Saturday, December 27, 2014

Merry Christmas!!



"She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." -  Matthew 1:21

This time of year is full of memories, traditions, fun and family!  All the hustle and bustle of shopping, trying to find that one gift that will make pure joy for that special someone.  We guys spend countless hours thinking about what to buy, and once we figure it out we make our game plan.  Sit down, and minutes later the package is coming right to our doorstep!  Then it's off to the garage again to rotate the tires because our wives drive all over the universe to find that perfect gift!  It is fun trying to find something that you know creates joy and happiness.  We want to give good gifts to those we love!  We want the gift to be meaningful, precious and joyful!  We want to show love through our gifts!

This is a picture of the great love that God has for you and for us!  This whole season is wrapped around a gift that was given over 2000 years ago!  "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." - Isaiah 9:6  You see, God loves you so much!  He wants to give you good gifts because He wants you to be full of Joy...unending Joy!  God created us perfect and we had a perfect relationship with Him!  But we sinned and ruined our relationship with God, but even though we stopped pursuing God, He still pursued us!  He thought of a perfect gift that would fix the relationship that you and I destroyed!  He thought of a gift that will never disappoint or lose its joy, unlike the gifts we give that may give joy for the moment but always disappoint.  He thought of a gift that is so meaningful and precious that it will change your life!  He gave us the gift of His son, JESUS!!!  At first glance, we wonder what good is a baby?  But it is this baby that would fix the relationship between us and God!  Jesus, lived a life without sin, the life we fail to live every day!  He died a brutal death on the cross, a death that you and I deserve!  But the grave could not keep him!  He conquered Satan, sin and death and rose victorious!  This baby that came, this gift of life, bridged the gap that our sin created and Jesus willingly takes your sin and my sin to the cross and as a gift he places on us His sinless robe, so that when we meet God on our last day and stand there to be judged, Jesus will come and say, "Dad I died for this one!  He sinned, but he has My robe of righteousness because he believed in me"!  And, those that believe in Jesus, the Great gift, will be saved!  

God loves us!  He loves us so much that He gave us His son so that we can have a relationship with Him.  We give gifts because God is a gift giver!  We love because God loves us!  If you are living a life today that feels empty or like something is missing, or you are giving gifts to find joy, please look to Jesus!  It is only through Him that Joy will be unending!  

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope." - Romans 5:13

Merry Christmas,
The Meeuwse's


Friday, December 5, 2014

Happy Holidays!

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays!  Its a day filled with traditions, family and food.  What is not to love about that?  This year was quite different for our family though.  I (Matt) spent Thanksgiving in Oregon flying christmas trees, while Amanda and Grace were with her brother in Kirkland!  It was hard to be away from them on Thanksgiving, but we got to FaceTime on the computer which made the distance a seem a bit less.  We have a lot to be thankful for this year!  During this tree season I have flown over 150 hours!  I have finally met all the requirements Helimission requires which is such a great blessing!  It has been 10 years working towards this goal, and to see it come into fruition is very exciting!  Also, in our last post we mentioned that we were 32% of the way to being fully funded and that our hope was to be at 100% by Thanksgiving.  We just got our November update and though we are not fully funded we are very excited to share that we are 52% of the way to being fully funded!  This is very encouraging and we want to thank all of you who have joined our support team and for those of you praying us through!  Our new goal is to be fully funded by Christmas!  We still need you to take action and join our support team!  We have great momentum, but still have quite a ways to go in order to be fully funded!  Please take the time and visit our support page!  We are currently packing up our home as we need to be out of our place on December 15!  I'll be driving up a very full load to Kent tomorrow and hope to have everything on that load minus a few suit cases of essentials!  It is weird not to have any of our Christmas decor up and our traditions are all packed up pretty much!  Please pray for us as we become nomadic for the next few months!  Pray also that we can be fully funded as my last paycheck comes on the 12th!  We hope that you all have a very amazing Christmas season and that Jesus is the center of your celebration because He is worth celebrating!!!  



Here is a short video of me flying a bundle of trees