Sending church: Mt. Zion Baptist Church 48 Muddy Creek Forks Rd. Brogue, PA 17309 (717) 927-9227 www.mtziononline.

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Missions fund: Central Missionary Clearinghouse P.O. Box 219228 Houston, TX 77218 (800) 262-7729 www.cmcmissions.org

Contact information: The Hardeckers 111 S. Pine St. Red Lion, PA 17356 (717) 880-5011 www.hardecker.com

Relevant dates: Bill (01/10) & Marcia (09/30) Anniversary (06/15/04) W.T. (09/14/10) Joseph (12/28/12) twitter.com/hardecker

Harde c ker He a dlines

47% of our support is raised! Home for the Holidays

December 2013

We want to thank Grace Baptist Church in Oxford, PA (Pastor Steve Rogers) and Philadelphia Baptist Church, Philadelphia, MO (Pastor Roger Stevens) for adding us into their missions family. We pray for and remember all of our supporting churches, pastors, and individuals! We want to thank you for your Christmas cards, well wishes, gifts, and prayers You are a blessing!

Marcia and I have so enjoyed some much needed down time. But in our down time, we have thrown ourselves into serving the Lord at our home church. We got a chance to assemble some Bibles, sing in the choir, do lots of preaching (Prison ministry, church, senior saints group, a Christmas Banquet at another church), Sat. visitation ministry, minister in music (special number and accompanying many groups, offertory). We love it! We cannot wait to get to the Philippines and serve the Lord and people over there! The boys are doing fine. They love their regular routine (honestly, though, they are much more resilient about traveling than us adults - ha!). Whats ahead? A whole slew of meetings in PA & VA starting in Jan. 2014!

Do Filipinos celebrate Christmas?

PRAISE REPORTS & PRAYER REQUESTS

PRAISE God that we are now at 47% of our support! PRAISE God that we are still hearing back from churches who have or are in the process of deciding to take us on for support! PRAISE God for sending us His eternally begotten Son! would open up and have us in.

YES! There are two reasons for this. First, due to its large Roman Catholic populous. Second, you will not find a more festive people, a more fun-loving and excitement-driven folks than the Filipinos. Christmas carols are heard from Sept. till Jan. (until the celebration of the Black Nazarene for the north on the 2nd Sun. in Jan., & the feast of the Holy Child a.k.a. the Santo Nino de Cebu for the south on the 3rd Sun. in Jan.). Homes are decorated more with the Star shaped Christmas Lantern or Parol - this is like a Christmas Tree would be to Americans. Children go around the village caroling - but its nothing like what you would think. They would string bottle caps on a piece of wire (a make shift tambourine) and would sing carols for a small token of money. I remember going around with my friends chanting Merry Christmas or Maligayan Pasko (which is an actual song) at the end of the carols as a final appeal for a donation. The official kick off celebration is on Dec.16 with the Night Mass or the Simbang Gabi capped by the Roosters Mass or Misa De Gallo on Dec. 24 (Christmas Eve). I remember going to the Roman Catholic church at mid-night thinking about how wonderful it would be to go home with Gods blessings & ready to open gifts at 1:00 AM followed by a huge feast, yes at 1:00 AM, called the Nochebuena. You dont have to have money to have a blast, all you need are family, friends, and a festive spirit. Filipinos are a magnificent case in point. However, one can have all this celebration but no true joy and peace inside because that only comes from faith alone in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. This Gospel is completely Law-free, not sacramental or sacerdotal. His righteousness is completely imputed, not inhered. At the heart of the divide is that salvation either comes by work or by faith alone. I love all the heart-warming and joy-filled festivities, but we must tell them about the Lord Jesus Christ so that they can truly celebrate Christmas and go at it with Christ in the heart (who makes all the difference in the world). Jesus saves and gives us the reason to celebrate Christmas. Have a Merry (or mighty) celebration of Christmas!

PRAY that the right churches PRAY for safety & health. PRAY for power as we minister.