Joseph and John are putting the inside of the bus back together. Here they were reassembling our storage shelves.

Hmmm . . . Do you think the bus will be ready in time for a Tuesday departure? It will .

Joseph, John, Anna, Jesse, and Mary have spent many hours practicing for the funeral tomorrow.

Practicing...

The carpet was put in this week, and the music room really feels like part of the house. We have been practicing for the upcoming trip, and the children have also been working on the songs for the funeral tomorrow.

Thank you for your prayers. Please keep our dear friend’s widow in mind as the Lord brings her to mind. They had been married almost sixty years.

Sarah

“And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away” (Revelations 21:4).

Life is pretty fast-paced around the Maxwell home with several different factors: bus work, trip preparations, house things, and a funeral to prepare for. Saturday night, one of our dear friends from the nursing home, left his earthly body and joyfully met his Savior face to face. With our nursing home ministry comes the reality of facing death often. It is never easy to say good-bye, even though it is temporary, to our friends. Daddy has the privilege of being able to do our friend’s entire funeral service. The children have been asked to do the music, so they’re working to prepare the songs requested. We would greatly appreciate prayer if you think of us the next two days, as preparations are made. Thursday morning is the funeral.

We are leaving on our 3 week trip next Tuesday—which is all too quickly approaching. The boys put down a new insulated floor in the bus. It makes the whole bus feel fresh and clean and hopefully it will be warmer! It’s another exciting start to the conversion process.

Jesse screwing down the floor in the bus.

The old floor!

John did a great job with all the work on the floor.

A look from the back of the bus. There is still quite a bit of work to get the inside of the bus ready for the next trip!

Abigail LOVES her toy basket that we have for her when she comes over. Her eyes literally light up when she catches sight of it, and she loves to have the basket nearby so that she can pick out her favorites.

In the meantime, school is still busily being done, two birthdays are being celebrated early, and the list goes on.

May we each keep in mind how close eternity is and never take another day for granted.

Sarah

“But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin” (Hebrews 3:13).

Happy New Year from all our family!

We received this sketch from the young lady, Abi K., who drew chapter clipart for Managers of Their Schools. She surprised us with this card in the mail back in the fall. We thought we’d use it to wish you all a blessed New Year!

(This is the ninth in a series of entries drawing analogies between experiences that Ambassador Joseph Grew shared about in his book Ten Years in Japan and practical aspects of being an ambassador for Jesus Christ)

Ambassador Grew had some very challenging situations to address during his years of representing the United States to Japan. In his diary he wrote about the frustration of dealing with people who were deceived, but didn’t realize it, and refused to believe the truth.

In the early 1930’s Japan was being very aggressive toward her neighbors (especially by invading Manchuria), and this aggression had resulted in Japan’s violation of at least three treaties – one of which they had signed, along with many other nations, just a few years prior in 1928. And yet most Japanese people refused to believe that their nation was being hostile, and instead felt they were in full compliance with all treaties. Ambassador Grew wrestled with the challenge of trying to speak truth to those with whom he interacted so that they could understand what was right and true. At one point he wrote that he knew very, very few Japanese who would be willing to say, “Yes, we’ve broken every one of those treaties by invading Manchuria, and our argument of ‘self-defense’ was a joke, but, we needed Manchuria, and that is that.” The great majority of Japanese believed that their actions were in the right, that they had not violated any treaties, that they were not starting any wars, and that their aggressive incursions were actually designed to promote and spread peace upon the earth.

Ambassador Grew wrote that dealing with someone who is deceived is much harder than dealing with someone, no matter how brazen, who will openly admit that he has done wrong.

While Ambassador Grew pointed out the challenge, he didn’t offer any specific counsel that would assist us in being ambassadors for Christ.

Jesus was our ultimate example in everything, and it is interesting to see His interactions with two types of people during His time on earth: the self-righteous and very religious Pharisees who would not admit their sin, and the “sinners” of His day (tax-collectors, fornicators, etc.) who readily acknowledged their wrong-doing. We know that “all have sinned” (Romans 3:23), and we see Jesus pointing out the sin in both types of people.

One type of people primarily rejected His admonitions while the other group tended to humbly accept His Words. One group fought against Him, while the other group sought to be near Him. One group tried to have Him killed, and the other group wept when He died. One group wanted to cover up His resurrection, while the other group rejoiced at the news He was alive. Through it all, one type of people vehemently proclaimed their righteousness and denied their wrongdoing, while the other group humbly acknowledged their sin, repented of it, and believed in the Savior.

Jesus patiently and lovingly worked with each group, and yet we see that it was truly much harder and there appeared to be less visible fruit when dealing with those who were deceived. First off, I would hope that none of us are in the group of people who are living a sinful (but perhaps religious) lifestyle while either refusing to acknowledge sin or being deceived into not seeing the sin (Galatians 5:13).

Next, we can realize that as we interact with others, there will be some who will readily acknowledge their sin, while others, for whatever reason, will not. The purpose of the law is to show a person his need for a Savior: “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith” (Galatians 3:24).

Whether or not someone believes he has broken God’s law, our role as ambassadors is to gently seek to share truth with him: “And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient” (2 Timothy 2:24), so that he will be reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 5:19-20).

For us, then, the key is not to become weary in well doing. “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not” (Galatians 6:9).

Let us not be surprised that there are people who have hard hearts and are unwilling to acknowledge or see their sin, and as a result are less likely to repent and believe in the Savior. That has always been the case: whether it was Jesus ministering to the proud, religious, yet sinful Pharisees of his day, or Ambassador Grew seeking to represent the United States to Japan in the early 1930’s. May we simply continue to share with everyone that the Lord brings into our lives, about Jesus, the Savior of our souls, and entrust the results to Him.

For many years, we as a family have celebrated Christmas together on Christmas Eve day. Then, on Christmas, we have a quiet day, including a special visit to our friends at the nursing home.

Someone asked what we typically give for gifts. We work to give practical gifts such as clothes, things in the kitchen for Mom, tools for the guys, sewing items for the girls, etc.

Abigail was the cutest "centerpiece" we have ever had on Christmas Eve morning!

Abigail's just not sure about hats.

We try to do practical gifts. Here Joseph received some Carhart pants!

"Hi, Uncle Joseph." (the photographer on this one)

Opening a gift on Grandma's lap.

Anna in the kitchen.

Christopher and Mary

A special highlight was going to the nursing home Christmas afternoon. Many had visitors or were gone to be with family, but we still found several to bring into the dining room so that we could sing carols and visit. We also brought fresh chocolate chip cookies to the workers.

We brought two baskets to the nursing home. One held the gifts (hand lotion and aftershave) and the other had the cookies.

We had some ice and snow yesterday, so I went out to take some pictures. My favorite part of an ice storm is when the sun shines, and the trees sparkle in a dazzling way. It's just beautiful. Truly, God's creation is a marvel.

Ice glazed branches.

Sarah for the family

“And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word…” (Luke 1:38).

We decided it was time to move the shrink-wrap machine from our current house to the new house. It is an extremely heavy machine, and it took Nathan, Christopher, Joseph, and John to get it up the stairs.

They put the machine on the pallet jack to take over to the new house.

We had an early mini-Christmas with my grandparents, since they’ll be visiting my aunt and uncle for Christmas. Here are some pictures you might enjoy .

"Is this for me, Mommy?"

Abigail's favorite part was the least expensive part--the wrapping paper. What good is something unless you can taste it?!

Aunt Anna playing with Abigail.

Where is the baby?!! (See her little feet sticking out from under the paper?)

Grandma blesses us with doing lots of our ironing before trips. You should see all the clothes we send over . We bought her a new ironing board for Christmas!

Anna and I -- matching.

Grandma and Abigail

Aunt Mary and Abigail. Those teething rings make Abigail's face pucker up.

Sarah for the family

“For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11).

As Sunday drew near, and the weather looked quite interesting, we decided to go ahead with caroling, even though the temperature was to drop 30+ degrees and have wind chills hardly above zero.

The first batch of cinnamon bread was started promptly after we came home from church, and the baking continued throughout the afternoon.

Abigail didn't help, but she was happily held by others. Here she is enjoying her teething ring.

Bread rising!

We went through lots of gooey, rich filling, and Mom was a wonderful help by mixing up several batches for us.

By the time one batch of bread was rolled out with filling, it seemed like the next batch was ready!

Mixing up our fourth and final batch!

Rolling the dough out.

By 5:30, most of the 36 loaves of bread were ready, and family members donned layers and layers of winter clothing. One batch took longer to bake, so Anna and I stayed behind to finish those while the rest began caroling. Candles were quickly extinguished by the wind, so those were left behind after the first few houses. Nathan drove their mini-van with the extra bread, and sometimes several hitched rides in the van from place to place. (Someone in our family had a traumatic Saturday evening, because they stepped on a rusty nail, and we had to take them to an urgent care place to get a tetanus shot. The person managed to make it around for caroling, walking very carefully on the injured foot.)

We frosted the loaves with a cream cheese frosting--yummy!

Anna hole-punched each card, and then wrapped pretty Christmas ribbon around each loaf, attaching the card to it.

Front of the card

Inside of the card.

Here are most of the loaves, minus the nine we were still finishing up.

See how bundled we were? Guess who this one is?!

As we went from house to house, some of the comments were, “We look forward to this every year!” to “This is the highlight of our Christmas season” to “Couldn’t you have picked a warmer evening? This is the coldest of the year!” to “Would you like to step in?” (which we declined—we were so layered/bundled up, we would roast!), to “I’ve been waiting for you!” to our favorite, “This is the best Christmas present I’ve ever ever had!”

I brought my little camera in my pocket, and I took this picture. Joseph played his guitar to accompany the music, and with the temperatures, it was amazing he could do it! We had purchased some inexpensive hand warmers which helped him, and he used gloves with the finger tips cut off so that he could still fret, but the rest of his hand would stay semi-warm. It started to snow as we caroled--it was PERFECTLY scenic! By the time we had finished, there was snow all over the ground, and it was beautiful.

We delight in going to 40 homes in our neighborhood (and a few outside the area) each year. We hear lots of positive feedback from those we go to, but, our hearts are blessed as well! It is something that we look forward to every year, and it’s truly a highlight to our Christmas season.

We would encourage you also to consider taking an evening and blessing those around you.

Rejoicing in Jesus,
Sarah for the family

“O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.” Psalms 95:1

It’s a quiet Christmas season here at the Maxwell house. Life is staying busy with house work, school work, and normal things . We are preparing to carol to over 30 neighbors/friends’ homes either this Sunday evening or the next. May our hearts be focused on our Lord and Savior. What a precious, precious gift HE is!

The book case is coming along. Here Joseph is measuring (I think the cutting came next).

The boys had to do sanding.

Staining the book case.

John and Jesse staining.

Two sweet little girls, Rebekah and Abigail, sent this brightly colored blanket for Abigail. You girls did a GREAT job!

Nathan had to work late tonight, so Abigail and Melanie joined us for the evening.

"Thanks, Uncle John!"

Abigail loves the basket of toys at our house. "Hmmm... What toy should I get next?!"

There is always someone to keep Abigail's attention.

Abigail is a girl through and through. She loves to play with hair, and she is especially thrilled if you wear ribbons in your hair .

I had laid my camera down, and OH, Abigail caught sight of it!

I left the camera on the floor to take this picture."Please, Aunt Sarah!"

~Sarah for the family

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6).

We are always on the look-out for simple Christmas decorations that give honor to the Lord Jesus Christ. A number of years ago Dad created a cross for the front of our house, and this year we added some lights to it so that it is illuminated at night.

It is a very easy-to-make, beautiful, and inexpensive Christmas decoration.

This is what the cross looks like during the day. And I really like the way it looks at night!

Here is the garland-cross at night.

When Dad made the cross, he used:

• Two dowels
• A garland
• Several bows
• And some wire

Here is the back of the wreath with the wire on the ground next to it. The wire had a handwritten price tag on it: $.99

This is the end of one of the dowels and also happens to be where the string of lights ends.

A few years ago Dad shared some of our interior Christmas decorations (which also included a photo of the outside cross), and Mom wrote a Mom’s Corner about Christmas Decorations as well.
 

A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel. (Luke 2:32)

The stairs have taken shape this last week as the important step of the railings has been done. The stairs and the bannister have been the most challenging things that the guys have done.

Tuesday was the day the spindles were put on the stairway. There was much prayer involved, and all the gluing worked out (when you use gorilla glue, there is not room for mistakes!).

Dad carefully squeezed drops of gorilla glue into each hole.

Honey, waiting while I took pictures of the stairs . She is cute, but Abigail is WAY cuter.

The boys worked to carefully get each spindle in the hole and set correctly.

Now, Joseph and John’s attention is turned to building a bookcase, which has to be completed by the middle of next week so that the carpet can be installed.

Abigail is learning to blow bubbles (and no one is teaching her), and her relatives are having a hard time not laughing (well, I guess you could say some ARE laughing).

(This is the eighth in a series of entries drawing analogies between experiences that Ambassador Joseph Grew shared about in his book Ten Years in Japan and practical aspects of being an ambassador for Jesus Christ)

Ambassador Grew spent 17 days aboard a ship traveling from the United States to Japan. While he was onboard the ship, he spent most of his time reading about Japan and preparing speeches.

Ambassador Grew shared, in several places within his journal, how very important speeches are to ambassadors. He went on to share that an ambassador should always be ready to share on a variety of topics. Such speeches don’t always come easy as evidenced by his journal entry for May 21, 1933, which was titled, “The Burdens of Speechmaking.” He had spent that entire day writing a speech that was to be given at the dedication of a new hospital. Coming up with an analogy or theme for the speech was often the most challenging part of speech preparation for Ambassador Grew. However, once he had an idea and started on it, he shared that the speech generally came together rather well.

Because Ambassador Grew had been in the Foreign Service for many years and held a number of different postings, he had developed the habit of saving the notes from his various speeches in case there was ever a need for a similar speech in the future.

The spiritual analogies seem so very obvious!

Jesus began His public ministry giving “speeches” and publicly sharing the gospel:

From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. (Matthew 4:17)

He continued speaking and teaching all throughout His ministry:

And he preached in their synagogues throughout all Galilee, and cast out devils. (Mark 1:39)

Jesus answered him, I spake openly to the world; I ever taught in the synagogue, and in the temple, whither the Jews always resort; and in secret have I said nothing. (John 18:20)

And Jesus preached and publicly shared right up until the end:

And in the day time he was teaching in the temple; and at night he went out, and abode in the mount that is called the mount of Olives. (Luke 21:37)

Jesus shared how His Father’s kingdom impacted many different practical aspects of life. The gospels are filled with His teaching about: love, service, divorce, prayer, sacrifice, blessing, defilement, thought-life, enemies, discipleship, idolatry — and the list could go on and on.

Peter, one of the disciples, who spent three years with Jesus, wrote that we should always be ready to give answers when we are asked (1 Peter 3:15). Paul encouraged Timothy to be ready to preach “in season” and “out of season” (2 Timothy 4:2).

What if an ambassador didn’t feel he was an ornate, naturally-gifted speaker? Would that exempt him from needing to prepare and give speeches? No. Considering that speeches are simply a part of an ambassador’s job, I think he would just have to work harder to prepare and then give those speeches!

What about us, as ambassadors for Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:20)? Are we ready and willing to publicly share? If given an opportunity to speak, will we? Do we spend the necessary time to properly prepare for such sharing? What a blessing that we have the gift of the Holy Spirit to lead us and guide us as we prepare (John 16:13), and because He is within us (John 14:17), we can rely upon Him as we share!

Anytime we are presented with an opportunity to publicly share Christ may we do so!

In Christ,
Christopher

Sunday night was the first time we have been invited to play at one of our local churches. It had been put together by a couple who attend our nursing home church. The husband is a resident in the nursing home, and his wife is with him every day. After we had played at the nursing home last Christmas, the wife began talking to friends at her church suggesting they have us sing there. The church invites groups to sing on fifth Sunday evenings.

We were blessed by having many of our friends join us for the evening in addition to the members of the church. The nursing home brought a van load with 7 residents and 4 volunteers. Work acquaintances, old friends we hadn’t seen for a long time, friends of Teri’s parents, neighbors, and those we interact with around town brought joy to our hearts by giving up their evening to spend with us.

Jesse giving his testimony.

Nathan brought Melanie and Abigail up during his testimony.

We played many of our usual songs plus two Christmas songs, and between each song one of us gave a testimony. “The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him” (Psalms 28:7).

Trusting in Jesus,
The Maxwells

As Thanksgiving approaches, Melanie and I wanted to post a “thank you” to all the prayer warriors who have prayed for us and loved us over these past years. We are immensely grateful for God’s gracious leading through both difficult and joyous times. We have been overwhelmed by your prayer support. We are not sure why God chose to bless us with so many friends, most whom we’ve never met, who have faithfully upheld us in prayer. Thank you! May God bless each of you as you have blessed us.

I was recently talking with an extended family member who was struggling with uncertainty over her future. It wasn’t the future that was hard for her, but just not knowing how things would work out. I remember numerous times 2+ years ago thinking, “God, if You’d just tell us when You’re going to bless us with children, we’ll be happy to wait.” Waiting on Him is rarely easy, and yet that’s what He asks of Christians frequently. To wait, and while waiting, to trust. Looking back, I realize that I’m glad we didn’t know what would happen when. God faithfully supported and led. We only needed, and at times could handle, the next step.

Abigail with a stuffed lobster Joseph and Anna brought back from the last trip for her.

Each month, the guys from my family, and often a few other friends, lead a chapel service at a local men’s shelter. The November service was going to be challenging. Due to a wedding, all my normal piano players were tied up. I worked and worked to find someone to play the piano for the service. After repeatedly asking God for His direction and provision, and then telling my dad about my dilemma he offered a suggestion. “Why don’t you play your guitar?” he said. I enjoy playing at home when it’s Melanie, Abigail and I and we’re finishing up our family Bible time with singing. But, at the mission with a group of men… sounded like a disaster waiting to happen. However, due to a lack of other options November 9th found me carrying my guitar into the mission. The chaplain led us to a number of different places before we ended up in an upstairs’ room. Because of remodeling, the normal chapel wasn’t available, and the two alternate locations didn’t work either. The room we held chapel in was one floor above where the piano was located. God knew we didn’t need a piano player for that service. He directed and provided in spite of my best efforts.

Abigail

Rereading my above paragraphs, I’m realizing how difficult this is going to be to conclude and pull all together. I’m sure a skilled writer wouldn’t have a problem with that, but since it’s just me I’ll do my best and hopefully it is somewhat understandable. As Thanksgiving approaches, I’m impressed by two things. First, gratefulness - to God for saving and leading us, to Melanie for her love and trust over the years, and to our families, friends, and blog readers for your love, care and support.

Abigail's bath robe .

But, I’m also reminded of the years Melanie and I spent without children. For some, five years will seem like a long time, to others short. We’re aware of how many couples there are throughout the world that desire to have children. We’re told that the holidays are all about family and memories. There is of course much more to them, but family time is important. I can remember Christmas celebrations where Melanie and I were acutely aware of the fact that we had no children. Scripture says that “even in laughter the heart may ache…” And yet now we look back at those years with a whole new perspective. They seem much shorter in hindsight than they did when we were “living” them. But, we also see God’s perfect control over our lives, what we learned during that time, and how He prepared us for what He had in store in the future. His leading is right, even when it doesn’t make sense to us or fit our desires. To trust isn’t easy, it’s required.

Melanie and Abigail

Abigail and I

Melanie caught this on camera! Abigail really looks like she was drinking from this cup. We thought it was cute.

Abigail and Aunt Anna. Abigail's aunts and uncles love to hold and play with her.

Happy Thanksgiving,
Nathan, Melanie and Abigail

Sometimes the Lord blesses in unexpected ways from unexpected places. That happened to our family last week. While the provider of this blessing chose to remain anonymous, we want to express our gratitude to the Lord for His provision for our ministry and the obedient heart of the family who encouraged and blessed us.
In Christ Jesus,
Steve for the family

Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. Psalms 100:4

Yum?!! We have a small, fire "pit" in our new backyard where we can burn things like wood scraps, etc. Occasionally (very), we'll do s'mores. This time, it was Grandad and Grandma's treat.

We are practicing up for November 30th. Aunt Anna let Abigail hold onto her bow--the only problem, Abigail really wanted to taste it too. She would look all the way up the bow and grab for it.

Such a CUTE little hand!

Anna grabbed my camera during our music practice last night and took this picture. We were having relaxed practice .

Another relaxed banjo player!

The work at the house is progressing. Dad is wiring in the outlets, and Jesse is screwing on the covers.

John is caulking. (I saw he found a use for those sheetrocking stilts. Hmmmm...)

We girls and Mom will often work on clean up on the house. Here is Mary.

And here is Annie. She was working through a huge pile of odd-sized pieces of wood, and Dad let her use the saw to cut up some of them. It made the job more interesting, I think.

I didn’t explain what happened with the toilet leak, either. Daddy found that there was a defect in the toilet! So, it wasn’t anything that we did, but rather a lemon of a toilet. Oh well.

As we approach Thanksgiving week, I think of how many things I am grateful for. Truly, the Lord has blessed each one of us in so many ways!

Sarah for the rest

“Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name” (Psalms 100:4).

This past week has had it’s challenges in the house building relm. First, it started with the stairs. We won’t go into all the problems we had there.

Now things are going well on the stairs.

Working on the steps yesterday.

The boys' bedroom and the music room (which is currently taking up sweet Mom's living room!) will be upstairs.

Then, a leak was discovered yesterday in the finished living room ceiling. Sadly, a portion of the ceiling had to be removed so the leak could be found. When Dad came home tonight, and we girls brought up that we had heard about the ceiling, he responded with a cheerful attitude. Truly, Dad has learned to rest in the Lord, and with His help, the leak will be fixed, the ceiling patched, and we’ll be back on to progress. Sometimes there does have to be a few steps back, before more progress can happen .

Our living room ceiling. Hmmmm....

~Sarah

(This is the seventh in a series of entries drawing analogies between experiences that Ambassador Joseph Grew shared about in his book Ten Years in Japan and practical aspects of being an ambassador for Jesus Christ)

Soon after Ambassador Grew arrived in Japan, the Chinese Ambassador came to visit him. The problem was that the Chinese ambassador wore a rather formal outfit. Ambassador Grew wrote that he was stumped in relation as to what he should wear when he returned the visit to the Chinese ambassador. As Ambassador Grew was writing about his various choices and why each choice would or wouldn’t be appropriate, he wrote that clothing was “that all-important element of diplomacy.”

I wonder how often we, as ambassadors for Christ think about our clothing in relation to being His ambassador? How often would we consider it to be one of the most important elements of our representation of Christ?

Scripture is full of information relating to how we are to dress. Ambassador Grew’s concern had nothing to do with comfort, style, or convenience — his whole concern was what was appropriate and proper.

Do we think there are ever times when it would be okay for an ambassador to dress improperly in public – say for comfort, fashion, convenience, or to draw attention to one’s body? The obvious answer would be “no.”

But, what if it was just a quick