My Advisory Board suggested that instead of sending individual greetings this year that I send out a Christmas newsletter-so in 2003 you are receiving five NLs instead of four!

Have a Wonderful Christmas Season

May our Lord grant you every happiness and all good things during this season as we celebrate His birth. I would especially like to thank each individual, group, and church who sent gifts in support of my ministry this year-it was very much appreciated! I would not be able to continue my Wycliffe work without the help of your gifts and your prayers. As we look forward to 2004, I would also like to wish for you a new year that will bring pleasant days, a joyful heart, and all life's special blessings.

Giving What You Have

The following comments were written by Bruce Smith, the president of Wycliffe Associates. They recruit volunteers to work for Wycliffe in many places around the world.

Giving, and receiving, can sometimes be a very superficial experience. On other occasions it can be incredibly moving and meaningful. The difference frequently has more to do with the hearts of the giver and the recipient than with the gift itself.

I once received a chicken as a gift. It was dirty, skinny, noisy, and awkward. I had no place to put it. I had certainly never 'wished' for a chicken as a gift. But this particular chicken was handed to me by the gnarled and disfigured hands of an old man living on the edge of the Sahara desert in West Africa. He limped toward me on feet mangled by leprosy, supported by crutches made from tree branches. He gave it to me in gratitude for work that I had very little to do with. Some of my mission colleagues had spent several months in his village digging a new water well by hand. I had never lifted a handful of dirt or dipped one bucket of water, but he wanted to thank me for sending people who did. He gave me the only thing he had to give. I wanted so much to just tell him that he needed the chicken far more than I did. But I received the gift and was over-whelmed and humbled by his gratitude.

Every day Wycliffe Associates volunteers give something that is incredibly valuable: their time and talents. Their sacrifices give more to our ministry than money could buy. I'm so thankful for everything our volunteers bring to this ministry. They give what they have-what God has invested in their lives. They give their hearts.

And may we do the same!

How Blessed Are You?

Speaking of hearts, the following really touched mine. I think it will touch yours as well, particularly at this Christmas season (it was recently in the Ascension Lutheran TableTalk).

If you own a Bible, you are abundantly blessed. One third of the world does not have access to even one.

If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture or the pangs of starvation, you are more fortunate than 500 million people around the world.

If you can attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture or death, you are more blessed than almost three billion people in the world.

If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace, you are among the top twelve percent of the world's wealthy.

If you can hold someone's hand, hug them, or even touch them on the shoulder, you are blessed because you can offer a loving touch.

If you can read this message, you're more blessed than two billion people who cannot read anything at all.

A Return to India

I will be in India during the months of January and February, working with the faculty at four Indian institutions: two missionary training schools and two seminaries. First I will be at the Indian Institute of Cross-Cultural Communication (I was there in 2002). The IICCC prepares language surveyors, linguists, and ttanslators, and the seminars will be held at a conference center near Nagpur. Then I will travel to Kovalam (near Chennai) to work with the Friends Missionary Training Band (FMTB), an indigenous missionary organization that focuses on planting churches. Faith Theological Seminary in Kerala (FTS) will be my third location, and then I will spend two weeks at Hosur (near Bangalore) working with the India Evangelical Mission (IEM). Both FTS and IEM prepare Christian workers for various tasks such as pastoring, teaching, village work, etc.

Please keep me in your prayers re completing the preparation of many materials that I will take with me, for safe travel, for stable health while I am in India, and for the Holy Spirit's anointing on the seminars and workshops that I will be facilitating.

Our Web Site

Do check out the pictures on our Web site: http://communities.msn.com/DrEvelynDavis/shoebox.msnw

In Joy I Serve Him,

Seasonal Greetings from Evelyn Davis' Advisory Board

We would like to thank you for your support this year. Your gifts are used in a ministry that means so much to so many people throughout the world. If the Lord has blessed you this year, we would ask that when you consider your end-of-year giving, that you consider Evelyn Davis' ministry that does so much for so many. Your support can be directed as listed below.

Are You Electronic?
If so, please send your email address to Susan Creech and we'll add them to our list to receive the newsletter that way. They will also be on the list to receive the electronic Prayer and Praise Updates that come out a bit more frequently.

Click here for photos from the newsletter