"Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things... Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator... Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity."  Colossians 3:2, 9-10, 12-14

...which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Do you ever think about that? Being renewed in knowledge in the image of your Creator? I live most of my days knowing that I am a sinner saved by grace and grace alone, but often forget to move beyond that point in knowing that DAILY I am being renewed in the image of my CREATOR. Who is my Creator? Almighty God! Creator of heavens and earth! Father of orphaned children! Savior, Lord, and Redeemer! Spirit that comforts and guides!       How awesome to be called a child of God, and to know, to remember, that daily I am being renewed in HIS image. What a wonderful way to start off the New Year! I pray that each of you will remember that as God's creation you begin afresh each day as you remember HIM, the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of his sufferings, and how he works through both the good and the bad to bring his children unto himself.

I received so many responses to my last newsletter with regard to the "Singleness and Christmas" section.   Many of you could relate to the feelings of loneliness that often surface at holiday time. One person (with a good marriage and a house full of kids!) responded with this:

Laura, I so appreciate your word about loneliness. I feel that strongly and it is not connected to being with X other people in the house! Many times for me loneliness is not the absence of being around people but not feeling understood or appreciated. The longing for heaven is so strong in my heart (not considering suicide here). Thanks for your word.

I thank ALL of you for your sweet and thoughtful responses. You all made me feel much more understood and appreciated... and hence, more loved!!

My sweet Peruvian cat, Lucy Jane, gave birth to 3 beautiful and healthy kittens on December 29th. It was my first birth experience! I won't go into detail (you can thank me later!), but it has been a wonderful experience of seeing God's creation, and watching Lucy Jane going from the pain of birthing 3 kittens, to the joy of having these beautiful kittens so new and dependent. I know a great majority of my prayer team are mothers or fathers who have experienced this or at least seen this from the human side. I know at this point I should probably tie this in to Christmas and the celebration of the birth of Christ, but for me, the celebration of the birth, life, work, death, and resurrection of Christ is every day, and every Sunday, as well as at Christmas and Easter. I am thankful for my 3 little miracles that remind me of the wonder of God's creation.

There is so much going on here and so many stories to tell that it is often hard to choose. I have to think for a while before writing as to which stories I will be able to share in a reasonable amount of space!

First of all, we had our "Cantata Navideña" on the 21st of December in our little church. We had all been working hard for months to prepare the children, adolescents, youth and adults for a program that tells about the story of Christ through Scripture and song. We took several North American songs and did our best to translate the meaning of the words into Spanish, as well as using many traditional Christmas songs. The program went well and I was so proud of all of the participants! I was especially proud of our children, who had worked hard and gave their BEST performance ever! We had around 80 people crammed into the main room of our small 2-room church to hear the gospel, enjoy the music, and have hot chocolate and the traditional Paneton (Christmas bread) afterward.

Yhon and Alex come back to Sunday school intermittently and came for the Christmas program, bringing their mother and baby sister. Please continue to pray for them and for their family. I think their mother (who is very sweet, by the way) is a poor, single working mother and the kids are left on their own for the majority of their time.

We have several of the adolescent age boys begging for guitar lessons after having practiced for the Christmas program. What a wonderful gift for us and for them that they have this desire. Not only are these young boys interested in learning how to play the guitar, but they are also regulars in our Saturday adolescent meetings and Sunday school, are attentive, bright, and interested in learning all they can about the Bible. Peru is in desperate need of Christian male leaders, and I can see God working in these young boys/men.

Our women's Bible study has been wonderful! That is a praise to God. I had asked for prayer regarding the ability of these women to keep their interest. Not only are they keeping their interest, many of them have been bringing friends. Our core group remains between 8-12. They are hungry for the Word and are truly grasping the truths being taught in the Scripture. We are often sidetracked (in a good way), for example, last week as we were teaching, one woman started talking about losing your salvation if you don't follow God's way, and we ended up stopping the originally planned lesson to talk about Justification, Sanctification, and Glorification. At the end of the 1.5 hours, we had made tremendous progress in terms of teaching relevant truths and they were soaking it in. They said, "Please don't worry about the time frame in terms of weeks. If we go longer, that is fine. We need to learn this!!"  They are hungry for the Word and I don't think they have ever had deep, solid, biblical teaching like this before.

Gretchen Beck is the teacher our women's Bible study, and I handle the music and the food. We have made a good team and again I praise God for my wonderful teammates up here in Cusco! Please continue to pray for our women's Bible study that takes place each Saturday evening.

One last story before I close... the week before Christmas I was headed downtown to buy some gifts for my teammates. I glanced out the taxi window to the left and saw an old man, unwashed, dressed in ragged clothing, bending over to do something with a broken shoe. Then the taxi continued on but the mental image of that man stayed in my mind. Here I was going to buy presents for my friends, and this man's sandal was broken so that he was only wearing a sandal on one foot and going barefoot with the other.

A few days later, I was downtown again to run some errands, and saw the same man standing in the middle of the street begging for money. He was barefoot. I stopped and considered what I could possibly do. I wanted to buy him some new shoes.

I am going to go through the thought process with you, but cannot claim that I did the right or best thing. This situation is the type of situation that faces us often here on the mission field. We are going about our daily business, and there is a need (however great or small) presented. Usually the idea is to use whatever platform God presents as a platform to share the gospel. Sometimes small acts of mercy are given and that is the end of the story. Sometimes I (we all) want to "fix" problems with the giving of material things, forgetting that I could give away today every dime and material possession I own, and it would not be making a difference in the lives of people in the long run tomorrow. On the other hand, if I preach the gospel, and say "go, be warm" but don't give a coat... what have I done in reality? So it's tough to face these kinds of things every day and I don't have the answers.

Anyway, I saw this man again, which to me was a gift in and of itself, as he had stayed on my mind. It was about 3 days before Christmas, and this man was begging for money and had no shoes. The typical shoes that many of the poor people from the country wear (and that he had been wearing) are a type of sandal made recycled tires. I walked across the 2 lanes of traffic to where he was standing and said "Excuse me sir, I see that your shoes are broken."  He looked at me and I could tell he wasn't fully comprehending.. he held his bowl up for some money, which contained some coins to the equivalent of about $1.50 in US dollars. I said "I see that your shoes are broken, and I wanted to buy you some new shoes." He just looked at me, and when I didn't give him some money, walked back over to the cars to beg for some more coins. This was a little confusing, because here I was, offering to buy him some shoes, but when he didn't receive coins, he returned to his begging. I stood there and waited for the light to turn and the cars to start moving again. Again I said "I'd like to buy you some shoes, what size do you wear?" This time I pointed to his foot and put mine beside his to measure the approximate size." He complied and looked at me with a puzzled look. Then I wondered if he only spoke Quechua, not Spanish, but who knows. His foot was about the same size as mine, so I headed off to where I knew they sold shoes (the same part of town in which I was robbed!).  My debate was this: I wanted to buy him a really good pair of shoes and some brand new socks. Then I thought... if I do that, he will most likely sell them for the money without ever using them, and will still be barefoot. Do I do that and consider that money a gift? Or do I just replace what he has, hoping that he will use them? I debated on that for quite a while, and in the end, decided to replace the shoes he had. Long and short, I bought him some new tire sandals, a ham and cheese sandwich, bottle of coke and a bottle of yogurt, returned, gave him those things and a Sol (the equivalent of about 30 North American cents), said "God Bless" and went on to run my errands.

I don't feel particularly great about experiences like this, I know I haven't changed his life for the long run, haven't shared the gospel, and haven't helped him with job training or education... I didn't satisfy any great need within myself to be giving... I don't know what the moral of that story is and don't know if there was any effect or not. Thus, I have shared with you a small part of life here that is not particularly conclusive, but I do believe that overall God is at work here and you never know what he will use.

I don't always know exactly what God is doing, but I know he is at work. I don't always know exactly where God is leading me, but I know that he goes out before me and is with me. I don't always know why God has wired me together the way that he has, but I know that he is using me and will continue to use me for HIS glory and purposes. And that is enough for me for now.

THANK YOU ALL for the wonderful Christmas cards and emails!! You all made my Christmas so much more rich and full with your expressions of love and support!!

God bless, and Happy New Year!!