Let us celebrate the birth of Jesus with joy and thanksgiving. May the wonder of that first Christmas, the joy of God’s abundant blessings and the peace of Jesus’ presence be with you always!

John 1:14 – “The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

2 Corinthians 9:15 – “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!”

Thank you for your continued support of Union Gospel Mission in your prayers, volunteering and giving.

Wishing you a very blessed Christmas!

Exciting News! The Best News!  At UGM, we don’t need the mail to share Jesus!

Our Saviour is never on strike.  His Church, His body, never rests (Sunday excepted). 

Correspondingly, the needs of those we serve are always before us.  If you are moved by our Lord to give towards the material costs of serving – Thank you very much!

Here below are alternative ways to give, if not already by ‘cheque in the mail’.

 – To give by Credit Card, you may CLICK HERE

 – To give by E-Transfer or Online Banking options, please contact us for instructions at accounting@gospelmission.ca

Dear friends,

“The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you: therefore the Child to be born will be called Holy; the Son of God.” Luke 1:35!

Oswald Chambers writes: “Jesus Christ was born into this world, not from it. He did not evolve out of history; He came into history from the outside. Jesus Christ is not the best human being, He is a Being Who cannot be accounted for by the human race at all. He is not man becoming God, but God Incarnate, God coming into human flesh, coming into it from outside.  His life is the Highest and the Holiest entering in at the *Lowliest door. Our Lord’s birth was an advent.”

*Lowliest!?  “…He had no form or majesty that we should look at Him and no beauty that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and as one from Whom men hide their faces, He was despised and we esteemed Him not.” Isaiah 53:2b-3.

Jesus. Who better to understand the anonymous, sad and lonely people we serve at UGM?  Afflicted, preferring to hide their own faces in a variety of potentially fatal addictions, they will assert that no one esteems them either!

*Lowliest!?  “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come buy and eat.” Isaiah 55:1a. “Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to Me, and eat what is good and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to Me; hear that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.” Isaiah 55:2-3.

Isaiah prophesied whilst living amidst a decaying, decadent and apostate world.  A world where if you want to get something, you fight for it, you work for it, you make sacrifices. Sound familiar? We look for riches, certain status or connections and try to fulfil every desire. Was that world of Isaiah, the world Jesus was born into, much different than todays?  People looking for purpose, for peace, for love, dignity, esteem and joy, looking in all the wrong places.  None of this can be bought.

Yet in the economy of Jesus, the most important things are given as gifts.  Your life is given to you as a gift.  Think about it.  He created you.  He created your homeless, addicted neighbour.  We haven’t merited a single minute of breath. It is all by His grace.  We work so hard to protect this life, trying to secure our futures.  Yet we cannot control this world, the events that may overtake us.  What seems ours today, can be gone tomorrow.  

At UGM, we often marvel that an addict who has abused their bodies for over 25 years is still alive!  We tell them it is God’s mercy, yet rather than embracing the Gospel, they reject it, walk away and inject again.  Maybe for the last time. Yet a missionary who works in the drug ridden ghettos of Paramaribo, Suriname, recently shared her prayer for such addicts, that when they lay face down in a gutter, alone and about to become a statistic, they call out to Jesus before they die.  We trust God for those last gasp appeals to Jesus!

*Lowliest!?  Jesus was born and laid in a manger. The Creator of all things (look deep into the starry sky on a clear night and wonder!) humbled Himself by being placed in a “low” feeding trough (Luke 2:7), designed to feed animals. This was intentional. Jesus knew that His infant body would grow to manhood and be destined to be broken on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins. Manger to the cross, to the grave. He foreknew all of this! Praise God that Jesus rose triumphant over death. Praise God for the birth, life, death and resurrection of our Saviour. Nothing else at Christmas comes close. He is the only gift worth receiving.

*Lowliest!?  Jesus shunned the need for palatial surroundings, He shunned the need for mans acclaim. Instead, He made Himself available to the despised tax collectors and so-called ‘sinners’ (Luke 7:24). Jesus was relational. At UGM we pray we too are relational. Turn no one away (unless violently out of control or ignoring our entreaties to leave others alone). Matthew 25:35-40 is so typical of our humble and compassionate God. We get to serve Jesus daily! A never ending gift.

Oswald Chambers challenges us further. “Have I allowed my personal human life to become a ‘Bethlehem’ for the Son of God?  I cannot enter into the realm of the Kingdom of God unless I am born from above by a birth totally unlike natural birth.  ‘Ye must be born again’!  This is not a command, it is a foundation fact.  The characteristic of the new birth is that I yield myself so completely to God that Christ is formed in me.  Immediately Christ is formed in me, His nature begins to work through me.”

At Christmas, we are humbled to remember that He calls us to consider others ahead of ourselves, just as He humbled Himself.  With Jesus manifested in the flesh of those of us who know Him as Saviour and Lord, may we see our Almighty God answer our earnest prayers for the gift of Salvation to be received by all we serve and who until that moment, know Him not.

Dear supporters, you too are a gift to us and the seven ministries we are called to!  May you be especially blessed this Christmas. With our ongoing gratitude and hopes for an exciting, God honouring New Year!

Martin Chidwick

You may use this link to make your online donation: UGM Christmas Donation