A Christmas Story

I have read of many churches celebrating Christmas with Pageants that include an actual baby portraying the role of ‘baby Jesus’.  Our first child Ruth, was born December 12th, 1981 and was chosen to be ‘baby Jesus’ for our church’s (Reba Place Fellowship) Christmas Eve service.  Last year, our grandson, Charlie, born on Oct. 19th 2008, was chosen, also at Reba Place Fellowship.  But in prison no such ritual exists.

 

 I wasn’t even thinking about babies being in Christmas plays back in 1972.  This was yet another year in prison the difference being this was my first Christmas as a christian.  The Christmas service held new meaning for me as we sang the traditional Christmas Carols bringing with it a hope for a new life with a redeemed future.  Christian volunteers were apart of our service at the U. S. Medical Center for Prisoners in Springfield, Mo. 

 

As our service wound to completion a cry was heard.  The faint whimpering of a baby.  My first thought was that I wasn’t hearing what I thought I had heard.  I had been in prison for many years and had never even seen a baby inside of a prison (not counting my infrequent times in the visiting room.)  But there it was again, a baby crying.  Someone, a volunteer,  had brought their baby into the service wrapped in a blanket unnoticed by the guards.  I then thought, there was our ‘baby Jesus’. 

 

The parents of the yet unknown child were the children of an older couple (Lloyd and Nita Colbaugh) who had only a few years previously began their ministry to the prison.  Even the great-grandmother (Mom Carter) was a volunteer and had played a significant role in my own conversion, telling me that God had a plan for my life. 

 

Life would go on and the incident of ‘baby Jesus’ coming to prison would fade to a memory, until the baby grew up and now is known throughout many countries far and wide as acclaimed singer/songwriter Sara Groves. 

 

I hope this story adds to your appreciation of the life of Sara and her family.

John C Thomson

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Lloyd’s Musings (from prison)

We haven’t been sharing accounts of what’s going on in the prison here for the past couple of weeks because we haven’t been there! Nita spent almost a week in the hospital, and is only slowly regaining strength—an ulcer turns out to be at least part of the problem. I’ve had a taste of what ‘home care’ is all about. We are thankful for every gain and every prayer!

I resist most pleas to forward stuff. But this one touched my heart. Our dear friends Marcae and Nick, missionaries to India, have a sweet child who is “Fragile X”. (If you’re
not familiar with it, give it a ‘Google’.)  Her care has  necessitated  dramatic changes in  Nick and Marcae’s  plans.  This morning  we received this  email from Marcae.  Please read it. Sense the passion and love with which she implores us to join her. I think the last time I did this kind of thing was when I sent John Ashcroft a letter about prisoners.

Lloyd

Here’s Marcae’s appeal:

President-elect Obama has promised Planned Parenthood that the first thing he would sign as President is the “The Freedom of Choice Act.”
This is incredibly dangerous legislation. It would eradicate state and federal laws that the majority of Americans support, such as bans on:  Partial Birth Abortion, requirements that women be given information about the risks of getting an abortion, only licensed physicians can perform abortions, and parents must be informed and give consent to their minor daughter’s abortion. FOCA would erase these laws and prevent states from enacting similar protective measures in the future.

It grieves my heart that this legislation is even in minds of people. I am as opposed to abortion as one can possibly be, but even for those who might feel abortion is justified in some cases, surely everyone agrees that a minor girl should not be allowed to go through this procedure without parents even being aware. The nurse at Grace’s [Marcae's older daughter] elementary school cannot even give her a Tylenol without getting my physical presence in the room. Yet we are proposing for a child to undergo an operation without a parent’s knowledge?  This is crazy.

Life is precious, not just of the unborn child but of the mother. These lives must both be protected, nurtured, and loved. When I look at my precious daughter, Hope, and think that if the doctors had known about her condition beforehand, they would have counseled me to kill her, I feel sick to my stomach. Doctors have told us that if we want to have more children, they can test me so we can abort the children we don’t want (i.e., another child with Fragile X). I wanted to scream at these doctors. Do they even realize what they are saying about Hope’s value by comments like that! We are not supposed to judge people by the color of their skin (and I say a hearty amen to that!), but this election seems to point that it is okay to judge people (babies) by how intelligent they are, by how many appendages they have, by how much “work” they might entail . . . God forgive us for our arrogance, pride, and selfishness. Children are a blessing from the Lord, period. Period.

Please pray that God will change Obama’s heart. Please pray that FOCA will not be signed into legislation. Please pray that the body of Christ will extend arms of love and not just judgment to women who are pregnant, pray for God’s love to penetrate men and women’s hearts to reveal the beauty of the life within.

And please sign the petition.  Ask others to sign.  Write your state legislators.  Contact your local pro-life agencies and ask if you can answer phones or support women in need. 

I’ve copied the link below. I am sorry if this is not worded the best–my fingers are trembling as I type, because it just pains me to even think of one more child dying, of one more woman feeling such pain, of God’s heart breaking over his gift being rejected. God forgive me for my inaction.

Marcae

P.S. It is really easy to sign and access the website.   http://www.fightfoca.com/2008/06/23/thank-you-for-signing/

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Sara Groves Arts, Music, Justice tour

Sara Groves is a talented musician, singer- songwriter, with a passionate attitude toward injustices. She was interviewed over at the Inspired to Action site, about her current tour the Arts, Music, Justice, tour. This is a must read.

Lloyd’s Musings cont.

Lloyd has been visiting the same prison for near 40 years. He and his wife, Nita, have ministered to 100’s of men over the years of the saving grace of Jesus. Mom Carter, Nita’s mother also visited the prison and led a bible study and participated in an outside prayer group for the men inside. Sara Groves, Lloyd and Nita’s grand-daughter also have ministered to the men over the years first having attended a Christmas Service when she was 3 months old. No, that is not a misprint. Below is one of many musings Lloyd has written of his encounters with the men over the years. The names have been changed to protect the men’s privacys.

Hi!

Sunday morning the Men of Faith inmate choir sang a praise song that moved me to tears. We’ve heard it many times through the years, sung by various versions of the choir. It was not the song that brought the tears—although it was stirring. It was the chapel clerk, sitting on the electric piano bench.

He often sits at the piano while the choir sings so he can control the mikes. Just before the song he had started a pre-recorded piano accompaniment. He often sings along, sometimes quite expressively, waving his arms and keeping time with his head. Now, at the end of “I Sing Glory…” he spoke. “The piano was played by Bruce. When he recorded it for us, he only asked one thing. That each time we play it, we pray for him.” He bowed his head and prayed for Bruce, wherever he is.

Bruce was an inmate several years ago, when we had a different choir and a different chapel clerk. He was young, sort of bumbling in his manner, hair never quite in place, glasses giving him a geekish look. He loved the piano. He and the chapel clerk talked of getting together when they got out and ‘making it’ in the gospel music world.

That recording on the piano is our memorial to Bruce. I have no idea where he is or what happened to his music ambitions. I can’t help wondering. We said ‘Amen’ to that prayer with all our hearts.

Sometimes it seems we stand there in the chapel watching a never-ending torrent of the self-wounded flow by, year after year after year. All we can do is speak a word, grasp a hand, and then they are gone.

A long time ago we mounted an effort to help ex-inmates get established in churches. We made wide appeals to churches to join us. Perhaps we didn’t do it right, for there was little response. Now a carefully organized effort is being made again through a program called the Jericho Commission. Please read about it on the website: http://jerichocommission.org/

We want the Bruces out there to keep “singing Glory!”

Lloyd

Sara Groves heads out on Art*Music*Justice Tour

Sara Groves heads out on Art*Music*Justice Tour

Categories: Christian music tours, Christians involved in social justice

Sara Groves has gathered fellow-acclaimed artists and friends Brandon Heath, Derek Webb, Sandra McCracken and author/artist Charlie Peacock for her fall Art*Music*Justice Tour, which will benefit both the International Justice Mission and Food For the Hungry.

For most of her life, Sara Groves admits she was a control freak, afraid to take chances of any kind, let alone travel around the world on behalf of others.

Then a few years ago she picked up the book, “Terrify No More,” by Gary Haugen, president of the International Justice Mission (IJM). The book documents IJM’s raids in the Cambodian village of Svay Pak, notorious for its sex-trafficking of underage girls.

She was already feeling that she’d already been all dressed up with no place to go, spiritually speaking. But the book stirred in her a willingness to go where God was calling, even though it meant letting go and stepping into the unknown.

She went to Louisiana to bring aid to Hurricane Katrina victims. She travelled to Rwanda with Pastor Rick Warren and a group from Saddleback Community Church to learn about the challenges of reconciliation and economic development 11 years after mass genocide.

She told me a couple of years ago, that when they asked her to go to Rwanda, her initial response was, “Over my dead body, because I have enough to think about. I don’t want to go to Rwanda and add a Rwanda-sized burden.”

But she stepped out in faith and her life was changed forever.

“The first thing that was exposed in my heart was the self-congratulatory attitude about how I’m helping Africa,” she said, speaking of her promotion of AIDs education and support of DATA. Then came the realization that rather than taking on the weight of the world, witnessing the effects of mass genocide and meeting it survivors revealed to her the fullness of life.

“Oh Lord, I cannot believe I didn’t want to do this,” she said with emotion. “I just saw something that changed me and I’m not dashed on the rocks. I am lifted up.”

Now the admitted ‘fraidy cat is a social justice advocate, championing causes from sex slavery to poverty.

With the Art*Music*Justice Tour, Groves hopes to further educate the church about God’s heart for justice, gain advocates for the oppressed, and show evidence of a God at work in this world. If she can do it, we all can.

The tour kicks off September 19 in Wheaton, IL and ends October 26 in Springs, TX. For complete tour dates, visit the Art*Music*Justice MySpace page.

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Sara Groves to release Christmas album

Sara Groves to release Christmas album
August 26th, 2008 1:54 pm · 0 comments
Even though it’s still warm outside and Labor Day is still several days away, a Christmas album is giving me an excuse to write about one of my favorite and most thoughtful Christian music performers, Sara Groves.
Groves has announced she will release her first album of Christmas music, “O Holy Night,” on INO Records on Oct. 14.
It was originally intended as an advent album for her family, but as she began working on it, the Minnesota mom/performer decided to release it to the public at large
She includes some of her favorite songs about her family’s Christmas traditions, and also plans four originals.
The sacred Christmas songs are to include “It Came Upon A Midnight Clear” and “Go Tell It on the Mountain,” the last one recorded with family and friends gathered around, singing together.
I’ve liked Groves’ clear, easy-to-take voice and thoughtful lyrics of her faith throughout her decade on the Christian music scene.
My personal favorite is 1999’s “Conversations,” which has great songs like the title track, “Painting Pictures of Egypt” about how all of us don’t like to venture out into the unknown, and the great “How Is It Between Us?”
Or maybe it’s “All Right Here” from 2002, which has the heady, but still catchy, “Less Like Scars.” Groves shows in this song that she clearly has something to say:
“It seemed out of my hands
a bad situation
But you are able
And in your hands the pain and hurt
look less like scars and more like character
Less like a prison a prison more like my room
Less like a casket more like a womb
Less like dying more like transcending
Less like fear, less like an ending
And I feel you here …”
And she says it well, as anyone who’s heard her sing would agree.
See www.saragroves.com for more.

Sara Groves to release Christmas album