From the Executive Principal

Give the Gift-of-POWER this Christmas

Dear Emmaus families and friends,

On behalf of the College, I would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and pray that it is a time full of family, friends, fellowship, and, of course, nice food!

Over recent weeks, I have been bombarded, as I’m sure you all have, on social media and with infomercials by retailers competing for their share of your Christmas gift spending budget. One in particular caught my attention as I assumed it was promoting a Christian-themed message or product. It stated “give the gift-of-power to the ones you love this Christmas”. What other than a Christian message could this possibly be, I thought. I soon however, realised what was actually being promoted was a ‘battery-power-bank’ mobile phone charging device! Not only did I feel cheated by this apparent ‘bait and switch’ marketing strategy, but the device itself looked impractically large and cumbersome to hold up to one’s ear when tethered to the phone. The so-called ‘premium’ pastel or even leopard-skin colour designs still didn’t make the item any more appealing to me!

My encouragement for you all this Christmas is to ‘plug in’ to the true gift of power freely available to us all:

• “But you will receive POWER when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:8 (NIV)

   

• John 3:16 states the most POWERFUL gift in the Bible/world - “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son to provide everlasting life to those who believe in him.”

Even a leopard-skin-designed power bank will lose its power in time. I encourage you to ‘plug into’ the free gift of perpetual energy this Christmas that never runs out; “Whoever [‘plugs’] into me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them” (John 7:38)

Blessings to you and your family this Christmas.

Andrew Linke

Executive Principal