Matt and Neilia Kinney: November and December 2007
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! In Psalm 90 verse nine we read, "We spend our years as a tale that is told." Our lives pass by as quickly as the telling of a story. Yet, the flip side of that thought is that God gives us the power to write the story of our lives each day, as we would like it to be told. May chapter 2008 please Him!
Thank you to all of you who sent Christmas greetings via cards and e-mail. We greatly appreciate those reminders of home during the holiday season. We have enjoyed having Matt's sister visiting with us since November. She has been a huge blessing in our home as well as in the church services, where she assists in our children's class. We look forward to Matt's parents' and his brother and sister-in-law's visiting us in January. Matt and his dad will be traveling to Nicaragua for a week-long mission trip with Dr. Bob Dayton. Please pray with us for God's hand on them during that trip.
We thank the Lord for the two first-time visitors we had in the month of December, as well as a record attendance of twenty-eight for our Christmas service and dinner afterwards. We want to ask you to pray for the young couple we mentioned in our last letter. Their names are Angelo and Dirrian. They were invited to church by one of our members, shortly after they moved into town. They attended our services very faithfully, but after a couple of months, she left him and moved back to live with her mother. Since then, Angelo has resisted all our attempts to reach out to him. Thankfully they are both saved, but God wants so much more for them. Please pray that we can be used of God to help them in some way.
We continue to take advantage of every opportunity God gives us to further develop relationships with people in our community. Neilia, especially, gets invited into homes by ladies that she has come to know through regular contact around town. There is certainly no replacement for traditional personal evangelism, but we have seen clearly, as we have heard expressed by other missionaries, the great difference between an openness to hear the Gospel and a willingness to receive the Gospel. These are some of the most kind, open, hospitable people we have ever met in our lives, and they will gladly listen to a presentation of the Gospel with a smile on their face. But the typical response at the end is a very agreeable, "My family is Catholic." Whether or not they ever go to mass, tradition and the deep family ties inherent in their culture form a sometimes seemingly insurmountable barrier to their willingness to accept God's simple plan of salvation. Thank God for the promise that His word will not return void. Thank you for your continued prayers.
For Him,
Matt and Neilia Kinney