Christmas 2013

New Year’s Day 2012 began for me (Betty Gail), with a bang – Bangalore, India, that is.  Chase and Lacey Moore and I were awaiting the coming of our sweet granddaughter, Ari Eden, playing games and visiting with our friend, Mason Wadley (I KNOW – strange but true) and one of his friends, when we heard the first bang ringing in the new year.  I went outside to check it out.  I saw one of the funniest sites I’ve ever seen - a stampede of street dogs was coming straight at me with terrified looks on their faces!  They were coming from the direction of the loud popping which sounded like bombs going off.  I looked into the sky and was amazed by the huge fireworks display over our part of the city.

In the wee hours of January 6^th, I heard voices and sensed movement in the house.  It was 2 am and Chase and Lacey were up and I suspected that our little girl was about to make her entrance.  Ajay was sleeping peacefully in my room in his pack-n-play.  Lacey was definitely in labor but also a little bit in denial.  She was sitting on a beanbag chair, contracting every few minutes but didn’t want to go to the hospital too early.  Some after 3:00 pm, Chase made ready by calling their ride to the hospital and gave me a cell phone.  Their ride to the hospital would be 45 minutes or so and I lay down on the sofa, knowing that Ajay would get up early and I was the only one on duty for the day.  It seemed that I had just drifted off to sleep when the cell phone rang, just before 6:00 am.  The first thing I heard was a baby crying!  WHAT?  Then Chase’s voice, “She is here.  Mother and baby are doing just fine.”    

  My plan was to leave India and be back in the US for a week or so before our 5^th grandchild was born.  Kelly was due shortly after Lacey, but I should be able to make this baby’s home birth, too.  I would be leaving India on January 15, which is still Jan. 14. US time.  As I packed and made ready for my long trip, Lacey was checking FaceBook.  “Oh, my – I think Kelly is in labor!”  We began a flurry of activity to try and find out.  Sure enough, little Caleb Clifton made his appearance in this world and didn’t wait on his Nanna.  Dundee got to be present for his birth though.

So that is how our year, 2013 got started!!  Our family grew quickly in one week’s time.  Ari and Caleb brought us from three grandchildren to five.  We are so blessed!!

The spring of the year consisted of my getting back on my feet – literally.  I had an injured heel that I needed to stay off of to let it heal.  In May, the Moores came for a visit – and finally, Mickey got to meet his one and only granddaughter. Our time was full and blessed.  Mickey and I celebrated 35 years of wedded bliss together.  Our girls had so much fun putting together a little party and we had some amazing family pictures made.

Mickey and I are still in the Church Planting business, if you want to call it that.  Compass Church has had many changes this year, most of which are exciting and very good.  We purchased property and are moving forward with plans to build our own meeting place.  Hopefully, we will see plans set in motion in 2014.  We are happy to welcome, Jeremy and Kerrie Sullivan and their son, Jack , to Compass to serve as our Pastor of Discipleship and Families.  Mickey stays very busy with his Compass duties and ministry and also with his Arkansas Baptist Convention church planting duties and North American Mission Board connections, as well.  We really enjoyed going to the NAMB Convention in Dallas this year and representing innovative church planters, along with all of the young ‘uns who are out there doing the same. 

I am still teaching ESL to my five year long student, Veronica.  We both enjoy not only a teacher/student relationship but also a friendship.  I went to her daughter’s 6^th birthday party this year.  It was a highlight of my teaching experience.  I am also involved with the mission’s arm of Compass Church and also am enjoying a discipleship ministry using the book, “Multiply”.

Mickey and I went to South Dakota this summer, on a mission trip, with several other Compass couples our age (and our church intern, who is not our age).  It was a great trip requiring a lot of walking and meeting people who are completely unchurched/de-churched.  As a side, we got to visit Mount Rushmore and see the Badlands.  We hope to return some time for another church planting mission with Doug Hixson.

Kelly and Aaron are still in Northwest Arkansas doing Children’s Ministry at Fellowship Bible Church.  Most of their work is with 3^rd and 4^th grade leaders and they also meet with a small group of which they are very excited to be a part.  Benjamin and Asher are both in school (K and 1^st Grade) and are doing very well.  Their all time favorite activity is playing WII, but they also enjoy their outdoor time with the neighborhood kids.  Caleb is pulling up and trying to walk and his all time favorite activity is being with his momma.  Kelly is still finding time to write music and loves life as it is!

Chase and Lacey are in Asia in the shadow of the Himalaya Mountains.  Their team, Team Everest, is opening a coffee shop to serve both the locals and any tourist who might make it into their part of the city.  Circle Street Coffee is the name of the business.  They have raised enough funds to get started but are still in the fund raising mode – needing to furnish and supply the business.  They have learned/are learning Tibetan and beginning to be able to communicate more effectively with their people.  Ajay is a fun loving, inquisitive, and very social little boy who is attending a local preschool for the expat community.  Ari has been getting around on her own for a couple of months but her most preferred way to do so is walking on her knees!  She also loves being with her momma, most of all.

My mom has had a pretty difficult year, plagued with illness and physical issues.  BUT we are praising the Lord for her recovery.  At 88 years old, she is once again able to get around, cook, and do some shopping.  Even in these winter months, she is holding her own.  We are blessed to live with her and have her in our every day lives.

Hoping this Christmas letter is finding you, our friends and family, in the best possible way.  We pray that you are finding comfort and peace in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ and that you are basking in his goodness every day. 

More evident, is his gift of grace to us, right now than ever before.  We are learning over and over of its blessings.  Our faith in Him through his grace is our only righteousness – we have none of our own but we have His righteousness.  We are so glad that our morality has nothing to do with our salvation because if it were so, we could never achieve it by our behavior or good works.

We pray that you, too, rest in the only peace that is of value – the peace of knowing Christ and trusting in His provision! 

Love you all so much! 

Until NEXT year – Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

LOVE, Mickey and Betty Gail Jones

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

Excitement for the holiday season has been creeping up within me for weeks.  I could hardly wait to get my tree decorated.  I have enjoyed seeing all of the new decorations in town.  I have "liked" every picture of Christmas trees pictured on FaceBook.  I shopped early and still wanted to go out on Black Friday to shop a little more.

As I "decked" my halls, I took my time.  I savored all of the memories of Christmas past.  I looked at pictures from years before.  My heart was warmed and I felt joy for the season as I strategically placed each ornament and bobble.  I have played Christmas music to go to sleep by many nights.

There is nothing that is different about this year than all of the rest.  My stateside grandchildren are busy in school and their parents are carrying on with life as usual.  My youngest sweet thing is learning how to negotiate slick wood floors and trying to reach anything that looks of interest in his eye of discovery. My overseas kids are busy getting ready to open a coffee shop.  They will have Christmas in their country, sharing moments with their team and other expats who live there.  Mom is doing well, and has also caught a little of the Christmas spirit overflow that I have.  Mickey is watching football.  Although the nephews, nieces and greats will all make their way to our house at sometime this Christmas, for the most part it is just the three of us who reside here that will be together.  Still there is a spark of Christmas cheer that is running through my life this year.

As I pondered this I began to think about the last few Christmas seasons.

In 2010, Ajay was born - in December.  Chase and Lacey were in Church Planting school and were planning their US exit at the time.  They knew they would live somewhere other than the US and so did we.  His birth was miraculous, no less.  He was so precious and we were filled with wonder at our third grandson's arrival.  We felt an urgency to get to know him.  We wanted to be with him even though he lived in Texas, far away.  This happiness was tainted only by the pending move that we knew would take him from our lives eventually.  He came to our house for Christmas that year - only 2 weeks old.  Everyone wanted to see him, to hold him, and to be with his parents.  Everyone else knew what we knew - that it would be one of the last Christmas seasons with them.  I must admit that I was so overwhelmed.  Our house was full all the time with people coming and going.  It didn't feel like Christmas.  It wasn't slow and easy.  It was hard.  I was sad much of the time.

In 2011 we experienced our first Cyber-Christmas.  Chase, Lacey and Ajay were in Asia and having Christmas alone.  Kelly and her family were at our house.  We Skyped Christmas package opening.  It is what it is.  It is so nice to see their faces over Skype and be with them as we can, but it isn't the same as being in another one's presence.  You can't smell them or touch them.  We began to learn about blowing kisses.  I am so grateful for this media blessing but I just want to touch them and smell them!!
Dad was also very sick that year.  He had home health coming in and his health was failing.  We didn't know then, but it would be his last Christmas with us.  Alice and Bob were standing on alert to come when they were needed.  Neither did we know or even suspect that it would also be Bob's last Christmas with us.

December the 5th, 2012, I found myself boarding an airplane headed to India.  Our grand daughter was to be born, hopefully by the end of the month, in India.  My plan was to spend Ajay's second birthday with him, have Christmas with the Moore's in India, Skype reverse with my grandchildren, Kelly and Aaron, Mickey and Mom on Christmas day, and be present for the birth of my first (an as it turned out, only) grand daughter.  I had never spent a Christmas, in 56 years, away from my mother and had never spent Christmas in 37 away from Mickey.  It was our first holiday season without Dad and Bob.  I spent my 56th birthday over the ocean in great anticipation of touching and smelling my overseas children and grandchildren at Christmas that year!  I was also very sad for what I'd left behind.  I decorated half heartedly that year, knowing that I wouldn't be there to enjoy the sights and sounds - and I don't think I really felt all that jolly.  I missed the birth of my youngest grandson back in the US, however, once again, Skype saved the day.  I finally put away my Christmas decorations in March this year!

So there it is.  My reason for cheer this year...the past few years have been shrouded with change, loss, excitement and sadness.  I don't think I have enjoyed the pure joy of the season for a few years now.  I intend to make the best of what this year is offering.  We purchased a new tree and new decorations, I plan to holiday bake and give small token gifts of love, I plan to make a Christmas music playlist, and enjoy every moment of every day.  I don't really care if you say "Happy Holidays" or "Merry Christmas" to me!  I am grateful for the light spirit of holiday happiness and joy that God has placed in my heart for this season!

AND next year...we will ALL be together again!!