Ending Our Year with Graditude

by | Dec 31, 2020 | Newsletters | 0 comments

A Gift of Coal for Christmas

“Sorry, I don’t have anything to offer you to eat. We don’t have any coal to cook with so we haven’t eaten anything.”

This is what the mom of one of the Nehemiah boys told us as we visited her late one afternoon. She pointed to the ashes on the ground where they usually cook their meals, but that morning and lunch, they had no coal to cook with. Amazingly, we had a large sack of coal with us which we had leftover from the our Thanksgiving barbeque. We had purchased too much coal for our retreat and we had it in the truck of our rented car to bring with us back to the Nehemiah home, but God knew a family needed the coal more than we did.

In some countries, coal may be considered to be a undesirable gift, but to a few around the world, it is an essential, life-sustaining gift.

A Gift of Coins

Early in the lockdown in Manila, we started a small fundraiser asking people for a gift of coins. Inspired by the Bible story in Matthew 15:21-28, where the woman was pleading on behalf of her daughter, she asked Jesus for only the crumbs that fell off from the table that would go to waste. We wanted to see what God can do with the gift of crumbs that may seem small and insignificant to some, but can mean an entire, whole loaf of bread for another so we asked some of people to consider finding coins around their house that they would consider donating. Did you know that the gift of coins may have saved a baby’s life? During lockdown, one young, first-time mom told us that she was down to only eating once a day of some rice without anything else to eat. The gift of coins from our friends and partners was enough to buy her family food, cooking fuel, a medical check up, prenatal vitamins, and essential needs for her home. She gave birth and named her son, Nehemiah.

Gift of Essential Needs

Each year we create a “Christmas Needs List” for gift ideas for the Nehemiah boys. This is the time of year we can prepare their gift of school supplies, basic essentials, school shoes and slippers and hygiene supplies. For the boys who are on the streets, we are thankful to be able to provide them with hygiene kits, face masks, face shields, and a pair of new clothes. Each year we are blessed by their joyful response to receive Christmas ‘gifts of needs’. We thank those who help provide for their essentials all year round and to those who give a little extra during Christmas. We pray your hearts are blessed by the outpouring of grateful hearts.
A Simple Merry Christmas

Gift of Joy

It has been a tumultuous year for many around the world. When we think of all we have gone through, the gift of joy is a supernatural gift that transcends our current situation and circumstances. The kind of joy that can only come from deep within despite all the hardships and pain we endure and daily face. We pray that each of you this year to have an increasing measure of the gift of joy that is your strength in every season.

Here is our Christmas Dance that we worked hours trying to synchronize. No matter what we have faced, there is always a reason to be thankful and to dance with joy!

We thank God for each of you and we wish you a healthy and happy New Year!
A Christmas Dance

Wish List: A Volunteer Web Development

We believe we’re in the final stages of having our Nehemiah website ready to go live (again). We’re looking for someone with experience in web development to help us finalize the transfer from our old domain to the new one.

We’d love to be able to expand our online presence, and view this as a key step in doing so. Do you have the skills we need? Are you willing to donate your time and ability help us widen our reach? Please contact us by email or Facebook for more information on what we need (or to help us better understand what we need).

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