It's Christmas time!

i cant believe Christmas is already here! the last few weeks have been crazy around here and it seems everything just kinda crept up on me. peter and i do not exchange gifts with each other, so that helps with my anxiety level this time of year. in fact, we do not give gifts with anyone. instead, we give more to missions and/or families in real need. we love that part. this year, we gave to community of faith's (our church here in houston) best gift. best gift is a special offering that happens the week before Christmas. all the money collected goes right into the mission efforts through our church. the church wide goal was 1.5 million dollars. sounds crazy, huh? but our church is so giving and truly wants to help those in need. the students (grades 6-12) were going for a goal of $9,000 to help start a little girls home in india. if you are interested here is a short video about why we are starting a home...more after the video. watch out, i cry every time i watch it!!

COF is starting a home for these babies girls that are rescued. they will be given everything that they should have been given by their families. they will also, one day, be adopted by Godly parents who want to love them and raise them up to be amazing women of God. the COF students gave just under $7000 to start this home. we are so excited! the offering continues all year (depending on your pledge) so we are expecting a big God size blessing for these little girls and all our missions through COF. peter and i have decided to do a few cut backs on some of our "normal" spending to continue to give to india. my heart breaks when i think about little girls being left out to die just because they are not boys. maybe one day our house will have a little indian girl...! we are praying about what all God wants for us.

the house in india is just one of several mission projects that COF has. there is the home in honduras, casa de esther, for girls rescued from sex trafficking; a children's home in costa rica; a church in cancun, rural work in oaxaca, mexico; missionaries and pastors in burundi, africa, working with the "forgotten people" the batawa...these are just the ones coming to mind right now. i love that we are a part of a church so focused on meeting needs here in houston and all over the world. i know that i have talked some about this before, but it all really does my heart good. what better gift to give at Christmas than the gift of life?!?!

i hope that you all have a very blessed Christmas eve!

blessings, ALo

ps. if you do not have plans for a Christmas eve services, check out one of COFs! last nights was awesome!!! we have them today at 3pm, 5pm, 7pm, and midnight. the 5 and 7pm services will be streaming live on the internet at www.COF.tv/live :)