He recently told me an interesting story.  In his whole life nobody ever paid attention to his birthday. No birthday cake.  No singing "Happy Birthday".  No gifts.  Nothing.  Christmas was the same.  Just another day.  Nothing special.  No fancy meal.  No Christmas stocking. No presents.  Nothing.

When he got married, and for every Christmas thereafter, he and his wife always wanted to be able to eat chicken. Have a fancy meal. Maybe have people over. But they could never afford it.  And so their dream had to wait for another year.

And then they were invited to join our Christmas celebration.  And they couldn't believe it.  They received gifts (plural) for their unborn baby.  And practical gifts for each of them.  Several gifts apiece.  They were overwhelmed.  "Thank you" seemed so inadequate. But it was all they had to give.

Then before the party was over they were given a big bag of food.  All sorts of things.  When they were recovering from the wonder of it all, they were handed a frozen chicken.  That's right.  A chicken!  One they could take home and eat.  Invite friends over.  It was their  dream.

But the very best part of this story is the children.  You see, six of their neighbor children had told them they were coming over on Christmas Day.  They were excited that these kids, ones they had been teaching about God, wanted to come. At the same time they didn't know how they would ever feed them?  But God knew.  He had it all worked out.  Everybody came and they all ate chicken. For the first time ever on Christmas Day.

See why we love living here?  See why we love this ministry?  We receive so much more than we ever give.