Christmas greetings wherever you are. We have had a joyful time over the past month. It was a moment of joy to have visitors from Oklahoma, Nashville and Kansas share in the soil turning ceremony at Anathoth. Bishop Robert Hayes led and his team of people joined us in the celebration and hope of the ceremony.

Here are greetings from the Africa Upper Room Ministries Staff:

At Christmastime we sing, "Joy to the World the Lord has come. Let earth receive her King!" How wonderful that the moment we receive Christ we receive this joy. It is there. Do we always feel it? No. Do our circumstances always seem joyful? No! But the Word, the very precious Word, tells us that we have this joy. In John 15 Christ tells us to remain in his love and to follow his commandments so that his joy may be in us and that our joy may be complete. Not quarter, not half, but full and complete! We don't need to look for joy for it has been given as a pure and precious gift to us. When we focus on our Lord Jesus, not just at Christmas but throughout each and every day, whatever the day may bring, we know and feel the joy of Christ's love and his presence within us. And what a magnificent privilege we have of spreading it as we give of ourselves, our love and our possessions. This Christmas may the assurance of joy be steadfast in our hearts, may we not seek it, but seek to give it and in so doing "find" what is already there.

- Elaine Richardson - West Coast, Western Cape

In preparing our hearts for this advent season, may it be a journey of transformation releasing us from the burdens of the past year; preparing and empowering us for what awaits us in the year ahead. As we journey through this season, making it possibly to receive again this Christmas, in awe and wonder, the great and glorious gift of Emmanuel, Christ Jesus, may we again find the joy that life has extinguished. Then, as we sing again those glorious carols, we will do so with great conviction "Joy to the world the Lord is come!"

- Ralph Willcox - Cape Town Manager

As you all know, Salty Print as we've known it ceases to be a church-based project as it changes hands on 31 December 2008.

We experienced a moment of immense joy last week when a client came by to express his thanks to Salty Print and Vincent Abrahams in particular, for supporting and encouraging him over the years; for keeping production costs to a minimum. His journey has been a long one of perseverance and hope -- bringing him to this point where he has self-published a few booklets. He beamed as he told us the Western Cape Dept of Education is interested in his latest book of Xhosa stories. There is also a possibility he may be employed as a cultural officer in the Department of Arts and Culture. What a heart-warming and utterly rewarding moment.

Vincent spent many hours patiently assisting this young man to put his writings into book form. Other writers from the townships have been helped in similar ways.

"He sent me to bring good news to the poor. ... To give joy and gladness instead of grief." (Is. 61:1-3) Blessings, peace, love, and joy to you all this Christmastide.

- Bea Smith - The Upper Room Africa English Editor

Let there be peace on earth ...
and let it begin
with me.

- Dale Rust Waymack - AURM/Africa coordinator, Nashville TN

Every new morning is a joy to me! The birds have no worries and make a delightful noise unto the Lord outside in the trees. They just praise and sing! Some, of course do squawk like the Lourie clowns or screech like the Hadidas! Each new day brings about new possibilities and opportunities to make the best of our lives, to share God's love and greatness with others, to do something nice or helpful, no matter how small, for someone else. Having just had knee surgery, I stand amazed that medicine has advanced in such an amazing way that there are no more great cuts but just little holes through which healing is brought. I praise God for the medical teams and for the 'forced' rest it has brought to me. Each evening is a joy to me as I count the abundant blessings our Lord has showered over me, unconditionally and unexpectantly.

As we stand at the end of an exciting and successful year, I praise God for the doors that He has flung open for AURM so that His word can be brought to more and more people in Africa. He has brought the joy of new colleagues, Ralph and Jenny, into our midst and for the opening of the Cape Town office.

We look forward with great anticipation and joy to 2009 and for all that God has in store for us, for new opportunities and possibilities to achieve in his power and name. May you experience the Joy of Christ in this celebration season. He has come to bring us life in all its fullness and abundance and joy!

- Renny Stoltz - AURM Financial Manager

The oxford dictionary defines joy as, "a deep emotion of pleasure, a thing that causes gladness." Spiritual joy is the infallible sign of the presence of God -- a by-product of a very rich and deep faith. There's a 15th century mystic named Julian of Norwich who said, "The greatest honor that you can give to Almighty God, greater than all your penances and sacrifices, is to live joyfully because of the knowledge of his love."

It never ceases to amaze me the joy that little children have at this time of the year, as they look and wait expectantly for Christmas day to arrive. Are we not as Christians called to have that same joy? Not just to wait for special days to arrive.

As I look back on this year there have been many moments of joy both in my personal life as well as my working life. There was the birth of our first grandson and the joy that this little life has brought about -- watching him grow and develop. Then there is the joy of the many things that we have achieved at work as we have grown in the providing of Christian material and various other staff activities.

As Christians we should always have joy in our hearts but we know that this is not always possible because of the circumstances that we sometimes find ourselves in. But we have to decide that we are going to be a joyful person. A spirit of joy requires a certain discipline of mind. You have to control your thoughts. Bring that steel door down and try as best you can to be free to smell the roses. Look at the birds, enjoy the sun, smell the fresh air. Life is a gift. It's yours to enjoy. When you reach that kind of maturity, loving your neighbor, loving yourself well, then a new sense comes over you. And that is the idea that you can actually participate in God's love and be an instrument of his love, so that your hands will enable him to express his love through you.

The challenge to me this year is to be joyful in all things and to look for ways to make others lives more joyful not just at Christmas but throughout the year.

May this Christmas be a time of joy and celebration as we remember the Christ who came into the world for each one of us and may we all experience that deep emotion that is cause for joy.

- John Mitchley - AURM Book/Distribution Manager

I found Joy. She crept into the pew in front of me with her sister and Granny. A small little girl dressed in a cotton dress, Joy immediately set about dancing, clapping and swaying to the music in the Nairobi sanctuary of the Church of the Nazarene in uninhibited joy. Oblivious to the cares and concerns of the world, lost in the music and innocence of children, Joy unwittingly and unknowingly gave me new hope and joy. A stark reminder of how we need to become like children again.

- Roland Rink

Rejoice in the Lord always! Again I will say rejoice. What was Paul going on about? What were the times like?

Looking at the wider world today, especially at this time of the year, makes one calculate the price of joy and peace for our time. But again I come back to the promise," My peace I give to you, not as the world gives ..." Even as I ponder these words, I am again and again reminded that Christ is the joy that cannot be taken away by the world of war. He reigns not because we are there, but because he is King. He is the fountain of all beauty, the Prince of all peace; joy when found in him will never be lost.

Peace and joy are the foundations of any garden. God planted a garden first, and then created humanity, that in our life there will be a continual sense of the cool, calm, peaceful joyous existence. How about learning from the plants and other created order, that we may daily experience God's unchanging JOY and Peace!!! This tells me that we can find a place of joy, in God's perpetual garden. PEACE AND JOY TO ALL.

- Ike Moloabi - AURM Spiritual Director