I know it has been forever since my last blog. It has been a busy, but fruitful holiday season.
The sayings, "Better to give than to receive" and "Christmas is a time for giving," are not just a cliche. They are nuggents of truth that should be explored. We, as a family, decided to invest in others this Christmas season in two ways.
The first way was to participate as a family in COTT. This was the third year in which New Life has taken our Christmas music program to the streets. "Christmas on the Town" (COTT) is taking the choir to businesses in our community offering free "entertainment" with two goals, to first make a positive impression of Christ and New Life by giving away a free gift to shoppers, and next to bring authentic worship to the streets and businesses.
This year, we decided that God was leading us to share a candy cane attached to a pocket Gospel of John from Pocket Testament League with 3000 shoppers in 7 venues in our community. In the first 5 venues, we shared 2800 gospels. In total, we shared 3000 gospel (all that we had) and 4500 candy canes. We saw teared-filled eyes as the Holy Spirit moved listeners' hearts as we sang. At one view, God orchestrated almost 70 people to listen and worship Jesus with us as we sang. Our team ministered and prayed for others at several venues. Click here or on small picture to see COTT 2006 picture album.
The second way was to minister to the homeless of our community. Our friends, Bill & Brenda, have a ministry of preparing backpacks to distribute to the needy at Christmas. We met on Saturday, December 23, and saw the smiles of adults and kids. It did the Herrells good to serve and befriend those who need it.
