CHRISTMAS 2025

Ever precious greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ! It is my great honor and high privilege to share my heart with you once again! I want to come alongside Debbie in her Christmas letter thoughts to you. We desire to share the fullness of our hearts with you because you are our beloved prayer warriors. We strongly believe that the fullness of transparency fosters the fullness of fellowship, and we desire that fullness with you, our precious supporters. Apart from you, we can do nothing. 🙂

Debbie and I sense that the Lord is calling us to pump our brakes and slow down. Please be prayerful for us – we are listening to Him. As is the Lord’s way with His people, in light of our mulishness (Psalm 32:9), the Lord must first use means to get our full attention. To that end, Debbie and I have been dragged through the dirt by dogs to the point of sustaining bruised and broken ribs, both on our right sides – interestingly, the same exact wounds. As if that wasn’t bad enough, I being the head (and a bit more stubborn than she is), soon after fell off my bike, blooding up my face and hands, and bruising my ribs on my left side to boot! The Lord has a way of making His point! I submit. 😌

During this season, we both have experienced an ungodly exhaustion that is hard to voice. Our mindset has always been to just “push through” no matter what. But that is not always best. We cannot even think clearly. We are also keenly aware of continuous attacks of spiritual warfare, as has been our lot, for three decades of prison ministry. It is now acute. We discern that the Lord is
seeking to recalibrate us in light of our age and our stubbornly-sinful habit of overworking. We have repented deeply.

Together, we have been slowly, intentionally studying through a book called Leading on Empty. It was written by a burned-out pastor who penned his struggles to help others such as ourselves. Through prayer, the Lord has shown us our pride among many things. The pride of thinking in our hearts, “If we do not help them, they will not be helped.” So very, very untrue. We are now tweaking ourselves. Graciously, the Lord is realigning us, for our good, because He alone is good. He is seeking to refresh, revive, refocus, and to slow us down – not too slow, but we are not 40 anymore! 😏

I have learned through experience that left unattended, our walk can unwittingly become spiritually calcified and hardened. The Lord has shown me clearly that we all drift toward mundanity in our walks. We are full well capable of functioning in the flesh. Albeit, we know that the flesh profits nothing! Debbie and I are now guarding ourselves of such because we have learned that relationship, as gravity pulling downward, is always tending toward religion.

It is written, “It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit, and they are Life.” (John 6:63)

Works are the fruit of the Christian tree. The tree is the life. If the tree is not well watered, fed, fertilized, and rested, then the fruit will be unbecoming, sickly, and thus undesirous. Contrarily, fruit is intended to be very desirous and mouth watering. Men ought always to desire it. Spiritually, our fruit should be the same. It should be desired among the people with whom we live and move and have our being. Ripe, spiritual fruit draws people to the luscious, ever-flowing water of life; yes, the very living water of Christ Jesus! Simply put, our fruit should cause people to desire Christ. Is He not “. . .the Desire of All Nations,. . .”? (Haggai 2:7) The fruit of the Spirit hanging on the tree of our life
should lead to the fruit of soul winning and discipleship. If not, let us examine ourselves. All fruit inspectors must begin with themselves, or their inspecting is indeed in vain. The fruit declares the root. Thus, Debbie and I, being rooted and grounded in the Lord Jesus Christ desire to bring forth sweet fruit that glorifies God in all things (Psalm 115:1). As such, we have been sitting at His feet. He has taught us much. We have always overworked; it is our fault. We are not victims, but head-bowed takers of responsibility. We are searching ourselves. We are changing in light of His heart for us. The center of His will is our goal, for therein is His highest glory and our highest good, even the fullness of joyful fruitfulness!

Debbie has never in her life had a sabbatical of real rest. She has labored tirelessly since being a missionary in Brazil for five years. Then, on top of that, thirty years of prison ministry with all of its storied peripherals! Her only supposed rest was in a rehab in 2017 for burn-out! Imagine that! Having been in a plethora of rehabs myself in my unsaved days, I know rehabs are far from a rest. I myself served Christ for thirty years in maximum security prisons without a single day off. It was my ministry in fire, but never a moment without a boot on my neck and a burden on my back. I ministered in deep, deep darkness. C.T. Studd said, “Some want to live within the sound of church and chapel bell; I want to run a rescue shop, within a yard of hell!” To that I concur!🙂 Then, upon
my release from prison, at age 64, I promptly went to work as a landscaper doing 10-hour days! Thereafter, upon our board’s approval, I went right back into prison ministry with Debbie. Praise God it was from the other side of the wall this time!

We are by no means complaining; we know you know our hearts. Serving the Lord is our high honor and privilege. Our problem is that when we try to go rest, we do not stop ministering. It has been suggested that we take a sabbatical – an extended season of rest; perhaps for a couple of months.
We will be sitting with our board to discuss this. It is all new to us, but needful. We know that it’s not wrong, but we also have a false fear that our supporters could, perhaps, see it the wrong way. That is why we want you to hear our hearts. Sabbaticals are normal for people in full-time ministry, especially those on the front lines. It has not been normal for us. We are praying that the Lord do His good will in and through us. We cannot read the label from inside our bottle! We need to be away for a season to see Him clearly. Will you please pray over us…we don’t want to be. . .

“DRAGGED AROUND BY DOGS ANYMORE!”

JOYFULLY IN JESUS,
LOVE, PHILIP