From Our Family To Yours

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

2009 began on a sad note for our family with the passing of our Mother/Naw. While she had been in poor health for years, her rapid decline took us all by surprise. We are thankful to the Lord that her children and husband were by her side as she peacefully transitioned from this world to her real home. Her funeral was a testimony of the sweet and kind person she was and is.

The great news of 2009 was Matt and Amy's return to Texas after two years in Kentucky!! We are thrilled to have them in McKinney. Matthew was laid off from his job of nine years after a company takeover and Amy had fulfilled her contractual agreements so they came home for Amy to begin her own equine veterinary business in the Celina-Prosper area. Her business is beginning to take off and she is a determined and hard working young woman. Matt had to face the daunting challenge of finding a job in the Texas job market. Thankfully he had a generous severance package that covered him until he found a position. Now he is getting back into the groove of getting up early and fighting Dallas traffic!!

Brandon continues to practice medical defense law and was selected as Rising Star of Young Texas Attorneys for the second year in a row! Kylie is beginning her eighth year with ID Group. They are hoping to provide the Kulwicki family with a baby in 2010! Mom and Dad are really happy about that!

Our sweet Justin has been gone for 4 years now. 5 birthdays, 5 Thanksgivings and 5 Mother/Father Days have passed. It is still hard but not nearly so painful. I hate typing those words because they don't tell you how we still think of him every day, that we still miss him terribly, that we truly long for our reunion with him. And yet we are better. Much better. We are living again and want to. That in itself is a miracle and we are thankful if we have to be here that we want to be here. :)

Billy is loving his job with CFC. He works for the greatest employers and has the greatest electric co-operatives in the world! He gets to travel to Arkansas, Louisiana and east Texas regularly and then wonderful places in our country every month or so. I get to go with him a lot of the time and it has been a huge blessing for us to meet and to minister with these wonderful people.

I began my 11th year of Firmly Planted Ministries this September and the winds of change are blowing for me in ministry. I have felt a leading from the Lord to return to my nursing roots and my present love of heaven by entering the field of hospice. I have recently been hired to work part-time for a hospice agency and I am really excited to begin using all the things God has placed in my life over the past 11 years to help people transition from this world to the next one. I - and my board - believe this is a natural progression of the circumstances God has engineered in my life. It will mean a slight change in how ministry will happen in FPM. I will continue the prayer chain, mentoring and teaching Bible study and hopefully Sunday school in my local church but will cut down on my traveling and retreat ministry. Each opportunity will be prayerfully considered based on the time constraints of my patients and my schedule.

Billy and I have loved our move to Rockwall. We ride around in our golf cart or our boat, eat out, have some wonderful new friends who like to stay active socially and we have great old friends who come to Rockwall to hang out with us. We love being close to our boys and their wives and we are enjoying this time of good health in our empty nest. I never thought I would enjoy empty nesting. :)

We found out right before Christmas that my stepdad of 29 years has a malignant brain tumor. It looks like 2010 will begin with another member of our family making a journey to heaven. He is ready to meet his Lord and his wife and we are blessed that we know our family is going to be together forever.

So at the end of 2009 and all its changes - sad and glad - I want to leave you with a Christmas wish for blessings in whatever circumstances you face. May you know in the deepest part of your heart that you are dearly loved by your heavenly Father. That nothing is impossible with Him. That any and everything He has allowed in your life will be worked for your good and His glory. That you would settle that on this side of your circumstance. We have no clue what 2010 will bring but I have a feeling it will carry its share of good and bad. But we are more than conquerors in Christ Jesus. I wish you joy my friends. I wish you peace. But most of all I wish you Jesus. May 2010 find you more in love with Him!

God bless you - I love you - See you in 2010!!

Christmas Turnaround

Over-spending
Over-eating
Over-scheduling
Over-stimulated
Sometimes the excess of Christmas makes us wish for the simplicity of the original. I happen to think maybe that's a good thing. Not the simplicity - the excess that makes us long for the simple. We long for a turn-around. And the original Christmas WAS a turnaround.

For over 400 years there had been silence from God - no dreams, no visions, no prophetic utterances. And silence was going to give way to a sonic boom:

As God became man
As a virgin became pregnant
As a political decree turned into a divine proclamation
As the darkness became light
As shepherds became leading men
As angels became heralds; and
As a single star became a guiding light.

A REVERSAL - divinely orchestrated; and deliberate.

Christmas originally was INTENTIONAL. The original marketing strategy was one of mystery and revelation - NOT hype and fanfare. Shrouded in prophecy and overshadowed by expectation - NOT advertisement and commercialism.

Earth was on a collision course with Divinity and an invasion was staged. God Himself came to earth and He was on a rescue mission. The lost needing saving. The creation needed a Creator who could redeem what was ruined. And a reversal was staged:

A Creator became a human being
A Redeemer became a baby
and the stage was set:

"And it came to pass that a decree went out from Cesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed...."

So familiar and yet ....so under-thought! It was a plan beyond anything we could conceive. How did it begin:

With a decree that a census should be taken for the sake of taxes - how very mundane and political!

With a virgin becoming impregnated - how very unlikely!

With a baby being born in a world that had no room for him - how very sad!

With an announcement that a redeemer and king had entered the world being given to the lowest on the economic and social ladder - how very unorthodox!

A REVERSAL - divinely orchestrated; and deliberate.

He came in obscurity - under the cover of 400 years of silence and in the womb of a peasant girl - He will return on a cloud with trumpets blaring.

He came to rescue a world lost in sin - He will return to rapture a people saved.

He came in darkenss - He will return in blazing light.

He came and only a few knew - He will return and all will know.

He came and the world killed Him - He will return and every knee will bow.

He came to save us - He will return to take us.

He came because we were lost - He will return because we are found.

He came a s a baby - He will return as a King.

It is the reversal the world hinged on. But He didn't just reverse Himself. We - because of His coming, because of Christmas - have been reversed:

We were dead - now we live.

We were in darkness - now we are in the light.

We were sinners - now we are His righteousness.

We were lost - now we are found.

We were without hope - now we have hope.

We were unable to see or hear - now we see and hear with spirit eyes and ears.

We were paupers - now we are princesses.

We were beggars - now we can boldly go.

We were timid - now we are powerful.

We were the least - now we are the first.

We were the alienated - now we are inheritors of an unshakable kingdom.

We were separated - now nothing can separate us.

We were nameless - now our names are engraved on His hands.

We were despised - now we are infinitely loved.

A REVERSAL - that is the story of Christmas. Where an invasion took place, a kingdom was reclaimed and a reversal of fortune began.

How fitting then that we should go outside our doors and see a different reversal - commercialism, greed, cynicism, frenzy for the beauty, simplicity and purity of the real Christmas. It doesn't need to make you bitter, angry, cynical or irritated. It is fitting. It is right. It is truth. It is a reminder of the first Christmas - the real meaning of Christmas - when one day - the final reversal will take place and Baby Jesus will give way to King Jesus, the redeemed of the Lord will rule and reign and the stable gives way to a New Jerusalem.

So as you shop, cook, schedule and eat - smile softly to yourself. A reversal is coming!