By this time in December, many of us have received so many Christmas cards and newsletters, not to mention that we?re SO busy, most will go unread, at least until after Christmas when things calm down a little. That?s one of the reasons we?re shocking you with that dreaded offensive ?Happy Holidays? ? to capture your interest in our newsletter. I mean, after all, we really don?t write that often these days.
But seriously, Happy Holidays! Because the phrase has become fighting words for so many, it has caused us to think about what it means. It is true that to some, it is used in an effort to be politically correct and not offend others who may not believe in the Baby in the manger. In other cases, the phrase is used in a deliberate attempt to remove all references of Christ and the religious overtones from Christmas. It?s no longer enough to change the spelling of ?Christmas? to ?Xmas?; after all, everyone knows the correct spelling of Christmas. Whether or not they worship the Christ of Christmas, they are reminded every time they see ?Christmas? ? or ?Xmas? ? that there is more to this holiday than what the world would make of it, leaving them once again ?without excuse?.
So why are we wishing you ?Happy Holidays?? It?s because we want to ?bring you into remembrance? of how special it is to count our blessings during the Thanksgiving season (even though we?re a bit late), to sincerely offer you the \”peace…that passeth all understanding\” given to us by the Christ of Christmas, and to ?provoke you (and us) unto love and to good works? during the coming year of 2006. These truly are ?Happy Holidays?. We don?t want to let those outside the knowledge of God affect what we know about the true meaning of Christmas ? and Thanksgiving and the New Year. From the bottom of our hearts, we once again wish you ?Happy Holidays?.
The year 2005 has been special for us. We?re spending lots of time with the next generation of the Gillespie family, Summer Dawn Kinnard, born on November 7, 2005. You can see pictures of her (and the rest of the family) by visiting our photo page. We\’ve also been blessed by time spent renewing friendships with many of you and meeting new friends, too. We are rejoicing that just this week we received word from two different churches of new financial support, and we?re truly expecting that we?ll hear similar news from more of you in the new year. Because of this, we?re continuing to plan for our return to West Africa in Spring 2006.