The work of Christmas

Dear Friends,

We hope that you enjoyed a joyful Christmas and may you now be blessed with a happy and peaceful New Year.

We really enjoyed spending Christmas with Andrea's sister's family at their home on Dartmoor, along with Ruth and Rebecca and Andrea's Mum. On Christmas morning, once the carols were sung and the greetings given, we climbed the tower of the parish church and had a fine view over the countryside under a clear blue sky and a celebratory flag of St George flying in a chilly breeze. A perfect start to the day followed by a walk home and Christmas dinner.

It has been a busy two months since we came back from Chad, meeting with BMS in Didcot, attending hospitals in Wakefield and London, visiting churches around the country and catching up with family and friends. All this travel has meant that we have slept in 14 different beds, returning to some more than once, so in total we have moved on 25 times. Nearly all the journeys have been made by rail which should go some way to offsetting the carbon emissions due to laundering the sheets!

In each home we have appreciated a warm welcome, comfortable room, and good food. Thank you once more to all our hosts, we hope to see you again on future home assignments. It has been enjoyable seeing how God is working in your local communities, but also tiring to be travelling so much and hopefully we will be more settled in Didcot now, as we await the intervention on Mark's heart in February.

One thing that we have noticed is the number of flags flying half way up lamp posts. It is normal in N'Djamena to see such displays of the Chadian flag mixed with the national flag of which ever foreign delegation is visiting the country, as a greeting. But at times here in England flags are not flown in welcome, nor in celebration, but rather in our increasingly polarised world more to mark out territory; to embolden the insider and exclude the outsider.

And it is not only in the UK that such sentiments are on the rise. As we mentioned before, no visas are being issued by the US embassy in Chad and so no visas are being granted by Chad for US citizens including our mission colleagues who have been obliged to leave.

Around the world in a spirit of competition and self-interest, countries spend ever increasing sums on arms and become less concerned about justice and a fair distribution of resources with slashed aid programmes for development, medical, and even food aid.

And so, as we look at this it seems that now that Christmas is over, the decorations and trees put away, the real work of Christmas begins. This work confronts the powers seeking to impose a Roman style peace, and declares

“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favours!” Luke 2 V14 NRSV.

A curious phrase, whom he favours. I wonder, apart from shepherds, who is it that God favours? In the upside down coming Kingdom I think it is found in the passage from Isaiah read by Jesus at Nazareth

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour.”

Please join us in praying for:

-Peace in our world, the peace that comes through justice, respect and above all love for all our neighbours, especially those who are different from us.

-Asylum seekers, refugees and migrants that wherever they are they may receive the same warm welcome that we have received in the UK.

-A restoration of international development AID so that people, like many people in Chad, who depend on it for TB, HIV and malaria treatment, family planning, food and many other things will not be deprived of these essentials for life.

-Dr Abdelkerim and the staff in Bardaï as they serve the local population

Hopefully the next time we write to you we will be close to returning to our work in Bardaï. For the moment as we mentioned earlier, Mark is awaiting medical treatment and a restoration to full health. In the meantime, may we all as co-workers for the Kingdom be inspired by words at the start of our letter by Howard Thurman, a mentor of Martin Luther King, to play our part in the work of Christmas.

With love Mark and Andrea