Transformation: A Christmas Story
Dear Friend:
Today we have a Christmas story for you, and one that you can joyfully share with your loved ones!
One year ago, the burden we carried for Buenos Aires was heavy and at times unbearable. Our almost disparaging cry was, “How long, O Lord, must we wait? When will you move?” But He was already moving, albeit unbeknown to us. He had removed, through impeachment, a defamed city governor in mid- term and put a new Chief Executive in his place. In July of this year, the new governor invited the 160 delegates of our Overseas Transformation Mission to his office “…to thank you for your prayers on behalf of my city, because I believe in the power of prayer to bring about transformation.” The group prayed for him, and God continued to work.
Just weeks ago, during our International Conference, he not only received us in his office, but he received the Lord Jesus into his heart and gave Him the keys to the city!
And that is just the beginning. Next, he is engaging the entire city in a far reaching evangelistic thrust in the form of a “cultural experience” by setting up manger scenes in every one of the city’s parks and in as many homes as possible, including ten “living mangers” in the city’s most prominent plazas “…to put Christ back into Christmas.”
Furthermore, on Christmas Eve he will turn Buenos Aires’ most prestigious and symbolic Avenida de Mayo – the Pennsylvania Ave. of Argentina – into an outdoor banquet hall for the rich and the poor, the old and the young, male and female, Catholics and Protestants, to share a meal together to celebrate that Jesus is the reason for the season!
Our despair has turned to joy because our eyes are seeing that the spiritual climate of this city of 3.5 million souls is being forever altered. And now, many – even millions – will find the true meaning of Christmas because its most influential citizen and his office are being transformed. Awesome!
The enclosed book excerpt is our Christmas gift to you. It contains the most profound spiritual lesson we have ever learned, and one destined to shape the balance of our lives. This is why we can confidently say that we are not giving you just a booklet but a portion of our heart. While writing it I was overcome time and again by spiritual brokenness, and when my staff read the manuscript, they did it through tears elicited by truth touching the very core of the soul. Its message is about how to turn success into a legacy to others (especially our children) instead of a monument to ourselves.
As we gaze into 2007 we see a most promising spiritual panorama, more cities and nations reached for Christ, schools, corporations and public officials transformed. We see true revival, the kind that changes the world and not just believers, spreading everywhere. That is why, as a practical demon-stration of what Christmas is all about, we invite you to invest generously, even sacrificially, into this ministry. As you see, what you sow has a dramatic and eternal return on investment.
Praying for you to have the most blessed Christmas ever.
Ed and Ruth Silvoso