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 Blessed Christmas 2014 as you celebrate “the Word become flesh and dwelt    among us”. It’s so amazing that God would leave his heavenly home to experience our life. He truly loves us and demonstrated that by coming and then giving of His life blood to redeem us. Hallelujah! 

One word describes our time back in the states: TRAVEL. Here’s a brief look at it.

March: We arrived back in the USA, landing in Wichita so we could spend time with my dad, Marvin and his wife Wilma. They were doing amazingly well for 95 and 97. We then flew to Tucson for a week to see Jordan, our youngest, and Judy’s parents who drove out from Escondido. It was so good to be together again.

April: Back to Wichita for another week with my folks. Then we borrowed my dad’s truck to go see our daughter Jody and family in Asheville, NC. Boy oh boy had our grandkids changed! Violette was 3 1/2 and Isaac 18 months.  We did lots of playing peek-a-boo, coloring, pretending, reading, hugging, walks, and watching the cows. We had hoped to head south for Easter, but my folk’s car accident took us back to Wichita. It was clear that a move to an assisted living was needed. It’s not easy to leave the comforts of home. They did finally move in June. It was an adjustment but they are now settled.

May: Flew to Orlando for a reentry conference at Wycliffe’s headquarters. Good time to debrief and be encouraged by the home office. We received an extra special blessing on that trip. The plane was over booked so we gave up our seats and received vouchers which we could use to visit my brother in Hawaii before heading back to Chad.

June: We drove to Escondido, CA to celebrate Judy’s moms, 80th birthday. It was great to see Judy’s siblings, extended family and friends. The end of June, our son Josh, flew into LAX after a year in Thailand teaching English to Thai students. Since he flew into LAX, he got to see lots of the family in CA too.

July: Back to Tucson and we had a week together before he and I rode my motorcycle to Wichita so he could see his grandparents. He went on to Asheville to see his sister Jody and family.   I returned to Tucson to have a partial knee replacement July 28th. It was a success!  

                 

August: No travels, just PT and following the doctor’s orders.

Sept:  Josh flew back to Tucson for two weeks. We finally visited the North Rim of the Grand Canyon with him. He left for another year of teaching in S. Korea. Boo! Hoo! A good friend from Switzerland came to visit too. We played tourists with her seeing many of our favorite sights in Arizona and Sedona as well as new places near Tucson.

Oct: Our sending church in Escondido, CA, Emanuel Faith Community Church, celebrated their 75th anniversary. We were blessed to be there. With Jim’s improved knee he helped a friend prepare his new property for building.

November:   Violette turned 4 and Judy got to be there and have a little more time with Jody and kids.  A good friend arranged for us to attend, “A weekend to Remember” marriage conference in La Jolla, CA. We got to renew our vows too!  We also celebrated Judy’s sister’s 1^st wedding anniversary in Las Vegas and then Thanksgiving at her parents’ home.

December: We used the vouchers to fly to the Big Island of Hawaii to spend a couple weeks with my brother and family who live on a Kona coffee plantation. We got to snorkel and even swim with dolphins. We also picked coffee, held a chameleon, ate lots of fresh picked fruit and just enjoyed being with family.  They were great tour guides. Unfortunately we came back with nasty colds; still recovering. 

Christmas: We are hoping to drive to Wichita to spend time with my dad, his wife and other family there. Then we plan to head to Houston for the New Year to see Judy’s sister, husband and other friends and ministry partners who live in the area. We will be back in Tucson first week in Jan.

Are you tired yet? Traveling can be, but we are counting our blessings for these opportunities to spend time with those we love and to share about our ministry with Wycliffe. We hope you will have special times with your family this holiday season...and if they are far away, like most of ours, that you will have good times with those near you.

Keep praying for us: the funding to return to Chad in Feb. is not coming in as quickly as we had hoped. We may have to switch to plan “B”, a later departure to Chad than February. We can wait a few more weeks to make that decision, but we’d sure like to depart in February so that they will not be without a maintenance manager. The current manager leaves in March. If you are not already, please prayerfully consider joining our team.

Jesus, the reason for the season,

Jim and Judy

Jim and Judy McCabe                                                           Wycliffe Bible Translators                  

38375 S. Sunset View Lane                                                P.O. Box 628200                                                     

Tucson, AZ 85739-7014                                                     Orlando, FL 32862 8200                           

Cell: (520) 268-3681                                                           1.800.992.5433                                  

Email: jim_mccabe@sil.org or judy_mccabe@sil.org                                                                          

Jim and Judy’s Wycliffe partnership page:  https://www.wycliffe.org/partner/1EE3AA

Jim and Judy’s Blog: http://jim-judys-wycliffe.blogspot.com.   Join our blog for more regular updates.