Faith Alive Hospital Prayers

As tensions continue to rise in Jos, we are keeping everyone at Faith Alive Hospital in our prayers. Due to current violence in the region, a curfew has been put in place and security is being increased daily. Per Dr. Chris, everyone at Faith Alive Hospital is safe. We will continue to keep everyone at Faith Alive Hospital and in Jos in our prayers.

Happy 2010

Below is a message received from Dr. Chris:

Chris,Mercy,Emily,Prince,Joseph and all members of the Faith Alive family send you all and many others not listed on this e-mail but whom our Heavenly father knows all too well this e-mail of a happy/victorious 2010. He promises to WATCH over us FROM THE BEGINNING to THE END of the year (Deut 11;12).He further confirms this "I am with you and will WATCH over you wherever you go and I will bring you back to this land.I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you" (Deut 28;15) We sincerely thank you all for being there for us as a family and ministry.
ANOTHER DECADE OF HIS FAITHFULNESS

Thank you, Dr. Chris, for your beautiful message. May Faith Alive and the Anawim Home be blessed in this year. May the Nativity Nigeria mission continue to grow and faithfully serve God's will.

Teresa Pompa

Christmas at Faith Alive

On December 19th, the Faith Alive Family held a carnival for their orphans and vulnerable children at the Faith Alive recreation center and car park. This was made possible through the generosity of many supporters of Faith Alive here in America. Dr. Chris reports that the celebration was a huge success and was one of the happiest moments for him and his family.

Merry Christmas Nigeria

Tonight is Christmas Eve - the celebration of the birth of Our Lord. Last weekend, despite the blizzard, some of our parish still made it to church and brought in their Advent Conspiracy boxes. There were some creative ideas and boxes!

I have loved our Advent Conspiracy series. I really slowed down this Advent and tried to keep focusing on what Advent is really about. I only spent one day in the shopping mall. It was crazy crowded. Merchandise was strewn around the stores in disarray. It made me feel sad.

I pray that many parishioners decided to spend less on material things and give more relationally. Hopefully they donated the savings to our Advent Conspiracy program to bring clean water to Abuja and Jos. Our family is giving relational gifts to our parents. They have been saying for years to please stop giving them gifts. We are so blessed to have all that we have. It only takes a little from each one of us working together to provide clean water to the wonderful people of Abuja and Jos.

The two trips I have taken over the past two summers to Faith Alive in Jos has changed my life. My faith was deepened. My perspective on material wealth has changed and my heart grew bigger. I will forever be grateful to our church for allowing me to go, but most of all for the people in Jos. Even though they suffer and are very poor, they gave me their love and happily shared all they had with me and the rest of my team.

Tonight we celebrate God giving the gift of His Son to us - the greatest gift of all. May everyone here and in Nigeria accept this great gift and experience peace and joy this Christmas.

"The angel said to them, 'Do not be afraid; for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For today in the city of David, a Savior has been born for you who is Christ and Lord'."

Luke 2:10-11


Teresa Pompa

Advent Conspiracy

Lack of clean water is the leading cause of death in under resourced countries. 1.8 million people die every year from water borne illnesses. That includes 3,900 children a day. We can help.

NATIVITY:NIGERIA will help provide clean water to two communities with whom we have developed close relationships over the past 3 years. We will undertake projects at both Anawim Home in Abuja and Faith Alive Hospital in Jos. Find out more by clicking the link below:

http://www.churchnativity.org/water.php

A Different Kind of Love Story

I would like to recognize World AIDS Day. It was on Dec.1. Please see Erika's Blog.

I love the CD message for small group this week. As many of you know, the Advent Conspiracy founders are speaking to us. Some great points from the message are made that I had never thought of. One of them is that the story of Jesus Christ is a love story. We know this but we are in the wrong story when we worship things instead of God. We yearn for Him. We are made to long for Him - to want a relationship with Him, but instead we fill our emptiness with things. We love things. We buy each other gifts of things. Instead of giving them our love and spending quality time with them and really being disciples of Jesus Christ, we run around stores. The high we feel from this is not the Holy Spirit.

Another point made is that the shepherds were told about Jesus Christ. They were an unrecognized group in society. Their status in society was very low. Yet God chose them to announce the birth of His Son to and to lead the way to Him.

I now realize the people in Nigeria we met are the shepherds. They are poor, sick and suffering. They are also stigmatized in society. They are a left out group of people who feel like they don't belong. Yet they are disciples every day by leading the way to Him.

Who did Jesus Christ come for? Not the pious, high ranked people of that culture. He came for the poor, sick and suffering. Those people in that time were thought to be sinners that were cursed by God. The thought was that your status in society was a reflection of your status with God. Of course, that was that culture's view and not God's. The eyes seeing them were not God's. Do we see with our own eyes or the eyes of society? The closer we get to God, the more we can see life through our Savior's eyes.

Nigeria opened up my eyes. So to them I will always be grateful. They helped me see the world through our Savior's eyes. And it isn't very pretty. But the good news Jesus brought wasn't that everything would be pretty. It was that you don't have to die to be saved. We can experience heaven here on earth. The kingdom we thought could only be entered when we go to heaven, was here now. Jesus was coming now. But you have to want to enter His kingdom. You have to believe it is true and make a choice now to turn your life over to Him. Only then can the Holy Spirit enter your heart. Then you will know the greatest joy you have ever felt. And no, He didn't promise it will be perfect while we are here on earth. We will continue to have to suffer. But He said He will walk with us through our suffering and that we can feel His presence now if we choose to. But we have to offer it up to Him.... and trust Him. The Nigerian people I met understand this.

May you all experience this joy this Advent season. Let's make this Christmas about a different kind of love story.

Teresa Pompa

Holiday Shopping Intervention

A holiday story from Pam Mercer, a Home Team member:

Missionaries from Anawim Home returned with tracings of feet and waist measurements for the boys of the St. John Bosco hostel. The goal was to send back a new outfit for each of the boys to wear to mass on Christmas Day, a true treat for them as they don’t get new clothes very often at the orphanage.

After estimating sizes, I headed off on my shopping excursion in search of warm weather clothing for the boys. As it was already late November, finding a selection of shorts ranging in sizes 8-18 seemed like a difficult task. I searched sale racks, clearance items and full price clothing without much luck. Everything was so picked over and choices were few.

While moving throughout the store I noticed shoppers carrying lots of items, most of it merchandized just for the Black Friday shoppers. Shopping for orphans in Nigeria and watching people toss “stuff” in their carts really emphasized for me how commercialized Christmas has become. I felt enlightened and filled with the spirit of Advent Conspiracy, but still had nothing in my cart.

I finally came upon a clearance rack filled with short-sleeved white polo shirts and enough in all of the sizes we needed. Still no shorts, but I was feeling better and decided to take the shirts and head off to another store.

I struck up a conversation with the gentleman who checked me out. He was from Lagos, Nigeria and blessed all of us over and over. He told me that Nigerians don’t worry about the weather and what they wear like we do here. He said pants would be fine instead of shorts, so off I went with a happy heart and tears in my eyes believing that I got in this man’s line for a reason—a divine reason.

Now my job was easy! I picked up 8 pairs of khaki pants, wrapped up the outfits for the boys and boxed them up for their journey to Abuja. When volunteering for this little task of shopping for boys a world away, I had no idea of the spiritual impact it would have on me in my own world.

Our God Is In Control

To my Nigerian friends - please remember God is faithful. We do not know his plan. But I believe that He promises that nothing but good will ultimately come out of any suffering here on earth. You have all been on my heart today. Your stories have touched many at our church and in our community.

To Daniel - I'm sorry about your son. I did not know. I'm glad there is promising news for you. I'm praying for you.

For the readers of this blog please see Erika's blog - Notes from Nigeria postings of November 2nd and 19th. Daniel works at Faith Alive Hospital. He is a wonderful person who not only speaks passionately about his faith but lives it every day. His son has a hole in his heart that cannot be fixed in his country.

I heard this beautiful song by Steven Curtis Chapman. I'd like to share the words with you. It is from his CD "Beauty Will Rise". I heard this song just when I needed it. All the songs on this CD are beautiful, inspirational and speak to his true feelings as he worked through his tragic loss.

Our God Is In Control

This is not how it should be

This is not how it could be

But this is how it is.

And our God is in control.

This is not how it will be
When we finally will SEE

We'll SEE with our own eyes

He was always in control

And we'll sing Holy, Holy, Holy is our God.

And we will finally, really understand what it means.

So we'll sing Holy, Holy, Holy is our God

While we're waiting for that day.

This is not where we planned to be

When we started this journey

But this is where we are.

And our God is in control.

Though this first taste is bitter

There will be sweetness forever

When we finally taste and SEE

That our God is in control.

And we'll sing Holy, Holy, Holy is our God

And we will finally, really understand what it means.

So we'll sing Holy, Holy, Holy is our God

While we're waiting for that day,

We're waiting for that day,

We'll keep on waiting for that day

And we will know our God is in control.

(Holy, Holy, Holy is our God)

Our God is in control

(Holy, Holy, Holy is our God)

And our God is in control

Teresa Pompa

Garbage to Grocery Bags

A reflection on Project Thanksgiving from Gin Gin Diokno:

There are a few things going on at church that remind me how lucky I am. I have a great job. In this economy, holding on to one, much less one you really enjoy, is such a blessing. I live in a comfortable home in a safe neighborhood. Apart from these material things, I have friends and family around me who love me.

Listening to the messages at Nativity also get me in a certain frame of mind. We are currently in the Forecast series which challenges me to be more God-honoring in my expenses. I must admit I still need to work on this so one of the steps I am taking is doing the Financial Peace Workshop. Yesterday, I also took a little step to rethink some of my priorities.

This time last year, I paid a neighbor to rake my leaves and put them in those big black trash bags. I was planning on doing it but I remember it was raining on some weekends. I worked one weekend, and then yes, I had tickets to a Ravens game and my sister and brother-in-law came from Jersey to go with me. Due to lack of time (and planning), I paid a teenager to do it. Yesterday, I had the day off. It was a little chilly but I got to thinking...why don’t I just do it myself? I could spend that money to buy the Thanksgiving baskets and have some left for the Advent project! So I did! And I was glad I did it. It might not be a lot, but it was a start. Behavior change is always easier said than done, and knowing myself, I needed to start with baby steps. I am a little sore today but I got a good exercise out of it. I think that was enough bicep curls for the week for me. And it was definitely worth it!

My prayer is that He grants me the strength of discipline as I tackle the path to financial peace. Amen.

Simple Gifts

This video is a glimpse into our upcoming Advent program at Church of the Nativity. This Advent we're looking at how we really can do Christmas differently: worship fully, spend less, give more, and love all.

Join us this Advent and learn how you can be a part of our Advent challenge, to approach the holidays in a new, relational way while providing clean drinking water to our mission in Nigeria.