Cardona’s Christmas Letter
Hello Friends:Here we are again, struggling to tell people that Christmas is not a wish for happiness, or family parties full of gifts. Here we are again, going against the current, trying to explain to this small world of Medellín—religious and stubborn—that Christmas is A FACT THAT HAS ALREADY TAKEN PLACE! That there is only one Christmas and that one date changed human historia and can change the history of the city. (The word “Christmas,” in Spanish, “Navidad” as an abbreviation of “Natividad” [or Jesus´ birth], and oddly very few people know what is celebrated on this important date!)
This time of December and end of year parties should be the best time for evangelism, but it isn’t. The reason? The center of the message of Christmas (that God came to earth to be our Saviour) has been changed to a focus on man-centered entertainment. What a tragedy!
For all of you, who with us love God because He loved us first, (that is to say for all of you who celebrate the most unique and definitive event in history) Merry Christmas!
It happens that during this time, along with preaching the true message of Christmas, we also stop as a family to give thanks to God and ask you to join us please:
1. Thank you , Lord, for your faithfulness expressed through those who from Canada give their time and money to support us so that we can live and preach the Gospel in Medellín, Colombia.
2. Thank you, Lord, for Daniel who completed his 4th year of university, and is growing more and more committed to the church and learning from the Word of God. Thank you as well for Tania, who will graduate this week from college as a photographer! And who is enthusiastically serving together with her mother (Claudia) in social and ecological projects. We are in those last stages before beginning to build the first house made of eco bricks. You can see more about this on Tania’s page (http://menosbasura.org/).
3. Thank you, Lord, for El Redil del Sur, the new church that continues to grow, now ready to begin Sunday services in month.
4. Thank you, Lord, for new ministries begun this year. Diego began as Professor of Homiletics at the Biblical Seminary in Medellín, and wrote his first book! (It was published two weeks ago and already more than 2000 copies have been distributed among non-believers. Glory be to God!
5. Thank you, Lord, because in the middle of so much work we have been able to continue to study theology online (Claudia through Mints and Diego through ACTS).
6. Thank you, Lord, for the blessing of being able to successfully turn over the ministry of the mother church (El Redil de El Poblado) to Carlos and Yaneth, in order to plant the new church of El Redil del Sur.
For all this, THANK YOU, LORD!
Please remember in your prayers the following during the next two months:
1. The setting up the meeting place for the new church, inside a commercial centre in Sabaneta.
2. The strengthening of the new believers, some who are at the point of giving public testimony of their faith through obeying the Lord in baptism.
3. In the middle of January we have visitors from Canada for our third season of “Vive el Ingles” (“Live English”), our program of service and Christian testimony through teaching English.
4. Consolidating all the ministries that make Sunday celebration possible. Especially reinforcing Jairo and Jennifer in their initial period as pastors.
5. Finding the resources to finish our eco brick house for Doña Martha in Barrio Pacífico.
6. That we be faithful and decisive en our presentation of the Gospel of salvation in Christ to all of the people who live in the southern part of Medellín!
We love you and we feel greatly blessed by you.
Diego, Claudia, Daniel and Tania
