I love Christmas music!  Christmas in my family with divorced parents was sometimes not the easiest of holidays, but I was always drawn to Christmas music.  Joyful, thoughtful, pleasant lyrics about family, friends, sleigh rides, merriment, happiness, snow… it just gives me the warm fuzzies =P  And now after coming into a loving, caring, redeeming relationship with the greatest Father and Friend there can be (coming up on 7 years in the Spring =D), there’s a whole lot more reason to sing about Christmas!

Also, I had the awesome privilege to share one of my favorite Christmas songs with Living Water on Sunday, and even more-so, to sing alongside a great friend, sister, and one of the greatest musicians I know as she played keyboard & sang harmony -- you rock Jenna!

“I Celebrate the Day” -- Relient K

And with this Christmas wish is missed
The point I could convey
If only I could find the words to say to let You know
how much You’ve touched my life
Because here is where You’re finding me,
in the exact same place as New Year’s eve
And from a lack of my persistency
We’re less than half as close as I want to be

And the first time
That You opened Your eyes did You realize that You would be my Savior
And the first breath that left Your lips
Did You know that it would change this world forever

And so this Christmas I’ll compare the things I felt in prior years
To what this midnight made so clear
That You have come to meet me here

To look back and think that
This baby would one day save me
In the hope that what You did
That you were born so I might really live
To look back and think that
This baby would one day save me

And I, I celebrate the day
That You were born to die
So I could one day pray for You to save my life

Thanks to Jenny for the opportunity to share with the beloved!!

Here’s the link to the recorded version…

http://livingwaterberkeley.org/index.php?option=com_hwdvideoshare&task=viewvideo&Itemid=121&video_id=72

After watching that, I realized that I make a lot of weird faces when I sing =P

Have a Merry Christmas everyone!  We’re celebrating one of the greatest days in human history, and I hope, one of the greatest days in your life as well!

The greatest day in history, Death is beaten
You have rescued me
Sing it out Jesus is alive
The empty cross, The empty grave
Life eternal You have won the day
Shout it out Jesus is alive
He’s alive

Oh happy day, happy day
You washed my sin away
Oh happy day, happy day
I’ll never be the same
Forever I am changed

When I stand, in that place
Free at last, meeting face to face
I am Yours Jesus You are mine
Endless joy, perfect peace
Earthly pain finally will cease
Celebrate Jesus is alive
He’s alive

Oh what a glorious day
What a glorious way
That You have saved me
Oh what a glorious day
What a glorious name

… and that pretty much sums up today =]  And it was a good break from the last week of… well, some not-so-happy things (besides my GRANDMA BEING SAVED!  Another post to come about that fosho =D).

Fourteen brothers & sisters from my lovely & amazing church in Berkeley, Living Water, will be heading to “East Asia” as missionaries to the lost & broken who are still in darkness in the nation there.  I won’t enumerate everything that’s in my support letter here – instead, if you have not received a copy of my support letter yet, you can VIEW MY SUPPORT LETTER HERE (http://www.rootprod.com/download/lw-summer-09-support-letter.pdf) – let me know if you haven’t received a support letter yet and would like a personalized copy! (since the one I put up online is anonymous & doesn’t even have my name signed at the bottom =P)  I’ve sent them out to many people already, so either I have’t gotten around to sending YOU one yet OR it got lost in the mail.  I would be MORE THAN HAPPY to send you one if you want one though!

Over the course of the past week we have had our first prep meetings – we meet every Wednesday & Thursday from 6:30-9pm and on Sundays from 4-9pm, phew!  It’s a lot of time and effort, but we are trusting the Lord that He will bless everything that we put in and multiply it in His time out in the field.  I’m currently developing lesson plans for teaching English classes to 8th grade boys & girls with my amazing buddy, Sarah!  Sarah is an AMAZING daughter of the Father who has just blown me away with the efficiency, diligence, and timeliness of putting these lesson plans together!  Plus, it encourages me to see her excitement to covertly work in parables & stories about Jesus into the lessons.

In fact, I love my entire team: Anita, Brian, Daniel, Danielle, Edna, John, Joyce, Kat, Linda,  Pastor Tom, Pastor James, Sarah, & WeiLi!

I’ll continue to update about these happenings, but PLEASE PRAY for the people, finances, and the team.  There is a LOT of stuff happening that the team is continaully praying & fasting for, so please please please be in prayer for us all!

Our God is GOOD, Amen!

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives, and the release from darkness for the prisoners“

(Isaiah 61:1)