Happy New Year!
Many thanks for your loving cards, notes, emails, and messages. Our family is very blessed to be a part of Starnberg Fellowship.
I wanted to share with you an inspiring story that I just read. A family in Colorado received one of their greatest gifts this Christmas season—their cat who had gone missing for 10 years. But the story gets even more miraculous.
Pilot, the cat, was adopted by the Thompson family as a kitten in 2004. Three years later, he went missing from their home in Northern California. In the aftermath of the devastating fires, a Good Samaritan, searching for her own cats in post-fire rubble, came across Pilot (about a mile from his original home). Taken to the pet hospital, Pilot’s microchip was scanned and traced back all the way to his owners, now living in Colorado. You can read the entire story here: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/12/26/missing-for-10-years-cat-finds-his-way-back-to-family-after-california-wildfires.html.
Do you think the family may have prayed and given up hope of ever seeing their beloved cat again?
When I read stories like these, I am energized to pray more fervently and anticipate with great expectancy God’s answers to our prayers. It affirms once again his loving concern with every aspect of our lives. Regardless of what we’re praying for, be it infinitesimal or important in the eyes of others, to God each prayer of ours is vital and he answers them in his time and according to his purpose—which is his best for us.
Let us approach the new year with greater determination, courage, and hope to begin afresh, to set aside the things of the past holding us back, and to look for the promise of God’s blessings and guidance for the future. Starnberg Fellowship has an invitation and an amazing opportunity to be involved in its community. But more on that in the next month.
Looking forward to being in worship with you on Sunday, 7 January, at Christuskirche (there will be no service on Sunday, 31 December). As we dwell on “Immanuel-God with us,” I will be starting a series on the importance of Christ’s authority over all our lives and our eternal destiny.
Happy New Year—with love from our family to yours.
