Christmas

On November 19th, our Labradoodle, Emma, gave birth to a litter of nine puppies.  Since then we’ve embarked on an incredible journey, watching Emma grow through her pregnancy, watching the miraculous birth of 9 puppies (when we were expecting 6!) and witnessing the even more miraculous evidence of God’s creative hand as mother and pups learn life skills so quickly on their own. 

Last week, though, we lost one of the pups due to what the vet believed was, from birth, a malformation in the digestive tract.  It’s amazing how quickly we’ve become attached to each little pup.  So our whole family went through a kind of grieving.  Noah worked through his emotions by going out to the garage and building a little wooden cross to mark the site where he and Mel buried “Lexi”.  I was looking out the kitchen window this morning into our backyard and noticed that Noah had written, not only “Lexi” on the cross...he’d written “Lexi E.”  She was already part of our family....an Ellenwood.

And I thought, with a grateful heart, how...

privileged I am to be part of God’s family... I am His.  I belong to Him.  And by no merit of my own.
It’s only because of Jesus.

We’d be grateful if you could take a minute to catch up on life in the Ellenwood household...so we can share with you how wonderful Jesus is. 

And just in case you’re interested, we’ve included the link to our puppy blog...we think they’re pretty cute!
               http://web.mac.com/melellenwood/iWeb/Czech%20Doodles/Welcome.html

Jesus makes it possible to forgive and offers true life.

          In November I (Amy) spoke for Aglow in Sumperk, a town where our teammates, the Longs, are serving.  The collection was to include women from all denominations.  God made it clear I was to teach about forgiveness, and there was a sense that this was a very important message in that place for that time.   Though I went into it expecting a group of women....there were men there as well...elderly men, younger men.  During worship the two elderly gentlemen in the front row started talking VERY loudly and rustling about.  Turns out, one of them lost the battery out of his hearing aid (thus the loud talking!) and they were searching the floor for it.  Everything came to a screeching halt as several others joined them up front to search the floor.  It was a precursor to the whole evening.....people getting up, phones ringing.  It was a battle to stay focused.   Thankfully, there were women scattered throughout the crowd whose faces were open and hearts attentive to the Spirit.  The responses from these afterwards confirmed that this was indeed what God wanted me to share.  I think the enemy was just working overtime.   

The next day I spoke for our own youth group girls.  In light of the increasing pressure we’re seeing on young women here, I felt led to share my own story of captivity and freedom from my bondage to an eating disorder.   It was really sweet with the Cesky Tesin girls.  We talked about how the world’s value system and thinking has infiltrated our minds and defines beauty for us.  They were responsive and engaged. 

The icing on the cake was watching young women who were just young teenagers when we first came (Daniela, Ingrid, Jola)  leading each of the small discussion groups we had afterwards.  It was so fun to partner with them and watch them move so lovingly among the girls.  And extra special for me was having our Hannah there too! 

Jesus bridged the gap, sacrificing His own life so we could live.

God has been giving us some wonderful opportunities in the high school.  The director recently had Amy in her office and unloaded a very burdened heart with her...quite unexpectedly.  She is also one of Hannah’s teachers, so we are asking God to let us go deeper with her.  This week, we have been in several classes  sharing about Christmas.  Mel takes his guitar and we teach Christmas carols, and talk about what Christmas means to us. We were with Hannah’s class yesterday, and will be in two more classes next week. 

Last month, Amy felt prompted to take a movie called “Most” to the school.  It’s an award winning American short film, made in Prague, using Czech actors and language.  It is based on the story of the train bridge caretaker who sacrifices the life of his son to save a train load of passengers when he has to choose to close the drawbridge while his son is caught in the gears below.  We asked the students to be film critics and review the film.  But as the movie came to  a close it became very clear that the students were far more deeply impacted than we expected. There were sniffles and tears, and students were having a hard time speaking.  So we broke them into pairs and asked them to work together on their review first.  As I walked around the classroom I overheard one student, in Czech, sharing the beautiful Gospel story...unashamedly...in its entirety...with his seat mate.  Up to this point in the year, I didn’t even know he was a believer. 

During the discussion students were using words like “salvation” and “redemption” without any prompting from me.  When I asked them to sum up the theme of the movie, one guy who was quite moved said, “That father gave the life of his only son so the rest of those people could live!” 

Does it get any better than this?!   From that point on, Kuba the believer, and I were catapulted to a whole new level with the class and were able to share aloud the Gospel story.  GOD IS GREAT!!!  We look forward to what He has in store for the rest of this year. 

Jesus heals wounded hearts.

We hosted our annual Thanksgiving retreat for the North Americans on our team.  Our focus this year, (aside from turkey, kids’ talent show, and deep fellowship) was the Father heart of God.   It’s become very clear in our work with young people here, that relationships with fathers have been places of either sharp disappointment or deep wounding.  Many students (and adults) have skewed pictures of God because of what has or has not been true of their own fathers.  Our good Father took many individuals the next step into deep healing.  It was so beautiful....such a softness in our midst.  No one could’ve left unchanged.

Jesus’ yoke is easy and He calls us to learn of Him...to rest.

One of the deep burdens we carry for our team is rest.  We are seeing so many front lines warriors grow weary because they don’t feel released to rest.  One of our young Romanian women was nearing burnout as she relentlessly serves those around her in many different capacities.  We invited her to come and spend a week with us, just resting and enjoying the presence of Jesus in our upstairs apartment.  She wrote, “the Spirit spoke to me..."  I am learning to behave like a daughter that's deeply loved by my Father, not like a servant who is trying to earn the Master's appreciation!”  Praise Him!  We can’t wait for the mountain retreat house to be ready so we can offer rest like this to many more!

And Jesus meets our every need.

As we close, we want to thank you for your faithful giving.  It is very significant to us that you all have been so consistent and generous.  With the dollar dropping so significantly, we’ve lost 20% of our salary in just the past 2 months.  And expenses continue to mount...gas prices have risen to more than $7.20 a gallon.  But God continues to meet our needs on every level. 

                                                                        Jesus is the WAY
                                                                        Jesus is the TRUTH
                                                                        Jesus is LIFE.

                                                                        Jesus

Comments

[Mom and Dad Ellenwood]

We just got to see this and as it takes us a while to download. But we love to see and hear all that you are doing. No, Melvin we haven't got a satillite dish yet( hope soon) We love you and can't wait to see you all!!!!!!!!!

[Andrea Hawthorne]

Hi Mell and Amy,

I echo what others have said! I praise God for your faithfulness and commitment to His work all these years in the Czech! Wow! You've been there and we have been at the camp in Montana about the same amount of time. When did you leave for Czech?
Love, Andrea

[Becky Rosaler]

Thank you for taking care of DU, the JV team and all those God puts in your paths! Hope your family had a joyous Christmas!

[Jake and Sue Alward]

How tears well up within us as the Spirit in you touches deeply the Spirit within us!! How you remain faithful and true as we hear you sing in the echoes of our minds how HE is faithful and true....and how you continue to spread Jesus the way, the truth and the life to your LARGE family (like us) all over the world...how we love you and miss you dear ones...
Love you

[Connie]

Hi dearest friends! We miss you like crazy, but love knowing that it won't be long till we're back sharing life together! This was a beautiful update...made me cry! We all love you and are so thankful for our friendship with you! Merry Christmas from Oregon on this Christmas Eve! Love, Connie

[Mike & Patti Graper]

Merry Christmas to all of you. We really love the puppies - how cute. We will be continuing to pray for all of you. God has showered out his blessings and love again this year. He is so very faithful. We love the newsletters and updates. Thank you for serving God in such a wonderful way. I'm sure you bring him great, great, joy!

With our Love
Mike & Patti

[Gavin]

Man, I miss you guys. Merry Christmas!

[Gene, Cozy & Whitney Peters]

Merry Christmas from our house to yours. We all so enjoy your updates and look forward to seeing you again. Thank you for the dedication in showing Jesus's love to all that you meet.
The Peters

[Dean and Nawanda Fuller]

Mel, Amy and family: Christmas greetings and blessings from our family to yours. thank you for the Christmas update. It is always special to all of us (Russ/Deedra and Josh/Dena families). We pray that this will be a joyous season of remembrance and thanksgiving for a God that would share so freely.