From our LifeSpring family to yours, we want to wish you a very merry Christmas! For those who were able to join us on Sunday, it was great to be together with family and friends to celebrate. Thank you to everyone for bringing food and helping to serve and clean up, and especially to our hospitality team for providing the main courses. Special shout out to our kids and shepherds for putting on an amazing presentation, and for all the hard work in preparing for this week. We appreciate you!
We had the privilege of having two speakers this past Sunday, the Yuen family and Jerry Chee. As you may know, Jerry and Dorothy Chee have served as missionaries in Thailand for over ten years, and the Yuen family was able to join them on their most recent trip. The Yuen’s shared about their time at House of Blessing in Chiang Mai, and what they shared reminded me about the meaning of Christmas, especially the Advent season we are in.
House of Blessing is a children’s home and church among the tribal people of Chiang Mai. The Yuen’s shared about some of the challenges that hill tribe people in Thailand face. Many of the indigenous Thai people do not have legal status with the government, so they often resort to informal work where the risk of being exploited is high. This creates a dark situation for women and children especially.
House of Blessing was founded in order to provide a way out from the lifestyle of poverty and adversity that some of these children face. The Yuen’s shared stories about some of the children they met, and the truly dark situations they had come out of.
As they shared their stories, I was reminded about the meaning of Advent. Advent is the period leading up to Christmas. The word Advent itself means arrival or beginning. It’s a time of expectation and celebration as we wait for the arrival of Jesus at Christmas. It’s a time of hopefulness and joy.
As I listened to the sharing, it struck me that House of Blessing is an Advent kind of place. Before coming there, the children faced so many challenges in their lives and were surrounded by darkness and despair. But House of Blessing was like a place for a new beginning, their own advent. Here, they have a chance to go to school and get an education, be discipled as young followers of Jesus, and serve one another and the church.
During his message Jerry shared about the meaning of Christmas. He spoke from one of the most simple yet beautiful verses in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
Jerry highlighted a point from the verse that stuck out to me and related well to what the Yuen’s had shared. The message of the gospel is about God’s unconditional giving love. While it’s possible for us to give without loving, when we love, we will naturally give.
During the Christmas season, we celebrate the great giving love of God. There was a time in our lives when we lived without hope. The Yuen’s shared about kids who were living in hopeless situations. But it was the giving love of God that changed everything. It gave us a new beginning, a new hope, and a new future.
As we head into 2026, we will begin our focus on the theme of Increase our Faith. And faith always begins with the small seeds of hope and joy that have been sown in our lives. Let’s continue to pray as God brings those seeds to greater and greater fruitfulness.