our family.  We had about two months where all of us were very healthy.  Isaiah recently was sick, but we didn't need to visit the doctor and he is nearly recovered.

Recently, we were able to visit a Christmas party that a partner church of ACTION was facilitating.  We really enjoyed being able to connect with some of the street kids and talk to them and get to know them.  They really enjoyed being around our children, and thankfully Isaiah and Elijah were able to handle it well as they could have become overwhelmed.  To briefly describe the Christmas parties, these various churches will have games, a meal, give the Gospel presentation, and give a gift to the kids and their families at the end.  At this particular church, they already have an existing ministry to street children and their families every week, so  many of these kids will be back again in the new year.

Continue to pray for us as we also seek to understand people in this culture and learn their cultural ways.  It is still easy to impose our American cultural values on the culture and be judgmental, and we need prayer that we will allow the Holy Spirit to mold us and our attitudes so that we reflect Christ in a biblically and culturally appropriate manner.  Pray that we will be able to stay humble and not be arrogant and remember the verse, "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble."

Well, that is about all for now.  We all have about a two week Christmas break, so it will be great to be together as a family.  I will still be trying to continue some of my Tagalog studies by way of conversation, watching Tagalog TV, listening to the radio, and reading the Bible in Tagalog.  This will take great discipline in doing as we want to balance it with spending time with the Lord, with our family and even by ourselves.  Pray for us in this endeavor.  We love you all, and we thank you for your prayers and support toward us!  Merry Christmas!

Love,
Matt and the family