This journey with Jesus gets more interesting every day, and as I travel the road with Him, and delve deeper into His heart, I find myself asking Him as I am waking in the morning, "What is on your heart for today? Let me be a part of it. Oh please let me be a part of it." 
 This week my husband and I were to go together on an outreach to another island, but I woke up with fever and abdominal sickness, and we both decided that I should stay home.
We recently hired a woman named *Sarah to do some of the clinic laundry. She is in her fifties, her face carrying shadows o many years of brokenness. God was stirring in me, whispering to me just a glimpse of His heart for Sarah, and even that small glimpse filled my eyes with tears.  I felt clearly in my spirit that God's plans were about loving this beautiful one and not about me going to Palawan. I waited excitedly to see what He would do. He never disappoints.

 When I looked at Sarah, I saw a women with her head hung low, her eyes downcast, her spirit heavy.   
She has come from a past full of hardship and loss, and I felt that she somehow believed that she deserved it.

Our first day together I began to love her with all that was in me. I asked God to pour His love out of me, onto her, and cover her like a warm blanket.
 She began to share her heart in small pieces, little by little, trusting me with the deep places in her soul. I would hold her and we would pray, and tears began to fall.  "You are so valuable," I told her, " God sees your heart as a treasure, He loves you with a passion no person could ever show you. He sees your pain, and holds every tear." 
  "No one ever told me that I was valuable," she whispered. "Of course that is why I do not believe I am."  

 She told me that last year Francis had given her  a book and she while reading it, learned the way to come into relationship with Jesus. She had  prayed and asked Him to come and save her, but she was feeling so unworthy, and did not know how to grow. 

 "Sarah, God has written your name on His hand, He says you are His beloved daughter. He has freedom, life, and a future for you that is filled with hope. There is no condemnation for you."  
 She laid her head on my shoulder and wept, a flood of relief, new-found freedom, and still the pain of wounds that are not yet healed.

 That night I asked if I could serve her and rub her tired feet. As I massaged, I felt a lump on both feet where the pressure point for the thyroid is located.  I asked her if there was a problem with her thyroid. "Yes!," she said, pulling the hair away from her neck she tilted her head back. I could see a small mass where her thyroid was enlarged, but she went on to tell me, "For many years now, I choke on my food and cannot swallow, and often I cannot breathe very well." I realized that her goiter (enlarging thyroid) was growing inward instead of outward, and cutting off her airway as well as blocking her esophagus.  I asked if I could pray healing over her, because our God is her healer. I touched her thyroid and asked God to show her His power and love by healing her. 

The next morning she greeted me with a smile. Hugging me she said, "When you prayed last night, I suddenly can breathe well, and today I feel this lump getting smaller."  Her eyes sparkled with life, and with the realization that her God cares for her, and will take care of her every need. 

 Today I look at Sarah and I see a radiant woman whose heart is healing, whose head is held high with confidence, whose smile is wide, eyes sparkling with joy.

She has been a daughter of the king for a while now, but never knew what that meant, or the abundant life that God has for her...  
I revel as I watch her, seeing with fresh eyes that the hope that God gives us makes us soar with new wings.  He means it when He says He has a future and hope for us, plans to prosper us. 

Sometimes it takes brokenness for us to realize His undying love and out of that brokenness comes beauty that we could not imagine.

These days I have 'new' on my mind. It seems that everything that seemed normal to me in my life has turned upside down, and a new normal is on it's way to becoming the way things are.  

 We have been in our new home for four weeks now, and in those four weeks, we have clung to each other in new and deeper ways, and are learning the heart of our God further.  

 It's a new year, and I can't forget it, as I hear it yelled from the corner of every street that we pass by. The new year and hope of new things are making people everywhere seem extra jolly and benevolent. The streets are littered with the residue and charred remnants of fireworks  and homemade pipe-bombs, and the poorest of the tribal villages are still  making the trek down to town, dirty-faced children in tow, hands outstretched, hoping that some of the leftover merriment will mean a few coins tossed their way.   

I watched yesterday for a while as a very young Mangyan mother with a newborn tied tightly to her back shuffled through the street with her small son in tow. The majority of the town people just moved to the other side of the street when they saw the bedraggled parade of poverty coming their way, or completely ignored the quiet mumbled plea for money,  and the upturned hand.   I ducked into the fruit vendor's small stall and Francis and I filled a bag with bananas, apples, and grapes.  Reaching out I lightly touched her baby's head and then looked into the mother's scared eyes.."Beautiful" I murmured.  She looked like a wild deer, ready to bolt, breathing fast, eyes wide.   "It's okay", I said.   France began to speak in Tagalog, pointing, "we run the clinic right over there. Come and see us any time, we will take care of you."   She nodded and turned and walked away.

  This afternoon a young teenage girl came into our clinic. She is a prostitute, and experiencing all the symptoms of early pregnancy. Her eyes were tired and very sad,  outlined by dark circles against her pale face. "I have not sleep in one week.  I am afraid'. she whispered.  She is thinking of aborting her baby... "My boyfriend stay with me if the baby is his, but maybe not. I have been working often."   
  I sat beside her, and took her hand in mine. I told her that we were here to help her and to take care of her.  We are not yet sure if she is pregnant, and we will take one step at a time beside her, speaking life and pouring love over her.
  I asked her if we could pray with her, and as I held her small hand in mine and asked Jesus to hold her in His arms and show her what true love really is, she cried.

 Tomorrow she will come back and visit me, and I will ask Jesus again to speak through me the words I cannot find on my own, and to love this Beautiful Broken One with a fierceness and passion that she has never known, using me in even a small way.
   She is prostitute, but also some mother's beautiful little girl. I cried today over this little girl, with so much stolen from her, and asked Jesus to come and make things new in her.

   In Revelation 21,  we see John's vision of what will come, when Jesus sat on His throne and said: 
 "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true." 
 He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. He who overcomes will inherit everything, and I will be his God and he will be my son."

  Jesus is in the business of making things new, specializing in broken and hopeless people.  He takes the outcast, the used-up, the broken-down, and the defeated and makes something glorious. That is what I hope to see in this new year:  New life in death-strewn places.  New hope where hope is dead. New freedom to captives of darkness. 

 We covet your prayers over us as we walk out each new day in a place rooted in darkness.  We are fighting against apathy within the staff of our clinics, and are working hard to lead with grace, share vision, and serve as Jesus did.   Our ten boxes of medical supplies and personal living stuff has not yet arrived, so things are interesting, but definitely humorous as we are missing sheets, towels, and many other things, and are  trying to cook with no utensils or pots and pans. There is a lot of laughter and ingenuity (my husband is outside as I type, hacking away at a coconut with a rusty knife to get juice for supper).
 We love you all, and are so thankful for your support and encouragement. We would not be here without you.
 Thank you,  and Happy New Year!

France and Leah