"Baling Hay"

Greetings and Merry Christmas from the Benge Church.

Our hearts and prayers go out to all those affected by the pandemic that has changed everything.

Christmas, too, is an event in time that changed everything, the birth of our Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. This Jesus we celebrate is our way to God and eternal life, Praise God.

Jesus not only came as a baby to this world, but was also destined to live in our hearths and I would like to tell you this story as well.

Our story started in February 2020. Karin and I attended an old timers Christmas Conference at Mount Hermon in the Santa Cruz mountains of California where we were married 52 years ago. Karin also waited tables and made beds here as a young college student in the summers.

The speaker was Luis Palau, accompanied with his wife Pat, a longtime friend of Karin’s family and home church of Peninsula Bible Church. Luis, in his talks, rekindled in my mind, one of our mutual and favorite passages, Gal. 2:20, “ I am crucified with Christ, I no longer live, but Christ lives in me...”

My connection to this verse is that not too many decades back I would sing this verse over and over while baling alfalfa “with the dew,” just before daylight, to keep myself awake on the Hesston 580 cab-less tractor! (at the top of my lungs to the coyotes.)

So yes, this Jesus not only became flesh and dwelt among us on this planet we call Earth, but also lives in me as well.

This is my Christmas story. Praise God!

Merry Christmas and Happy Trails!