A letter from CRM General Director

We received today a letter from CRM Director, Dennis Maloney. It's a wonderful insight into our heart and vision so we wanted to share it with you:

Greetings dear ones, and Happy New Year.

I give God all praise for the year that was 2007 and for all He has shown us during that time; for new friends; and new partners, for all the challenges of ministry He has presented us with. The coming year is an exciting gift lying unopened before us today. Will this be the year He returns for His church? Will the last new name be written down in the Lamb's Book Of Life during the twelve months ahead? God knows and only God, so we press forward to the high calling we have in Christ Jesus.

One of my favorite devotionals is "Streams in the Desert", compiled by Mrs. Charles Cowman, missionary to Japan, in the 19th century. I felt the ideas she included from the pen of N.L. Zinzendorf, for this days reflections, curiously representative of CRM International's position. Please allow me to share them with you.

Please read Deuteronomy 11:11-12.

Today, dear friends, we stand on the verge of the unknown. There lies before us the new year and we are going forth to possess it. Who can tell what we shall find? What new experiences, what changes shall come, what new needs shall arise? But here is the cheering, comforting, gladdening message from our Heavenly Father, "The Lord thy God careth for it." "His eyes are upon it away to the ending of the year."

All our supply is to come from the Lord. Here are springs that shall never dry; here are fountains and streams that shall never be cut off. Here, anxious one, is the gracious pledge of the Heavenly Father. If He be the source of our mercies they can never fail us. No heat, no drought can parch that river, "the streams whereof make glad the city of God."

The land is a land of hills and valleys. It is not all smooth nor all downhill. If life were all one dead level of dull sameness it would oppress us; we want the hills and valleys. The hills collect the rain for a hundred fruitful valleys. Ah, so it is with us! It is the hill difficulty that drives us to the throne of grace and brings down the showers of blessing; the hills, the bleak hills of life that we wonder at and perhaps grumble at, bring down the showers. How many have perished in the wilderness, buried under the golden sands, who would have lived and thriven in the hill country; how many would have been killed by the frost, blighted with winds, swept desolate of tree and fruit but for the hill ---- stern, hard, rugged, so steep to climb. God's hills are a gracious protection for His people against their foes!

We cannot tell what loss and sorrow and trial are doing. Trust only. The Father comes near to take our hand and lead us on our way today. It shall be a good, a blessed New Year.

Thank you for all you do. You make my life a joy. You are my friends!

Blessings!

Chaplain Dennis Maloney
General Director
Christian Resort Ministries International