An Assurance That Never Fails
On behalf of everyone in One Voice Magazine, MERRY CHRISTMAS!
It’s been quite a year full of milestones, learnings, gains, and losses. In all these, we remember God’s hand upon the details of our lives. Nothing surprises Him or catches Him off-guard. He is still the same loving God; the same loving Father; the same faithful One whose heart we can trust fully. Because of who He is, we can rest in Him during our high and low moments and sing the following words—precious words twinkling like lights on a Christmas tree:
“Because He lives, I can face tomorrow
Because He lives, all fear is gone
Because I know He holds the future
And life is worth the living just because He lives”
(“Because He Lives” by Bill and Gloria Gaither)
There are so many things to be thankful for, such as having YOU, our readers and viewers! Thank you so much for being a part of our journey! We praise God for your involvement in One Voice Magazine and Radio! Thank you for joining us in our Tuesday discussions. Thank you for praying for us, especially when it was time for our ethnoarts workshop last July. Thank you for reading the articles and memes we released. Thank you for commenting on these and for sharing our posts. Thank you also for giving to us generously—whether a financial donation, a ticket for our dinner-for-a-cause, a letter to bless Israel, or material goods for the mission field. You have given us so many reasons to rejoice! Thank you for being God’s gifts to us!
May our good, good Father bless you tremendously this Christmas!
Schedule Adjustment
Because of so many things happening in the lives of our team members, we have had to adjust our editorial calendar. Hence, the magazine, “Philippines, Awake!” will be released at a future date in 2024. We apologize for this, especially if you were looking forward to owning a copy before the year ended! Rest assured, the magazine will come out. Please pray for us as we continue to work on this particular magazine issue. It has always been a pattern in One Voice that when we work on a specific theme, we—the writers and editors—find ourselves in tests that train us to authenticate the message in our own lives. This pattern has never failed since we started publishing in 2009. After all, how can we write about something that we do not know about? The message, “Philippines, Awake!” has brought us face to face with loss and death, allowing us at the same time to experience grace from God alone—a grace that enables us to wake up from a difficult yesterday, breathe in new life for a new day, and rise again.
In all these, we thank our Lord. We may have varied journeys in life, but our unique circumstances always provide us with opportunities to know MORE of Jesus and the depth of His love for us. In this season of Christmas, let us remember Him, our reason for this season and beyond.
One with you in this journey called life,
Janina Marie Rivera
Editor-in-Chief
One Voice Magazine
Janina Marie Rivera is the author of the book, A Night Bird Sings of Blindness and Fear and has co-authored the devotional, Dawns, published by OMF Literature. She is a contributing poet in the books Joyful Light and Whitmanthology: on Loss and Grief by Various Authors. She is the Editor-in-Chief of One Voice Magazine.
