Take Joy! New Year 2009 Message

We are on the brink of a New Year. For 2008, God has given us a twin gift of pain and joy! Pain, because, one of our board members passed on. After serving in MEANS for 20 years, he left us suddenly and unexpectedly. Joy, because despite bad economic times, our donors have given so generously and sacrificially to help missions and the ministries in the Philippines and around the world. The increased in giving to missions has encouraged us as we look forward to helping our ministry partners build the Kingdom of God in their midst.

I wonder what 2009 will bring to each of us? It is as if I were on my tiptoes trying to see what God in His mercy and providence will give us in 2009. One thing is sure, though. Great is God's faithfulness and His mercies, they are new every morning. Hallelujah!

This year, let us remind ourselves, that He Who is faithful, Emmanuel, God with us, in us and for us, will never leave us nor forsake us. He will be there to light the path that we will tread, though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death. He will be our Light. In Jesus, there is no darkness at all. Therefore, we will not fear, but have courage, hope and joy!

Let me share with you one of my favorite poems. I have cherished this poem through the years because it reminds me that within our reach is JOY!, if we could but open our eyes to see the works of God in our midst. This poem was written in 1513 by Fra Giovanni, a priest during the Renaissance period, to his friend. I hope and pray that his advice, though written centuries ago, will challenge and encourage you for 2009!

Fra Giovanni's Letter to a Friend

I salute you. I am your friend and my love for you goes deep.
There is nothing I can give you which you have not got.
But there is much, very much that while I cannot give it, you can take.
No heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in today.
Take heaven!
No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this present little instance.
Take peace!
The gloom of the world is but a shadow.
Behind it, yet within our reach, is joy.
Take joy!
Life is so full of meaning and purpose, so full of beauty . . . that you will find earth but cloaks your heaven.
Courage then to claim it, that is all! . . .
And so I greet you, with profound esteem and with the prayer that for you, now and forever, the day breaks and the shadows flee away.
Fra Giovanni, 1513

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit " (Romans 15:13)

Lina