Greetings in the mighty name of our Sovereign Lord Jesus Christ,
George and I and all our family want to really appreciate God for the beautiful year he gave us, both as a family and as the Vision and Passion (VisPa) fraternity, the orphanage, the fellowship and the school. We do hope and pray that your year has been blessed, we have continually prayed for you and your families and trust that all has been well.
This message is to specifically thank you and your families for the sacrifices that you have made towards the work at VisPa to make this organisation a success. I want to thank you for your prayers, thoughts, time, financial and material support and any other kind of support that has gone towards this. Even as we come to the end of this year may you know God’s richest blessings.
A message for the year
I have been looking at the goodness of the Lord and thought that I should share with you about the unconditional love of God.
In Exodus 4:21, we see how God loved Israel even when they had stayed in Egypt for 400 years and even though in many ways they compromised, He was still determined to love them and bring them back to Himself. And so, whatever it would cost, He delivered them. He commanded Moses to preform miracles and wonders, and while sometimes these changed people’s hearts, one thing that happened is that God hardened the heart of Pharaoh not to release them, but later He made Pharaoh release them because He said Israel is my firstborn.
Everyone loves their children and especially the firstborn has a better place because of opening the womb, being the joy, the pride, the hope of the family. Parents love their children and if anyone held your child ransom you would do anything to get them out. This is what God did to Israel in Egypt and in essence He was looking at the birth of Christ and the church now. We have been purchased with the blood of Jesus. So as a church and as Christians it would be nice for us to learn that the Lord God loves us so much, that while we may go astray, or have gone astray, still He is determined to love us and bring us to Himself. That is what we see in the book of John 3:14 – 17. In whatever stage we may find ourselves, thought it may seem bad, God still means it for good to us and our families.
May the Lord bless you all this year ending 2014 and the new year 2015.
Shalom
Hellen Ochieng
(Director of VisPa in Kenya)