Dear family and friends,
We didn’t send out a Christmas Letter this year so I thought I would send one now and wish you all a very Happy New Year!
The festivities, fun, food and all that goes with it, are over for another year. The weeks and even months of planning, shopping and anticipation seem to come and go with lightning speed! Every Christmas we hear various ideas on what Christmas is really about: ‘It’s about the children;’ ‘it’s about families;’ ‘It’s about getting together with family and friends; ’’Singing carols....’ etc. Millions have sung “born to raise the sons of earth, born to give us second birth” and the beautiful “Silent Night,” with the words “the dawn of redeeming grace” but have no understanding of the meaning, or of the One, to Whom they refer.
Let’s be honest! For many this is no more than Happy Holidays or Season’s Greetings. Christ has so little to do with it that He has even been dropped from the name in favour of “Xmas”.
Christians, those who having realized that they are lost sinners and have trusted Christ as their personal Saviour, see Christmas as the time that God sent His own beloved Son to save us from our sins and give us an eternal home!
The real difference is that one day soon the Lord will return for those who truly believe to take them to the place that He has prepared for them. Those who simply pay ‘lip service’ to Christmas but don’t really believe in Him will be left to face eternity without Christ.
But thankfully the real ‘reason for the season’ is still very much alive, isn’t He?
We are now once again in the grip of a ‘bleak midwinter where frosty winds make moan’ and lots of us join them!
I turned eighty in August and Carol tried to catch me up in January, but only reached seventy-nine. Despite having passed our ‘sell by’ and ‘best before’ dates, we’re both doing OK generally. Carol still struggles the health concerns that have plagued her for many years but she still presses on. So far we have avoided Covid but Gareth and some of his family in Arizona were caught by it! Thankfuly not seriously! I am still very busy with preaching on Sundays, guelphbiblecc.com, meeting one on one, etc., etc. The Lord continues to lead, guide and provide and we have much to be thankful for.
I want to get over to England and to the US, but for now we’re avoiding too much exposure to the virus.
We are so very, very thankful for all our dear family and friends that have been such a blessing to us over the years. Quite a few we have lost contact with for various reasons, but still very precious. We would love to see you all in person but that looks less likely for a while. One thing we do know is that we will meet all who have trusted the Lord as personal Saviour in heaven one day!
We would love to hear from you, and these days it can be ‘face to face’ of course.
With warmest love,
Ray and Carol
487 Whitelaw Rd.
Guelph, Ontario,
Canada N1K 1E7
Home: 1-519-767-3335
Cell: 1-519-716-1405