Well, I'm back again to the world of blogging, after a several-day hiatus. :-) Good to be back! So how is everyone?

I am having a nice time at my parents'. The drive Saturday went quite well, and yesterday I drove an hour over to my college church to catch up with friends and supporters there. Last night my parents and I watched a movie together, and I popped popcorn for us. Well, my dad ate some ... my mom had started dozing off. :)

Today I helped my mom a bit with baking/wrapping presents and later walked with my dad. Now we're fixing to go to a Christmas Eve service at our church in a bit ... and afterwards come back here and eat chili. (Yum!) It will be nice to see supporters and friends there, and I remember being so blessed by the message at last year's Christmas Eve service.

The only big bummer of today is being unable thus far to successfully log on to my Facebook account. I personally think it's a combination of everyone and their uncle (or aunt? just pick one ... :)) being on Facebook today with it being the holidays and people being off work, and my parents' kind of slow dial-up connection. Oh well ... :) Definitely not anything to complain about, really. :))

In case I don't get on here before then ... which I probably won't ... MERRY CHRISTMAS, everyone! Praise God for the Savior's birth.

I have been having a wonderful Christmas season so far! It has been great! Thinking back over this year as a whole, it has surely had its challenges for my family and me ... but I know the Lord has used those things in our lives ... I was really impacted by my parents' great example of holding firmly to the truth of Romans 8:28 throughout the time we went through my dad having cancer! It definitely encouraged me and strengthened me in my own faith.

The associate pastor at my church has been going through this special Christmas series titled "Looking unto Jesus," based on Hebrews 12:1,2.**The past two Sundays have been great, and I can hardly wait for this Sunday's message! He has brought out the wonder of Jesus and encouraged us to rekindle our love for Him ... our wonder at His presence and who He is and what He has done for us. He has talked about the wonderful joy that is ours because of Jesus ... a joy that can be constant in our lives, for it is not based on earthly things or temporal comforts. Praise the Lord for this! :)

[Listen at http://www.prestonwood.org/services/media/weekend_media.php
Click on "Everything We Believe Begins with Him" and "Everything We Hope For is Fulfilled in Him." Those are the first two messages in the series, and the third will probably be there within this next week!]

I have also been enjoying the "festivities" of the Christmas season with wonderful brothers and sisters in Christ ... several great Christmas parties, the most recent one being our GFA staff Christmas party this past Friday evening. :) It was such a special time, from the time when I received "valet parking" thanks to our teenagers (a first for me! :)), to when I discovered that because there was a cute Christmas sticker under my plate, I would get to keep the beautiful red roses at the table, to the great fellowship and laughter I got to share with others, to running into some more of my dear friends/co-workers as I went out to my car, looking for where it had been valet-parked. :-D

We also got to sing Christmas carols and eat yummy food, and be reminded of people in Asia who are celebrating the Christ of Christmas through our partnership with the work on the field ... wow ... that just boggles my mind ... praise the Lord! :o)

Then on Sunday, I thoroughly enjoyed the final message in the "Looking unto Jesus" Christmas series. It was also great catching up with dear friends and hearing the great teaching during adult Bible fellowship, too. Afterwards we all went to Chuck's for lunch--and then some of us went and gave sandwiches--and the Gospel--to the homeless in downtown Dallas!

It was an incredible experience on so many levels for me ... and I ultimately came back renewed, refreshed and encouraged. My heart was full of joy. Now? I'm doing pretty well overall I think ... trying to finish up all my projects before I drive toward the Deep South on Saturday morning to see my parents for the holidays! Looking forward to that time ... and hopefully will be able to not pull too much of my hair out in the meantime, as I try to finish projects. :) Seriously, I have been able to get quite a bit done this evening already and am feeling quite hopeful. :-)

I have been enjoying the Christmas season so much this year.

Is it already almost "next Friday" from when I posted? Whoa ... how does a whole week go by so fast?!! :-) I hope you all are doing well.

Some highlights of my past week:

- Two Christmas parties over the weekend, one with some fellow staff members and one with my S.S. class from church. Both were great fun! :-D

- Somewhat inadvertently giving myself Peppermint bark on Facebook and then having a good laugh at myself over it!

- Enjoying, along with my fellow writers, some "real-life", yummy fudge a co-worker's wife made for us. :-D

- Making lunch plans for this week and next with a couple of good friends from work

- Hearing in prayer meeting and being greatly encouraged by knowing that a radio campaign that I had the opportunity to help with text copy for has seen tremendous results for the Kingdom.

Yay - another post! : ) Hope you all are doing well! I am going to try to be more faithful in posting! All in all, I'm doing pretty well I think ... when I went home for lunch today, I was suddenly overcome with feelings of loneliness! When I mentioned it to a friend (who had kindly jabbered me to tell me she had a Reece's on her desk for me!), she thought it was interesting that it happened on the day of all-night prayer. (Good point!!! It really helped and encouraged me to remember that such feelings are not necessarily "isolated incidents" ... they could very well be part of the very real spiritual battle we all face here as people are being reached in Asia!)

Speaking of prayer tonight, I am looking forward to it - even though I probably won't be staying the entire time (still recovering from last week's sinus infection, and slept 12 hours last night! ;), I hope to stay for quite a while. :) IT will be good to worship, hear how God is working, and enjoy community and fellowship with my brothers and sisters in Christ here.

Well, it's a beautiful day and I think I'm going to go grocery shop for cookie ingredients (since I'm making some for next week for our ministry vendors) and hopefully relax around the apartment a bit and also take a nice walk in this gorgeous weather. :-D