Dear Family and Friends,
Joy to the World… This season is one giving us pause to reflect on the most important gift the world has ever seen: the Lord has come!
Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth… — Psalm 98:4a
We shout for joy because our savior has good news for you and for me. In a world of bad news, Christ, the savior, has come bringing Good News! (Luke 2:10)
This joy that Jesus brings shines in the darkness of our world and His fingerprints show throughout our lives.
For Silk and me this year, our 32nd together, we celebrated with a special 30-year anniversary trip (delayed due to COVID a few years ago). We visited Silk’s family and heritage in Macedonia, which was complemented by the launch of our new Macedonian Call to take A3 into North Africa and Europe. As I write this, our team is working with North Africans in Southern Europe. Praise God!
Adding to our family’s delight, our son John graduated with a master’s degree from Oxford University and is now working in London as an analyst assessing media polarity. We praise God for John’s accomplishments. And, as you likely know, our daughters are married and living nearby us, both also having careers in journalism. Who’d have imagined they’d all end up in some form of journalism? In their own way, they are following the family heritage of wanting to make a difference in the world.
As for ministry, it’s so neat to see the A3 community emerging from the pandemic that has restricted our activity for several years. We’ve seen several country graduations and our first global summit in 3 years was a powerful blend of celebration of being back together along with appropriate lament from the losses everyone faced since our 2019 gathering.
2022 Global Leaders' Summit (many people not shown due to security reasons)
Joe was particularly enthused by the recent Japan National Pastors’ Congress where the average age of the pastors was early-to-mid 40’s. In a world where that number is often 65+, this is a great sign of things to come, and we praise God as they aspire to double the Christian population.
So, as 2022 draws to a close, we praise God for the Good News Jesus brings to our world. Joy to the world indeed! The Lord has come, and we are seeing signs of new birth throughout our lives and ministry heading into 2023.
We praise God for you and your faithful friendship with us these many years.
We send you this brief Christmas greeting...
Hi! It's Silk and Joe Handley with A3. And we want to wish you a Merry Christmas! Joe would like to read a passage right now.
You know as I was thinking about our love and care for you this Christmas season, I'm reminded of the Gospel of Luke, and it says that the angel said to them:
"Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people for today in the town of David a Savior is born to you. He is the Messiah the Lord."
Christmas is good news because it's about Jesus.
And we are so excited to take that good news all across Asia and now into other parts of the world. Thank you for your partnership and we trust and pray that you have a very Merry Christmas.
Merry Christmas! God bless you!
Joe Handley
President, A3
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@jwhandley
@jwhandley
