Praise God for His provisions

We've been going full blast since December 3 with our last scheduled party December 28. We're having a blessed time! Photos are available at http://picasaweb.google.com/mryanmnl and more are being added almost daily.

Praise God our field's budget of $13,000USD has been met as well as ACTION world-wide's budget of $70,000. As of December 18 almost $88,000 has been received in the Canada, USA and UK offices and funds are still coming in! This total doesn't include the funds that came in directly from the Philippines. Thank-you so very much for praying and giving. Our God is abundantly supplying resources so the ACTION team world-wide can bless the poor masses this Christmas in the name of His beloved Son Jesus Christ and expand His eternal Kingdom.

Due to available funds we in Manila will look into having "post-Christmas" evangelistic parties in January in areas that didn't have one so we'll see how the Lord leads our team. Pray about this please. Also in January I'll send you our final report of this year's Christmas party outreach so you can rejoice with us in knowing what God has done and is doing through His church here.

Three amazing blessings happened yesterday. The first was that we received 20 "Gallon of Care" ziploc bags from friends in Minnesota and Virgina with several more coming from Washington. This morning we gave 10 to Pastor Marlo Magbanua whom we wrote about in our 4th quarter hard-copy newsletter and he was thrilled to receive them on behalf of the kids he's working with at Floodway. Our friends in Virgina who sent 10 as a family Christmas project said to me after I thanked them for their actual demonstration of the spirit of Christmas "We are blessed to be a small part of what the Lord is doing through you all to serve and reach the poor in Manila. Thank-you for allowing us to help. This is the best part of our Christmas". Proverbs 14:21b (NASB) "happy is he who is gracious to the poor." AMEN!

Then I was contacted by a church worker in the morning who's having a Christmas party for 100 street people this Saturday asking for comic-book style Gospel literature and I told her I didn't have any on hand. I felt bad about not having any readily available to help her with her party. Then that very afternoon I received a call from a friend asking if I could use a comic-book style Tagalog Gospel tract called "The Birth of a King...The History of Jesus" and I said I sure could! Alvin had just received 5,000 copies of this tract from the Philippine Bible Society and was calling friends to see who could use them so he gave us 1,000 and several to the church worker who was thrilled to receive them. The tracts are very attractive and in simple Tagalog so they'll be well received and read. Praise God for friends both far and near who assist us in spreading the Good News to the masses and Christian compassionate care to the needy!

Finally, Dr. Dan Brewster of Compassion International recently gave us 50 copies of his excellent resource book called "Child, Church and Mission" which we've referred to recently in our email and hard-copy newsletters. We'll put them to good use in training others in ministry to children-at-risk.

I've been wondering recently what life would be like without Jesus and I've come to the dreadful realization afresh that it would be totally without hope now and for eternity, without significant purpose and full of despair. But praise God He gave His unique Son to save us from our sin and give us a living hope regardless of our circumstances in this life and assurance of eternal life with Him in Glory! This truth has spurred me on in telling the Gospel story as we've partied this month and we've seen many people indicate they've turned from sin and trusted Christ as Savior. Now they're members of God's family and will grow in His likeness as they're incorporated into Christ-exalting churches.

Let's rejoice this Christmas in Jesus the living Hope of the world. (1 Peter 1:1-9)