Now ye hear of endless bliss:
Joy! Joy!
Jesus Christ was born for this!
He has opened the heavenly door, and man is blest forevermore.
Christ was born for this! Christ was born for this!
Season's greetings and happy holidays, I trust you are doing well.
Since my last update, life for the Rutledge Family and the ministry here at Akha Outreach Foundation has been busy but also very blessed. There isn’t a week that passes without some new adventure to face or storm to weather, but we don’t despair because we cling to the promises of Lamentations 3:21-25
21 This I recall to my mind,
Therefore I have hope.
22 Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed,
Because His compassions fail not.
23 They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
24 “ The LORD is my portion,” says my soul,
“ Therefore I hope in Him!”
25 The LORD is good to those who wait for Him,
To the soul who seeks Him.
This is the hope we find in Him. I would love to share with all that has been taking place over the past few months, but I am desperately trying to get this update posted before the turn of the New Year, so I will just share a few highlights and have attached a link to a photo journal of the past months. I trust that the pictures will be more vivid in showing you the goodness of God and how He is working in and through the Rutledge family in Thailand. Thank you for taking the time to read this update, and I trust you will join me in rejoicing in God and His faithfulness.
http://picasaweb.google.com/dan.rutledge/LifeOnTheEdge?feat=directlink
The holiday season is upon
us, and though this is my favorite time of the year, it is also the hardest. I love celebrating Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years here at AOF, but I do hate being so far away from friends and family during this time of the year. Please know even though we are physically apart, you are very near to our hearts. Mam and I have been frantically preparing a small Christmas gift to share with all of our supporters and prayer partners, and trusting that they will arrive in time for Christmas. We are always thanking God for you and all you have done to bless our family, but especially during the holiday season we want you to know how thankful we are. Without your prayers and financial support our family would not be able to minister here at Akha Outreach Foundation. 100 % of our finances come from your faithfulness in giving. Thank you so much for hearing God’s call and being willing to be used by Him to bless not only our family, but also 1000 of Akha and Thai people through the ministry here. This Thanksgiving our family took time to pray especially for you and thank God for His goodness to us, which we receive through you. We have so much to be thankful for, and because of your gifts there has not be a month pass by where we didn’t have enough money to cover our needs. God is so good, and thank you for your willingness to be used by Him for His glory. Thank you again.December is always a very busy month for the Rutledge Family. On December 5th, Thailand celebrates Fathers Day and all the schools close for the day. December 5th is the king of Thailand’s birthday and this year he is turning 81 years old. It is a special day because he has been king of Thailand for over 60 years. He has been a good and just king and all the people love him. Over the years I have learned to see the love which the Thai people have for their king, and think back to the days of King David and what a love the people had for him. I also think about the King of Kings, and how wonderful His kingdom will be, and how blessed we are to be a part of it.
On December 10th Thailand celebrates constitution day, the day when freedom came to the common people. Thailand used to be a monarchy in which royalty ruled everything. But the king of Thailand decided that democracy was best and gave up his power to guarantee freedom for the Thai people. What a beautiful picture of sacrifice and love. We can’t help to think about Jesus and His willingness to give up His supreme power and rule, to come to the earth to be born in a lowly manger, and later to give up his life on the cross for us. That is sacrifice and true love. On December 12th we celebrate Mams’ birthday, followed by mine on the 19th, then on the 25th Bratanas’ birthday and also the birth of Jesus Christ. December comes to a close on the 31st, as everyone celebrates the passing of a year and the beginning of a new one. As you can see December is super busy for the Rutledge family, but this year we decided to add a little extra craziness to our Christmas time. Every year we celebrate Christmas here at AOF will all of the orphans and Bible students. Trying to get Christmas ready for 130 people is hard enough, but this year we decided to invite the members from the 16 churches under us to join us for Christmas. We can be looking at over 1000 people staying here for a three day Christmas celebration. How we will do this I am not sure, but I know it will be a truly wonderful time as we come together to celebrate to birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Keep checking the blog, I will be taking lots of pictures and posting them.
This is going to be a sp
ecial Christmas for us, not only because we are expecting to host the largest Christmas party ever, but because this will be the last Christmas the Rutledge family will be spending with AOF for a while. For seven wonderful years we as a family have been blessed to be able to live and serve here at Akha Outreach Foundation. It has become our home, and we will be sad to leave, but after much prayer we feel it is the right time to move on. We will finish out the school year, which ends in March and after that we will begin preparations for a move back to the States. Why we are leaving and what we will be doing next will be explained in more detail in an upcoming letter. I just wanted to give you a heads up, and know that Lord willing we will be spending the holidays season with friends and family in the States. It is going to be hard to leave, but we feel a peace and know God has a new road for us to travel. Please be in prayer for us, as we begin the preparations for the trip back to the States. There are many steps and many things we need to do before we board the plane to the US, so please pray that we will be diligent in doing what needs to be done, but also have quality time with all the people we work with here at AOF. We have invested 7 years into the lives of this ministry, and we want the next 6 months to be invested wisely too. I promise to update you more about our move and our future plans, but if you just need to know now, please feel free to email me and I will give you a more detailed description of our upcoming plans.Well the time has come to sign off. Thank you again for taking the time to read this, and please do check out the web photo journal of the past few months. I trust you had a great Thanksgiving, and our family is wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I leave you with the chorus from a Christmas Carol which is not very well known, but has a wonderful message. The Wassail Song, and the chorus goes like this:
Love and joy come to you,
And to you your wassail, too,
And God bless you, and send you
A Happy New Year,
And God send you a Happy New Year
Peace and Love through Christ
The Rutledge Family
