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Date: 2008-12-24 13:41:49
E mmanuel from Pastor Kurt Busiek
E mmnauel from Pastor Kurt Busiek
Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year. This has been a rough year for everybody and it looks like 2009 will continue to be a struggle. But I am encouraged by the generosity of the American people and the support that local churches can bring to real people who are struggling during this economic downturn.
When times get tough, Americans step up and give. I praise God for all the people who have helped and supported me in my life. Over and over I have received wonderful gifts of love and help from family and friends and it makes me want to be giving and to help others in whatever ways I can.
Christmas is all about giving: "God so loved the world, that he gave us his only Son..." Let's praise God for his great gift of love this Christmas and let 's look for ways that we can share God's love with others.
Have a good one. Enjoy your celebrations. Why not think of someone who has made your life better and then jot them a note thanking them for their help and support.
Here's a clip from a USAtoday article about some giving people in the US this Christmas:
The magi are all around us:
• Despite age (80) and arthritis, Mark Dimond of Laguna Woods, Calif., rang a bell for the Salvation Army this season three days a week, raising six to eight times more than average for his location at a Wal-Mart. He donated his pay ($8.50 an hour) to an agency that helps Tibetan orphans.
The retired software engineer engaged passing shoppers by any means necessary. He sang, danced and wore a red hat with flashing lights that played Holly Jolly Christmas. Above all, he kept ringing the bell: "My arm's always up. You can't sit down."
• At 84, Jack James suffers from macular degeneration — "he's going blind," says his wife, Alice. But James still managed to struggle through a 40th season of personally replying to every return-addressed letter to Santa Claus received by his local post office — Christmas, Fla., near Orlando.
He again has mailed about 2,500 postcards, each with a photo on the front of himself dressed as Santa, and covered postage costs himself. Next year, he'll begin to turn the task over to a group of local teachers. This elf has suffered from writer's cramp, but never writer's block. He inscribes the same words on every card: "Lots of Love, Santa."
Some give anonymously.
This season, the Salvation Army got an 18-karat gold ring with a flawless half-carat diamond, appraised at $2,000, in a kettle in Uniontown, Pa.; a tiny, gold 25-cent coin minted in San Francisco in 1870 worth $250-$300 in a kettle in Iowa City; and, for the third year, a Liberty Eagle gold coin worth about $1,000 in a kettle in Lee County, Fla. The latter had a message on its case: "In Memory of Mimi."
Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year. This has been a rough year for everybody and it looks like 2009 will continue to be a struggle. But I am encouraged by the generosity of the American people and the support that local churches can bring to real people who are struggling during this economic downturn.
When times get tough, Americans step up and give. I praise God for all the people who have helped and supported me in my life. Over and over I have received wonderful gifts of love and help from family and friends and it makes me want to be giving and to help others in whatever ways I can.
Christmas is all about giving: "God so loved the world, that he gave us his only Son..." Let's praise God for his great gift of love this Christmas and let 's look for ways that we can share God's love with others.
Have a good one. Enjoy your celebrations. Why not think of someone who has made your life better and then jot them a note thanking them for their help and support.
Here's a clip from a USAtoday article about some giving people in the US this Christmas:
The magi are all around us:
• Despite age (80) and arthritis, Mark Dimond of Laguna Woods, Calif., rang a bell for the Salvation Army this season three days a week, raising six to eight times more than average for his location at a Wal-Mart. He donated his pay ($8.50 an hour) to an agency that helps Tibetan orphans.
The retired software engineer engaged passing shoppers by any means necessary. He sang, danced and wore a red hat with flashing lights that played Holly Jolly Christmas. Above all, he kept ringing the bell: "My arm's always up. You can't sit down."
• At 84, Jack James suffers from macular degeneration — "he's going blind," says his wife, Alice. But James still managed to struggle through a 40th season of personally replying to every return-addressed letter to Santa Claus received by his local post office — Christmas, Fla., near Orlando.
He again has mailed about 2,500 postcards, each with a photo on the front of himself dressed as Santa, and covered postage costs himself. Next year, he'll begin to turn the task over to a group of local teachers. This elf has suffered from writer's cramp, but never writer's block. He inscribes the same words on every card: "Lots of Love, Santa."
Some give anonymously.
This season, the Salvation Army got an 18-karat gold ring with a flawless half-carat diamond, appraised at $2,000, in a kettle in Uniontown, Pa.; a tiny, gold 25-cent coin minted in San Francisco in 1870 worth $250-$300 in a kettle in Iowa City; and, for the third year, a Liberty Eagle gold coin worth about $1,000 in a kettle in Lee County, Fla. The latter had a message on its case: "In Memory of Mimi."