It's Christmas eve, i'm sitting looking out of the window at the falling snow. I'm not out in it, my toes are warm and my fingers unfrozen. the individual flakes are so amazingly intricate and the gathering together of them transforms the world. It makes m long for the body of Christ to be so, each one amazingly intricate, designed and loved, yet when we get together the world is clean and white and silent. There the image breaks down as all analogies do, "for now we see only in part" as Paul says in 1st Cor 13. Anyway, for snow to fall and stay around the conditions need to be right. And Holy Spirit is at work in the world creating the right conditions....

In the meantime, the daily round: i wake up thankfulness in my heart for a warm home and resources to build a new one for my family and friends to enjoy, a place to welcome strangers and see them transformed into friends, to see Isiah 25 v 6 - 10 become a reality. Out i go into the cold framing, siding plumbing electrical and the immense task of building a house goes on My brother Rod arrived Dec 7th and has been an immense help with siding the house and braving the waaay below freezing weather. We work and then huddle around the fire to thaw our frozen digits and faces. The tractor has been earning it's keep blowing snow from the driveway ( i love useful machinery) and when Rod gets on it a can't get him to quit, he's ready to clear snow from the whole town. Part of the cost of building a house is the room it takes in my mind. There are so may things to remember, so many decisions to make, it's quite overwhelming at times. I get home at night and fall asleep the moment i set my body down. We are so blessed to have this warm quiet rental house for the winter. The boys work at their schoolwork and then spend their hours creating, each in their own way, lego's, knex, drawing cutting and pasting, snow forts and sledding, Christmas plays, royal rangers, boys club and story time fill their days. We are truly beyond blessed living in this amazing community. It's like a womb, warm, healthy, nurturing, readying us to be sent out again for our next assignment in the world.

before

after

Rod wraps the house like a giant Christmas present

It seems like i have spent my life up on a ladder

our respite from Jack Frost's attacks

I love this little red baby!

I take a break from house building to train as a snowmobile guide.

Just an excuse to get out, away and meet more people. So Rod got to go with me on the first trip

It's a clod cold world out there.

We mad 35 gallons of cider in the frreezing cold. Next year we'll definitely do it earlier!

the boys at play

So we're off to play in the snow, visit with friends and enjoy a few days relaxing and trying to think of something other than the house. Merry Christmas to you all. I dream of having each of you to come and stay with us in our winter wonderland and while away the hours together, reminiscing about a life lived under the favor and blessing of our Warrior Father King.