"The most wonderful time of the year?"

Greetings! This is Jelly....she just got married....she is due in February and she is my dear continuity. Unfortunately, I may not be able to attend her birth as Tim and I have the amazing opportunity to take our furlough 7 months early! Instead of trying to go back to Canada in August, the Lord has provided a means to come in mid-January until mid-February! Tim will be in his best friend's wedding and I will get to see my Dad, who is currently recovering from back surgery. God's timing is so gracious. :)

Please pray for Jelly. And please pray for my Dad.

My other continuity (whose pic I will post later...) is named MJ (Mary Jean). She is HILARIOUS! This is her first pregnancy and she is so excited to finally be pregnant. She's only 23, but most of her friends have babies already, so this pregnancy is very special. She works as a high school math teacher and her husband, I mentioned in a previous post, works for Jack and Jill snack company....the company that makes me my Milky Knots...the most wonderful Filipino delicacy in the world! Tee hee.....or least in the Philippines.....anyways....
These are Milky Knots....white chocolate, milk chocolate and strawberry....Mom, Dad, I am bringing you some! :)

Moving on, MJ (my continuity) brought me 6 bags of the stuff yesterday in prenatals....I was SO blessed....I had to share them with Bob and Sylvia and all the Filipinos. Good times.
But as MJ and I talked (she knows a fair bit of English) I discovered that she is at a turning point in her life. She is debating whether to be baptized into the Jehovah's Witness church. She said that she had tried Mormonism and Catholicism, but figured that Jehus were the next step. I listened. She paused and then asked..."What do you think, Ma'am Bethany?"

What an opportunity, I thought! Way cool! But then the Lord began to speak. I just told her that the biggest difference between all those religions she has tried was their thoughts on Jesus and who HE is. She agreed. I told her that I believed that Jesus was the Son of God, but also God Himself. She giggled and shook her head a bit. She said, "That's where they differ." Exactly.

So I asked her if she believed in the Holy Spirit. She exuberantly said yes, so I asked her if she would be willing to pray and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal who Jesus REALLY is, so that she would know the truth...whatever that is. :) She agreed and we prayed. I asked her if she was really wanting to seek the truth and know Christ....she passionately said yes....so I prayed again that the Holy Spirit would show her Christ in a very special way this week and that she would know Him in His complete character. THEN (because it's Christmastime...duh!) I asked her what she was doing for Christmas....and she said, "nothing, because the JW church doesn't celebrate."

Then I asked if she ever celebrates HER birthday....and she said, "no, but I celebrate my birth anniversary...." I laughed soooooo hard...she did, too, as we pondered the irony. She asked when my birthday was and I happened to look on the calendar and realized that my birthday would be the next time I would see her for prenatal exams! Then she told me HER birthday was the day AFTER mine! So, on December 26th, MJ and I are having cake at prenatal exams....she wanted chocolate AND vanilla cake....so that's my contribution....she's bringing the Milky Knots!

I just love her joy and enthusiasm for life...and for learning and searching for God. Powerful.

Please pray for MJ and for me...that I would reflect who Christ really is. Whew.

In other news, Uncle Bob and Tim have been working with Chad and Joe building the first of many water filters! The first one broke and they are trying round two. People are getting excited about the idea of clean water for every home throughout Mindanao and Tim is learning so much from Uncle Bob.

Unfortunately, my schedule has not slowed down in order to hang with Auntie Syl, but I am setting as much time apart as possible to be with my dear friend....and she has been SUCH a blessing to me! She made me a Christmas scrub top with material from Christina (thanks, mum!) and is now making some scrub pants! She's helped ease the busyness of the days by keeping house and serving wherever possible....what a blessing and a joy she is!

Please pray for Tim and Uncle Bob, Syl, too.

I will have Tim post pics of the filter soon. He is pretty busy these days and will head to Manila again this weekend to finish up the work begun there. Then it's exams, homework, birth shifts, baby checks, classes, and prenatals for me.

Thank you for all your prayers.....and encouragements...please continue to comment, too!
The truck is working out WONDERFULLY for transporting water filtration supplies and Tim plans on getting into the mountains again next week to visit Ate Beth and Ate Merlyn with Joe. Many blessings to you all and enjoy this crazy and wonderful Christmas-time. :)