When I found out that exercising at dusk didn’t help with vitamin D production, I switched to doing it after dark (when it’s cooler). Instead of sunsets, I’ve been enjoying the night skies. The Big and Little Dippers, the North Star, and the moon were about all I could ID, but now I’ve added Orion and a couple other constellations, Sirius for a bright star, and Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn for planets. It’s been interesting watching their changing positions, seeing the occasional shooting star (meteor), tracking airplane flight patterns, and even rarely having a bird whizz by. But all of that would pale compared to the night skies at the birth of Jesus. Can you imagine what it was like for the shepherds to have the night sky fill with angels bringing them a message and praising God or for the wise men seeing the Christmas Star that led them to Jesus?!!! Amid all the hustle and bustle this month, let’s not forget that Jesus is the Christ, the reason for the season. Jesus is the star of the event.
The star prayer request of this update is at the end, so please don’t miss it. First, I want to mention some shining answers
to prayer. I join Iván and Nuria in thanking you for your prayers. He has regained a lot of the use of his hands. The progress in the next six months will determine if he will need another surgery, so please continue to pray for him and their needs.
I also join Eva and Danila in thanking you for praying for them when they had COVID. They both have some persistent symptoms, so please pray for their complete recovery.
I’ve been trying to write this letter since 
Monday, but maybe the delay was so I could include a prayer request for another friend. Iván needs reconstructive surgery after all the cancer interventions you prayed him through. The appendicitis was totally unexpected but allowed his annual surgery for this year (bad joke). He went home today, so please pray for his recovery and for the scheduling of the nasal surgery.
I have a constellation of personal requests that I won’t go into explaining: I’ve been dealing with back pain; I have to prepare my TEAM budget (that causes me other pain!); I hope to take some vacation this month; and I plan to do my Day of Prayer and Vision next week to evaluate this year and seek God’s direction for the next. Please pray as the Lord leads you. (I should also remind you that TEAM no longer handles personal gifts, so all funds sent to TEAM go toward my support. I am grateful for those who have sent gifts to my bank and for those who sent to TEAM what I think were intended to be personal gifts. I am grateful and God is good!)
Now for prayer for the impending black hole or supernova of a situation. I have been asking for prayer for wisdom for the El Faro leadership in dealing with a contentious situation. Apart from God’s intervention, we don’t see a good solution to the situation. This Sunday the situation will be brought before the church for El Faro to join together in prayer imploring God’s intervention. Please pray for God to protect hearts, for His peace to reign, and for a resolution that will bring healing and health to the church and glory to God. Once the church receives the information, I’ll be able to explain it for you and let you know how God responds to our prayers. For those who could pray during our meeting, that would be fantastic – December 12, 10 am -12 MST (La Paz, Mexico, same time as Calgary). Continued prayer will be needed because, in the best-case scenario, it will take at least a month to bring it to resolution. May the Lord leave us all starstruck as we see how He works this out.
The ladies’ group continues to “aim for the stars” studying the providence of God in the book of Esther and praying together. Tuesday will be our Christmas get-together. Last night the group of us working on the materials to implement in El Faro had our celebration. I rejoice that I have finished the teacher’s manual, the participants’ manual, and the corresponding PowerPoint presentation. 
We did a practice teaching with the church leaders, so I have a few adjustments to make, and I also have the remaining small group training videos to finalize, but progress is being made. Thanks for your prayers!
Counting on the God who created all the galaxies and everything in them,
Brenda
