In the News ... "Salvation Army Asks Local Businesses to Give Homeless a Chance to Work"

KOSA Photo

• “There’s good-hearted people looking for a job"

By DeAnn Lopez, Reporter
KOSA-TV

ODESSA, TEXAS - On any given day the Salvation Army in Odessa houses dozens of homeless men and women.

In addition, the charity has a 90 day work program where they allow the homeless to stay at their shelter, as long as they find a job.

However, there's one big problem: some can't find work that meets the Salvation Army's policy ...

• read/watch the rest of this KOSA report 

In the News ... "Group Collects Warm Items For Homeless"

• Hope Heals All accepting donations

Kaci Jones, Reporter
KMID-TV

MIDLAND, TEXAS - First Assembly of God in Odessa collecting cold weather gear, helping the homeless in these frigid temperatures.

The church formed Hope Heals All, a group targeting the homeless population of the Basin, a group they say is steady growing ...

• read the rest of this KMID report

In the News ... "With Donations Falling Short, Two Major Charities May Be Forced to Make Cuts"

KOSA Photo

• Despite everything, still have hope and faith in the community

By DeAnn Lopez, Reporter
KOSA-TV

ODESSA, TEXAS - The United Way and The Salvation Army are known for giving to others when times are tough, especially during the holidays.

However, it looks like that giving may be cut in Odessa if both organizations don’t meet their fundraising goals by the end of the year.

This year has been one of the most difficult years financially for both organizations ...

• read/watch the rest of this KOSA report 

In the News ... "18-Year-Old Credits Odessa Salvation Army for Saving His Life"

KOSA Photo

• Hopes to follow in the same shoes as Salvation Army Captain one day

By DeAnn Lopez, Reporter
KOSA-TV

ODESSA, TEXAS - Every year the Salvation Army goes above and beyond to make sure no one spends the holidays alone or without.

In fact, for many like 18-year-old Albert Moya the charity serves as a place to call home when there’s nowhere else to turn to for help.

CBS 7 News had a chance to sit down with Albert on Christmas day, who says if it weren’t for the Salvation Army he’d be dead right now ...

• read/watch the rest of this KOSA report 

C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading

Presented by Bible Gateway

Today's Reading

Let us suppose we possess parts of a novel or a symphony. Someone now brings us a newly discovered piece of manuscript and says, ‘This is the missing part of the work. This is the chapter on which the whole plot of the novel really turned. This is the main theme of the symphony’. Our business would be to see whether the new passage, if admitted to the central place which the discoverer claimed for it, did actually illuminate all the parts we had already seen and ‘pull them together’. Nor should we be likely to go very far wrong. The new passage, if spurious, however attractive it looked at the first glance, would become harder and harder to reconcile with the rest of the work the longer we considered the matter. But if it were genuine then at every fresh hearing of the music or every fresh reading of the book, we should find it settling down, making itself more at home and eliciting significance from all sorts of details in the whole work which we had hitherto neglected. Even though the new central chapter or main theme contained great difficulties in itself, we should still think it genuine provided that it continually removed difficulties elsewhere. Something like this we must do with the doctrine of the Incarnation. Here, instead of a symphony or a novel, we have the whole mass of our knowledge. The credibility will depend on the extent to which the doctrine, if accepted, can illuminate and integrate that whole mass. It is much less important that the doctrine itself should be fully comprehensible. We believe that the sun is in the sky at midday in summer not because we can clearly see the sun (in fact, we cannot) but because we can see everything else.

• From Miracles
• Compiled in A Year with C.S. Lewis

From ChinaAid: "Shandong students to be expelled for private prayer group"

The China Aid Association is a non-profit Christian organization - based in Midland, Texas - with a mission to uncover and reveal the truth about religious persecution in China, focusing especially on the unofficial church. They do this, they explain in their website, by exposing the abuses, encouraging the abused and equipping the saints to advance the kingdom of God throughout China.

Shandong students to be expelled for private prayer group
Distributed by ChinaAid, December, 2015 ...

JINAN, SHANDONNG, CHINA – Five college students in China’s eastern Shandong face expulsion after they held a private prayer meeting on Tuesday. Around noon at Shandong Yingcai College, someone used a cell phone to photograph the five students, Li Binbin, Zhang Yaqi, Ni Wangjie, Chen Huiyun, and Chen Ping, while they prayed and turned the photos over to the police station. ...

• more on this story from China Aid

Faces of Children: Prayer Concerns for This Week

Faces of Children is an ecumenical prayer ministry under the auspices of First Presbyterian Church of Midland, Texas. Our mission is to initiate ministries of prayer for children in churches, communities, and neighborhoods. In doing so, we seek to provide an opportunity for people of God to join together, learn about children and their needs throughout the world, and celebrate Christ's love (especially as it relates to children).

Hi Friends,

I pray this finds you gearing up for a wonderful time celebrating the birth of our Savior with your friends and family this week! We will not meet for a time of corporate prayer this week, but as you go through your Christmas celebrations, I hope you hold the children of the world close to your heart and up to the Father. We will also not meet next week, nor will I send out a prayer email, as the church offices are closed. See you January 6.

All the best,
Carrie

Prayer Concerns for the Week of 12/21/15

Light of the World, Lauren Daigle
"A child prays for peace on earth
And she's calling out from a sea of hurt
O come, O come, Emmanuel"

Oh come, oh come Emmanuel... to your children who are displaced, pushed from their homes by conflict and terror and turned away from where they seek refuge.

Oh come, oh come Emmanuel... to your children who are surrounded by disease and despair, watching their families suffer and facing an uncertain future.

Oh come, oh come Emmanuel... to your children who are taught to hate and kill, forced to be warriors when their innocence should be protected.

Oh come, oh come Emmanuel... to your children who do not know the love and nurture of a family, growing up without an understanding of their own worth.

Oh come, oh come Emmanuel... to your children who are forced to work, often without pay or basic safety protections, slaves to the greed and evil of man.

Oh come, oh come Emmanuel... to your children who know loneliness and depression and isolation, growing up to believe they have no value.

Oh come, oh come Emmanuel... to your children who live through natural disasters, feeling the ground shake and their lives crumble.

The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness can never extinguish it.
John 1:5, NLT

---

If you have prayer requests about children, those who care for them, those who have authority over them, or those who harm them (the really hard prayers to say sometimes), please send them to info@facesofchildren.net

In the News ... "A year after downturn begins, Midland sees increase in poverty"

• Want to help?

Erin Stone, Reporter
Midland Reporter-Telegram

MIDLAND, TEXAS - A 2014 study of U.S. Census Bureau data by New York-based personal finance company SmartAsset showed that Midland-Odessa had one of the fastest-declining poverty rates in the nation ...

... Almost exactly a year after the start of the oil downturn in November 2014, local agencies are starting to see drastic spikes in need throughout the community ...

 • read the rest of this MRT report

C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading

Presented by Bible Gateway

Today's Reading

On Self Understanding

Be sure that the ins and outs of your individuality are no mystery to Him; and one day they will no longer be a mystery to you.

• From The Problem of Pain
• Compiled in Words to Live By

Faces of Children: Prayer Concerns for This Week

Faces of Children is an ecumenical prayer ministry under the auspices of First Presbyterian Church of Midland, Texas. Our mission is to initiate ministries of prayer for children in churches, communities, and neighborhoods. In doing so, we seek to provide an opportunity for people of God to join together, learn about children and their needs throughout the world, and celebrate Christ's love (especially as it relates to children).

Hi Friends,

I pray this finds you gearing up for a wonderful time celebrating the birth of our Savior with your friends and family this week! We will not meet for a time of corporate prayer this week, but as you go through your Christmas celebrations, I hope you hold the children of the world close to your heart and up to the Father. We will also not meet next week, nor will I send out a prayer email, as the church offices are closed. See you January 6.

All the best,
Carrie

Prayer Concerns for the Week of 12/21/15

Light of the World, Lauren Daigle
"A child prays for peace on earth
And she's calling out from a sea of hurt
O come, O come, Emmanuel"

Oh come, oh come Emmanuel... to your children who are displaced, pushed from their homes by conflict and terror and turned away from where they seek refuge.

Oh come, oh come Emmanuel... to your children who are surrounded by disease and despair, watching their families suffer and facing an uncertain future.

Oh come, oh come Emmanuel... to your children who are taught to hate and kill, forced to be warriors when their innocence should be protected.

Oh come, oh come Emmanuel... to your children who do not know the love and nurture of a family, growing up without an understanding of their own worth.

Oh come, oh come Emmanuel... to your children who are forced to work, often without pay or basic safety protections, slaves to the greed and evil of man.

Oh come, oh come Emmanuel... to your children who know loneliness and depression and isolation, growing up to believe they have no value.

Oh come, oh come Emmanuel... to your children who live through natural disasters, feeling the ground shake and their lives crumble.

The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness can never extinguish it.
John 1:5, NLT

---

If you have prayer requests about children, those who care for them, those who have authority over them, or those who harm them (the really hard prayers to say sometimes), please send them to info@facesofchildren.net

In the News ... "As Severe Weather Hits the Basin Churches Cancel Services"

KOSA File Photo

• Helping area churches spread the word

Ernest Macias, Reporter
• KOSA-TV

PERMIAN BASIN REGION OF SOUTHEAST NEW MEXICO AND WESTERN TEXAS - As severe weather approaches the Basin this weekend the CBS 7 weather team is working hard top bring you latest.

For your safety we are keeping an eye on closures as this weekend is expected to be one of the biggest weekends for church attendance ...

• check the list of today's closures/cancellations 

C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading

Presented by Bible Gateway

Today's Reading

TO MARY WILLIS SHELBURNE: On the need to take care of oneself and not of things.

8 January 1963

I don’t mind betting that the things which ‘had to be done’ in your room didn’t really have to be done at all. Very few things really do. After one bad night with my heart—not so bad as yours, for it was only suffocation, not pain—my doctor strictly rationed me on stairs, and I have obeyed him. Of course it is hideously inconvenient: but that can be put up with and must. What worse than inconvenience would have resulted if you had left those ‘things’ undone? Do take more care of yourself and less of ‘things’!

Still snow-bound.

• From The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, V. III
• Compiled in Yours, Jack

Faces of Children: Prayer Concerns for This Week

Faces of Children is an ecumenical prayer ministry under the auspices of First Presbyterian Church of Midland, Texas. Our mission is to initiate ministries of prayer for children in churches, communities, and neighborhoods. In doing so, we seek to provide an opportunity for people of God to join together, learn about children and their needs throughout the world, and celebrate Christ's love (especially as it relates to children).

Hi Friends,

I pray this finds you gearing up for a wonderful time celebrating the birth of our Savior with your friends and family this week! We will not meet for a time of corporate prayer this week, but as you go through your Christmas celebrations, I hope you hold the children of the world close to your heart and up to the Father. We will also not meet next week, nor will I send out a prayer email, as the church offices are closed. See you January 6.

All the best,
Carrie

Prayer Concerns for the Week of 12/21/15

Light of the World, Lauren Daigle
"A child prays for peace on earth
And she's calling out from a sea of hurt
O come, O come, Emmanuel"

Oh come, oh come Emmanuel... to your children who are displaced, pushed from their homes by conflict and terror and turned away from where they seek refuge.

Oh come, oh come Emmanuel... to your children who are surrounded by disease and despair, watching their families suffer and facing an uncertain future.

Oh come, oh come Emmanuel... to your children who are taught to hate and kill, forced to be warriors when their innocence should be protected.

Oh come, oh come Emmanuel... to your children who do not know the love and nurture of a family, growing up without an understanding of their own worth.

Oh come, oh come Emmanuel... to your children who are forced to work, often without pay or basic safety protections, slaves to the greed and evil of man.

Oh come, oh come Emmanuel... to your children who know loneliness and depression and isolation, growing up to believe they have no value.

Oh come, oh come Emmanuel... to your children who live through natural disasters, feeling the ground shake and their lives crumble.

The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness can never extinguish it.
John 1:5, NLT

---

If you have prayer requests about children, those who care for them, those who have authority over them, or those who harm them (the really hard prayers to say sometimes), please send them to info@facesofchildren.net

In the News ... "As Severe Weather Hits This Weekend, Send Us Church and Business Closures"

KOSA File Photo

• Helping area churches and businesses spread the word

Staff Report
KOSA-TV

PERMIAN BASIN REGION OF SOUTHEAST NEW MEXICO AND WESTERN TEXAS - The CBS 7 team is closely monitoring severe weather expected to impact roadways and prevent travel beginning overnight Saturday and lasting throughout Sunday ...

• read the rest of this story 

C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading

Presented by Bible Gateway

Today's Reading

As soon as the wood was silent again Susan and Lucy crept out onto the open hilltop. The moon was getting low and thin clouds were passing across her, but still they could see the shape of the Lion lying dead in his bonds. And down they both knelt in the wet grass and kissed his cold face and stroked his beautiful fur—what was left of it—and cried till they could cry no more. And then they looked at each other and held each other’s hands for mere loneliness and cried again; and then again were silent. At last Lucy said, “I can’t bear to look at that horrible muzzle. I wonder, could we take it off?”

So they tried. And after a lot of working at it (for their fingers were cold and it was now the darkest part of the night) they succeeded. And when they saw his face without it they burst out crying again and kissed it and fondled it and wiped away the blood and the foam as well as they could. And it was all more lonely and hopeless and horrid than I know how to describe.

“I wonder, could we untie him as well?” said Susan presently. But the enemies, out of pure spitefulness, had drawn the cords so tight that the girls could make nothing of the knots.

I hope no one who reads this book has been quite as miserable as Susan and Lucy were that night; but if you have been—if you’ve been up all night and cried till you have no more tears left in you—you will know that there comes in the end a sort of quietness. You feel as if nothing was ever going to happen again. At any rate that was how it felt to these two. Hours and hours seemed to go by in this dead calm, and they hardly noticed that they were getting colder and colder.

• From The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
• Compiled in A Year with Aslan

From Austin Seminary: For December 26 ... an Advent Afterword

"A gift from our community of faith to you. We at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary are devoted to preparing outstanding leaders for Christ’s church. One of the ways that we nurture leaders is by building a loving community of faith and extending God’s grace to others. In this season of anticipation, we extend God’s grace to you and invite you to explore this book of Advent devotions. Through this collection, please join us as we prepare to receive God’s greatest gift—the birth of Jesus Christ."

• CLICK HERE for a complete schedule of this season's devotionals.
• CLICK HERE to learn how you can support the mission of Austin Seminary

Saturday, December 26 ... an Advent Afterword

Thank you for making this journey with our students, faculty, and staff. We hope that you have indeed prepared the way for the Lord in your life as you’ve read these meditations and prayers. And, we hope this Advent season was a meaningful one for you.

Please know that Austin Seminary’s dedicated, diverse, and loving community of faith is not complete without you.

Did you know?

• Students in our masters-degree programs receive up to 85% need-based tuition aid.

• Historically, more than 80% of our graduates are called to congregational ministry.

• Our students come from more than a dozen denominations.

• Our alumni serve in ministry in 48 U.S. states as well as in 20 different countries across the world. Your gift to Austin Seminary contributes to scholarships, housing, computer equipment, library materials, and other resources needed by seminarians as they fulfill their calls to Christian service and leadership.

Your support underwrites the finest theological faculty and an administration committed to upholding the highest standards possible with respect to the unique vocation of ministry.

Every gift is significant and is appreciated. They are put to work right away and make a real impact. Please send your gift today.

---

For the glory of God and to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary is a seminary in the Presbyterian-Reformed tradition whose mission is to educate and equip individuals for the ordained Christian ministry and other forms of Christian service and leadership; to employ its resources in the service of the church; to promote and engage in critical theological thought and research; and to be a winsome and exemplary community of God's people.

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This post produced with Bible Gateway reference/link 

From ServLife International ... "Merry Christmas!"

ServLife International is a movement defined by values of God’s kingdom, not programs built around human efforts and activities. The reign and rule of God should be made apparent to every person on the planet, despite their religion, race or socioeconomic status. We believe that issues of justice are inseparable from the good news that Jesus Christ came to proclaim. ServLife exists to take the gospel of Christ and the hope of a better, more just, world to the lives of people we touch. This happens through individual contributions of time, creativity, resources and dreams.

---

Merry Christmas!

The virgin will conceive and bear a son, and they will call him Emmanuel, which means “God with us.”
(Matthew 1:23)

Jesus came to be with us, and through his Spirit, is still with us. In our pain, in our joy, in our mundane. In everything God is with us and nothing can shake that reality.

As you celebrate Christmas, may we be reminded of the presence of Jesus and may we be fully present with others. Have a wonderful holiday season.

Merry Christmas!

 
From Adam Nevins
Executive Director
ServLife International, Inc.


Join Our Mission

ServLife International propels reconciliation and justice by building global community to plant churches, care for children and fight poverty. Compelled by the message, life and love of Jesus Christ, we seek to care for the spiritual, physical, social, and economic areas of life in northern India and Nepal.  Learn more about our latest news, featured stories, and how to get involved at servlife.org

Support a Pastor Our church planters spread the love of Christ in some of the most difficult  environments in the world. • Support Them ...	Sponsor a Child For only $30 per month you can help give a child food, education, care and, most importantly, hope. • Sponsor Now ...	Fight Poverty The HOPE Fund, our micro-finance program, provides start-up funds for a small business, paving a way out of poverty for families in need. • Learn More ...

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ServLife International, Inc.
P.O. Box 20596
Indianapolis, IN 46220
USA

From @FWMission ...Friday Story: "Merry Christmas"

Founded in 2001, Free Wheelchair Mission is an international nonprofit organization dedicated to providing wheelchairs for the impoverished disabled in developing nations. Headquartered in Irvine, California, FWM works around the world in partnership with a vast network of humanitarian, faith-based and government organizations, sending wheelchairs to hundreds of thousands of disabled people, providing not only the gift of mobility, but of dignity, independence, and hope.

---

Friday Story: "Merry Christmas"

Spread the Word ...

• visit the Free Wheelchair Mission blog ...

Faces of Children: Prayer Concerns for This Week

Faces of Children is an ecumenical prayer ministry under the auspices of First Presbyterian Church of Midland, Texas. Our mission is to initiate ministries of prayer for children in churches, communities, and neighborhoods. In doing so, we seek to provide an opportunity for people of God to join together, learn about children and their needs throughout the world, and celebrate Christ's love (especially as it relates to children).

---

Hi Friends,

I pray this finds you gearing up for a wonderful time celebrating the birth of our Savior with your friends and family this week! We will not meet for a time of corporate prayer this week, but as you go through your Christmas celebrations, I hope you hold the children of the world close to your heart and up to the Father. We will also not meet next week, nor will I send out a prayer email, as the church offices are closed. See you January 6.

All the best,
Carrie

Prayer Concerns for the Week of 12/21/15

Light of the World, Lauren Daigle
"A child prays for peace on earth
And she's calling out from a sea of hurt
O come, O come, Emmanuel"

Oh come, oh come Emmanuel... to your children who are displaced, pushed from their homes by conflict and terror and turned away from where they seek refuge.

Oh come, oh come Emmanuel... to your children who are surrounded by disease and despair, watching their families suffer and facing an uncertain future.

Oh come, oh come Emmanuel... to your children who are taught to hate and kill, forced to be warriors when their innocence should be protected.

Oh come, oh come Emmanuel... to your children who do not know the love and nurture of a family, growing up without an understanding of their own worth.

Oh come, oh come Emmanuel... to your children who are forced to work, often without pay or basic safety protections, slaves to the greed and evil of man.

Oh come, oh come Emmanuel... to your children who know loneliness and depression and isolation, growing up to believe they have no value.

Oh come, oh come Emmanuel... to your children who live through natural disasters, feeling the ground shake and their lives crumble.

The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness can never extinguish it.
John 1:5, NLT

---

If you have prayer requests about children, those who care for them, those who have authority over them, or those who harm them (the really hard prayers to say sometimes), please send them to info@facesofchildren.net