But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart.

Luke 2:19

Dear Family and Friends,

We pray that this finds you all reflecting on the upcoming season of our dear Lord’s birth. As I sit here and write this newsletter I am looking back over the year and seeing how God brought us to this point at the end of another year. It has been a year of struggles, persecution, tears, anger, bitterness, unfairness, desertion of fellow believers, unfulfilled desires and expectations, trials and tribulations. Although it has been a tough learning year …it has also been a year of… seeing God blessing in unexpected ways, seeing His faithfulness in our circumstances, trusting His heart and sovereignty, holding tight to His hand in fear and bewilderment, seeing Him work in my children’s lives, watching my husband be humbled/crushed in spirit and growing closer to Him through unfortunate circumstances, watching him as the ministries that he deeply loved were taken away and then watching as God slowly lifts him up (and beyond those) to His will, and in the process making something beautiful from the ashes… finding out who your true friends are and praising God that your are loved, prayed for and encouraged when they become Jesus’ hands, feet, arms, tears, words and love… Seeing God increase our territory here at Good News Mission and witnessing the response of the children and adults as WE in turn become Jesus’ hands, feet, arms, tears, words and love. Seeing God provide for our financial, physical, and emotional and spiritual needs during times when there seemed to be no light at the end of the tunnel. God providing in depth Bible studies, for our whole family, with precious men and women of faith. I could go on and on at the goodness and faithfulness of God. He has been so good and faithful even when we were not. We thank you God for loving us in and through our circumstances.

As I reflected on Luke 2:19 Mary was overwhelmed at all the attention, prophecy, and the specialness of her precious baby boy. I can only imagine or speculate that Mary soaked it all in and wondered in her heart at what was to come for her precious Jesus. She had to know what was in store for him… but for those few brief moments she pondered the uniqueness, the specialness of this God child. I wonder if she meditated on what was to come and if maybe deep in her heart did she beg God to find another way.

In some small ways I can relate to Mary…most of you know by now that our middle son, Joshua, has been officially diagnosed with Aspergers. Even though we have done research there is still so much involved with this area of autism that we don’t understand or comprehend. There have been times where I have pondered at the uniqueness, the specialness and the blessing of this precious boy that God has entrusted to us. I wonder at what life will hold for him and pray that he will do better at trusting and relying on God than what his mom and dad have. Then there are our other two boys. With the many challenges that we deal with on a daily basis with Joshua, a lot of times John Allen gets the short end of the stick so to speak. He feels left out and has to sacrifice a lot in order to make life more bearable for everybody where Joshua is concerned. I can see a small bit of bitterness and sometimes there are burst of anger that has been harbored for a while, coming out. For the time being Jacob is easy going…but he is starting to imitate a lot of Joshua’s behaviors…temper tantrums, yelling/screaming when things don’t go his way and throwing things. I know that this is common for 2 soon to be 3 year olds but we are trying to get a hold on these behaviors before they get out of control.

We ask that you please be in prayer for our family as we adjust to possible more therapies for Joshua in a schedule that is already full… for physical, spiritual, and emotional tiredness. I seem to have a harder time in this area than Tim. Tim has been such a rock in this whole, long process. God has really blessed me with such a God seeking, God loving husband who is my treasure from God. Pray for Tim that God would bless all of his efforts, that God would bestow upon him wisdom and discernment in areas of ministries and our family. Pray for John Allen that he would love his brothers and would come to understand the importance of compassion, grace and mercy…pray for Tim and me that God would give us understanding where John Allen’s feelings are concerned and the wisdom to deal with them and build him up. Please keep us in your prayers especially on Jan 5^th. We will be back in Chattanooga at TEAM having a consultation with their doctor about possible physical testing for Joshua. This will be hard especially with Joshua’s fears and phobias….it will be very unpleasant for the Tinkel household.

Thank you for being our treasures from God. You all are such blessings and we praise God for each of you. May God bless you this Christmas and in the year to come? We love and appreciate all of you and thank you for being Jesus to us in this long but very BLESSED journey.

Hearts full of joy and blessings,

Sarah & Tim

Sarah & Tim Tinkel                                                  BCM International

829 Hi Tech Drive                                                    309 Colonial Drive

Livingston, TN  38570                                             PO Box 249

931-823-9320                                                           Akron, PA  17501

931-823-6513                                                           1-888-bcmintl

Tink38570@yahoo.com                                       bcmintl.org

Angelfire.com/tink38570/familiesagain

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