 Ooooh-eeeehll! The joint has been jumpin! Since the middle of August Tricia and I have seen a marked increase in the amount of ministry the Lord has given us to do Normally, the month of August slows down, and we have time to catch our breath before the fall season begins Not so this year. To begin with, we had back-to-back Klesis retreats, one for a couple , and one tbr an individual. Then, in September, we led the Sunday School teachers from Collinsville Congregational on retreat, and a 1-day retreat for pastors of the Simsbury Clergy Association. Then, 20 Executive Presbyters from the Synod of the North East were with us for a midweek retreat. The last week in September, Kit traveled to Nashville, TN to lead the counseling staff of Grace Ministries Tennessee on a Listening to God retreat. On the 27th, Kit taught a Marriage Seminar on Listening to God Together at New Beginnings Assembly of God Church in Watertown, CT. October continued the pace as Bob Japenga (president of the Klesis Board) and Kit traveled to Spring Meadows Christian Retreat House, Harmony, PA to lead Grant and Rosa Lee Smith, and their Board members on a Listening to God retreat. Grant and Rosa Lee have established Spring Meadows, and are launching their retreat ministry this fall. The middle of the month included a 3-day individual retreat and a weekend retreat for the Vestry of St. Alban's Episcopal Church. The very next week we had another fruitful individual retreat that carried through the weekend. November began with a weekend Listening to God Couple's Workshop for 10 couples from our's and surrounding churches. The last week a wonderful missionary couple on furlough from serving in Mexico City were on retreat for 5 days. Sandwiched in between all the retreats has been an 8-week worship service Tricia and I have been leading on Tuesday evenings at Collinsville Congregational, and a 3-week Finding Intimacy With God class Kit taught on Wednesday evenings at First Congregational Church in Westñeld, MA. As all of this has been occurring, Tricia and I have also been carrying an increasing counseling and spiritual direction load during the week. We are seeing more couples for marriage counseling, and men and women of all ages for inner healing, and vocational counseling using the Playmaker Profile. I need to tell you that sometimes all of this feels overwhelming, and both Tricia and I reach a point of emotional saturation, even exhaustion occasionally. We have a family to care for, and ministry for the CPC to do as well, not to mention making time to be alone with Jesus for our own comforting, refreshing, teaching and strengthening. I am not complaining, just letting you know prayer what this work feels like sometimes. Talking with many of you, I hear of similar saturation and exhaustion. Seems like it's going around these days. Still, there is also exhilaration moments. Witnessing Jesus release a captive or bind up someone whose heart has been shredded never stops being a marvel. Watching a person gradually discover that God really does speak to the likes of him or her, and that His words are full of tenderness and acceptance always leaves life for me in its wake. There are many tears shed on the couch across from us, but there are also smiles, laughter and eyes that talk back hope. You can make a meal on all that stuff, and we eat well around here. Pray for us as we bring the tiny bit we have to give and Jesus graciously mixes it with his lavish wisdom and strength for the loved ones He sends to us. He's more than enough always will be, but He's got to go slow for Tricia and me.  Working in this work gives a body a sense of what God seems to care for as He interacts with his people through the joys, sorrows, and routines of their lives. I have noticed two areas of emphasis, if you will, that God appears to turn to again and again. The first is that He relentlessly calls people to the truth, and wants us to walk in the truth with more and more determination, and courageous abandon. In fact, He wants us to be shot through with truth, from the "inner parts" (Ps. 51:6) to the outer walk. (2 Jn. 4) Radical truth that knifes through all our posing, posturing, and pretending. He wants us to recognize reality wherever it shows itself. Until we can see the "real" (as opposed to the false, illusionary, or deceiving) we are blurred or blinded, easy prey for the eager purveyors of binding fantasies galore, easy pickin's for our own hand-polished delusions. God has given us all the truth we need to be captivated by Him, and then rest ourselves in His loving reflection. In the stunning light of God's holiness we are shown plainly to be tatterdemalions, rogues, wastrels, frauds, and mountebanks. In the magnificent light of His love for us we are revealed to be pearls of great price, lambs held gently near the Father's heart, Abba's children, and prodigals to feast over. Unless we resolutely grasp the breathtaking implications of these two sides of truth we will stumble about in fantasy or bondage. Refusing to see ourselves as devastatingly corrupted by sin robs us of the cross and its illuminating, healing effects. Unable to accept God's tirelessly persisting love we stay captive to the rejections and violations of self-absorbed sinners, or the crippling effects of our own protective pride. Either way we are imprisoned. Jesus releases captives into the truth. Sometimes He has to yank us by the scruff of the neck; sometimes he has to pull the rug out; sometimes he has to push us stubborn broncos through the gate; sometimes He has to lure us because we're skittish jackrabbits. Whatever our brand of resistance, He works to free us for truth. You see he knows that the truth will set us free, one way or the other, and "it is for freedom that Christ has set us free" in the first place (Gal. 5:1). God is zealous for our freedom. That's the second thing I have seen Him pursue in people. We get so bound up in sin and the cruel illusions of life it promises. We tie ourselves in knots by the ropes of our own making. Pride keeps us gazing lovingly at ourselves. Anger burns our innards like a Roman candle. Lust whispers pleasure and traps us in torment. Unforgiveness calcifies the heart to flint trapping joy and peace. On and on it goes. Still Jesus asks, "Do you want the freedom only I can give? Then yield, surrender, come to Me Why let what your brother did to you, or what your sister said to you steal what I have promised is yours in Me? Why do you fear so what life might bring? Why do you think I will abandon you in your time of greatest need? What are you so endlessly running after? Why do you seek freedom in store-bought trifles. Am I not enough? Who told you I am just a pleasant dream, a paper Savior?" Our freedom emptied God's wallet so to speak. He held back not even a penny. In giving His Son for us, He gave it all. What God pays for, He watches over, and cares for. He shed His own blood for the freedom we are asked to put on, and he won't ignore it when we get all tangled up in our own sin-soaked webs, or those spun by the sinners around us. Maybe this Advent season as you wait quietly in your heart for Jesus you could ask Him to show where you run away from the truth as if it were the bulls of Pamplona threatening to trample the stuffing out of you. While you are at it, ask Him to reveal where you are trapped, hidden, or lost because of sin, your own or someone else's. He invites you to life. Don't be afraid. Truth and freedom are gifts, and Christmas, is on the way, isn't it?  Many of you who have walked with Tricia and me over these last 9 years know that we have struggled to provide for our family and meet our obligations. With the exception of one fundraising effort 3-4 years ago, we have never solicited donations. We have kept our fees for the ministries we offer at the same rate since 1990. In fact, we actually lowered our fee for the Playmaker Profile to make it more accessible to people. In order to better meet our family needs (for things like health insurance) we will be raising our fees beginning in January, 1999. The following is a schedule of new fees:
Folks presently in ministry with us will still be able to pay the current fees. You also need to know that we will continue to not turn away anyone who cannot pay the fees because of hardship. Another policy we will be putting into place is that if someone misses a scheduled appointment without notifying us beforehand we will bill that person for the missed appointment. As we get busier, with more requests for ministry, we have to turn others away, and therefore, a missed appointment is a lost opportunity to help serve another person in need. If you notify us at least an hour before the scheduled appointment (we prefer 24 hours notice, if possible), that you have to cancel, we will not bill you. We also recognize that emergencies occur in people's lives, and will take that into consideration if you are not able to call. Our desire is to serve everyone that God sends to us to the best of our ability. Fee and policy changes are not meant to stand in the way or be a stumbling block to anyone we have been called to care for. It is in that spirit that we notify you.  At the beginning of 1998, Tricia and I spent some time in the silence listening to God about His direction for the new year. Among the wonderful things that He said to us was that 1998 would be "a year of restoration and expansion." It has truly been so - God has favored our work with His grace in ways that have grown fruit and blessed us as people. Klesis has grown both from seeds that were planted years ago, and from new relationships begun this year. We have been entrusted with the astonishing responsibility of caring for the wounded souls of the Beloved. And He has sent more this year than ever before! In the withering words of the caterpillar of Alice In Wonderland, "And who are you?" Exactly. It doesn't square with the stark truth of our great weakness and profound need. But maybe He knows something we don't. Maybe His grace really is sufficient for the tremendous responsibility He has given us when someone walks through our doors looking for help. Could it actually be that His power is made perfect in my wretched weakness as I struggle to help someone find the truth and be healed by it. Believe me, every time I sit down with one of His pearls of great price to enter pain, sorrow or sin, I silently call out to Jesus. I ask that He so transform my sheer brokenness that I fade into the background, and He be recognized in the splendor, majesty, and power that belong only to Him. Jesus has shown favor to us by answering that call many times this year. We have been blessed only because He is good. We have found favor only because He is good. We have seen increase only because He is good. His goodness is what we oiler to the broken, and His goodness is what we hold on to in our brokenness. In this year we have feasted on life discovered, life clasped closed, and life restored. We have also watched death, the death of self that leads to forgiveness and healing. We have seen hope rekindled with tears ofjoy. We have seen people entombed in bondage cut free from cruel oppression. Ours have been the banquet of the weak and needy. Oh, King Jesus, Lord of the banquet. Thank you!   Reasons to Shout Praises to God!!!!
Reasons we ask you to pray for us:
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