Ten years ago today we were hanging out with our friends the Neufelds, showing off our adopted country along with our roots! Click the image for a larger version. The Neufelds are in Canada now, but we all still love Mexico. 🙂
Ten years ago today (2016), Shari had a baking class! A new semester had begun at the community centre, and Kaycee was hard at work as well (seen in the background here – 5th from the right), teaching English and even an Asian cooking class!
We would appreciate your prayers for the family of our former director, Keith Elliott, who passed away this month.
Keith was our Canadian director back before Camino joined with Avant. He and his wife, Ruth Ann, were a great encouragement to us at the time. In fact, as you may guess from the picture above, they visited us here in Ixtapaluca 10 years ago next month!
Keith’s obituary explains what happened:
On Wednesday, December 17, 2025, Keith was able to fulfill his heart’s desire to be the kidney donor for his beloved wife and life-long ministry partner, Ruth Ann. Keith experienced a complication from the transplant surgery. After many days on life support, surrounded by his family, Keith passed from this world into the loving arms of his Saviour on Saturday, January 3, 2026.
Obituary Rev. Gordon Keith “Mateo” Elliott
We had actually been hoping to have Keith and Ruth Ann down here again to do some ministry with our pastors, and were very much looking forward to having them. But the Lord had other things in mind. We’ll have to wait a little longer to see him again!
The Elliotts served for many years as missionaries in Mexico, and in Ecuador. Until health issues led them home to Canada, they were serving in Costa Rica, doing pastoral care.
Again, please do pray for Ruth Ann and the rest of the family, for comfort and direction in the days ahead.
Here’s a devotional from 2024 from Keith…
Thanks for joining us for our brief tour of the great Christmas carol, “What Child is This?”! Here’s an index of this year’s posts, as well as some additional resources to check out. And check out below for one more interesting note about a change that has been made in modern renditions of the song, and what the original is actually referring to.
I mentioned briefly the fact that some renditions of this song leave out the last two lines in verses 2-3. But another very common change is in verse two – changing the line “Where ox and ass are feeding” to “Where ox and lamb are feeding”.
Now, we all know why this change was made – modern audiences are uncomfortable with the word “ass”, and “donkey” just isn’t going to fit with the music. But.
But you should probably know that there is a long, rich tradition that’s lost if you change the donkey to a lamb. Even look at the nativity scene picture I posted here. Yes, they threw in a lamb for the shepherds of Luke 2, but there they are, close together, in a modern day nativity scene – the donkey and the ox. Why?
Well, it was as early as the second or third century, or perhaps earlier, that people were making the connection. Through Isaiah, God lamented the unbelief of Israel:
An ox knows its owner,
Isaiah 1:3
And a donkey its master’s manger,
But Israel does not know;
My people do not perceive.
Yes, even the ox and donkey know their owners – actually, their owner. Not only that, they recognize his manger!
Although the gospel writers mention no animals by Jesus’ manger (we can certainly imagine that they came for their dinner and were surprised at what they found!), it would certainly be appropriate if even the animals were there to worship their Owner, especially in light of this verse.
But there’s more. As believers reflected on this, they were reminded that all creation is under its Creator, and sometimes the creation seems to be more inclined to worship God than humans are (see Psalm 19:1; Luke 19:40; Romans 1:20).
Other carols mention this pair:
There’s even more to the tradition – another reason why these specific animals are important. Noting that the ox, under Jewish law, was a clean animal, and the donkey unclean, the two became associated with Jews and Gentiles. Hence, Jesus came for both Jews and Gentiles – for the whole world.
Of course, without all the speculation, the Bible itself tells us that – even in the Christmas story, where it’s likely (although a few have suggested otherwise) that the Magi were Gentiles, and shepherds of course Jews. Going on in the book of Matthew, even Jesus points out that many Gentiles would be in the kingdom (Matthew 8:11).
I certainly understand why the substitute is commonly made – but maybe before we quickly change traditions, we should at least think about where they came from and why they’re there, just as we should be hesitant to “move the ancient boundary” (Proverbs 22:28). No, we don’t raise tradition to the level of Scripture. But sometimes these traditions remind us of important truths.
So the next time you see the ox and donkey at a manger scene, remember – He is indeed the Owner of all creation. And He came to save not only His nation, but peoples from every nation!
In the first verse of What Child is This?, we learned that the Baby on Mary’s lap was actually Christ the King. Our response? To hurry to bring Him the praise He deserves.
In the second verse, we learned that this Messiah was coming to bring us salvation, through His suffering. So the author ends the verse with“Hail, hail the Word made flesh” – we acknowledge His purpose, His salvation.
But now we end with a complete change of attitude, resulting in action.
So bring Him incense, gold and myrrh,
Come peasant, king to own Him;
Of course a reference to the three wise men, the magi, who worshipped Him and brought gifts (Matthew 2:1-12). As a matter of fact, everyone, rich or poor, should come to worship. To “own” – as in to confess, acknowledge. To speak and act according to the truth – He is the King of Kings.
The King of kings salvation brings,
Let loving hearts enthrone Him.
As explained in verse 2, Jesus took on human flesh to save sinners (Matthew 1:21; Matthew 9:13). He is coming not to judge (this time – John 3:17), but to save. In thankfulness we serve Him as king, because He is King.
Raise, raise a song on high,
The virgin sings her lullaby.
We bring our gifts and worship, we serve Him as king, and now we sing – as a testimony to all, we sing our Christmas carols!
And how can you not love the next line – “The virgin sings her lullaby”. At first, apparently, it was just a baby on his mother’s lap. Now we have a fuller understanding of the miraculous truth. He’s a miracle Baby, the promised Messiah, the King, the Saviour.
And it all starts with a mother singing to her newborn – but this is no ordinary newborn! What a contrast.
Joy, joy for Christ is born,
The Babe, the son of Mary.
All this is because of a complete change in attitude. We didn’t even know who this Baby was – but now we do, and that brings us joy! It’s not any baby, it’s Mary’s Baby, the long promised Messiah…
But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.
Galatians 4:4-5
The word “Christ” itself is really a summary of the entire Old Testament. The world, created good by God, cursed because of sin, was promised a Saviour. But the wait was long! As another carol says, “Long lay the world in sin and error pining…”
And finally, along came the Messiah, the Christ, the long-awaited and final sacrifice for sin. Sin now has an expiry date – it will be gone from the earth and heaven, and its curse will be gone, and we will truly enjoy life with the Creator forever.
And so we sing again, as we celebrate –
Raise, raise a song on high,
The virgin sings her lullaby.
Joy, joy for Christ is born,
The Babe, the son of Mary.
He is Christ, the King! exclaims the first verse of What Child Is This?. It is a surprise to find that a small baby on the lap of His mother is the Messiah, promised since the dawn of time to bring salvation.
But the second verse pauses again to really look around. He’s not just a baby with His mother. He’s not in a palace, or even a nursery.
Why lies He in such mean estate,
Where ox and ass are feeding?
“Mean” – as in “poor, dirty, and of bad quality” (Cambridge Dictionary). A “mean estate” refers to poor circumstances – a feeding place for farm animals. Of all places, why is He here?
William Dix, the author of this carol, was familiar with suffering himself. His father apparently drank heavily, and eventually abandoned the family. At one point, some of his writings were exposed as fraudulent. The family had many reasons to be embarrassed and ashamed, not to mention in danger of being in a very “mean estate” themselves.
William himself had a varied career. As a young man he apprenticed with his grandfather (his mother’s father) as a soap and candle maker. When he grew up, he worked at and eventually managed a marine insurance company. He must have been familiar with more suffering in a job like that.
At one point, early in his life, he became very sick – near death. This became a major time of spiritual growth. In fact, he later confided “It is a somewhat curious fact that most of my best known hymns were written when I was suffering from some bodily ailment.”
One of the first of these was “Come Unto Me, Ye Weary”:
“Come unto Me, ye weary, and I will give you rest.”
O blessèd voice of Jesus, which comes to hearts oppressed!
It tells of benediction, of pardon, grace and peace,
Of joy that hath no ending, of love which cannot cease.
But here is the Saviour Himself in lowly circumstances. He truly “became flesh, and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). But the verse continues:
Good Christians, fear, for sinners here
The silent Word is pleading.
The point is perhaps not that Jesus was praying in His manger-cradle, but that His whole life was one of bringing salvation to sinners. To quote all of John 1:14,
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
This was the earthly beginning of the great work of Christ, the King.
Nails, spear shall pierce Him through,
The cross be borne for me, for you.
Hail, hail the Word made flesh,
The Babe, the son of Mary.
As Isaiah prophesied centuries before Jesus was born:
But He was pierced through for our transgressions,
Isaiah 53:5
He was crushed for our iniquities;
The chastening for our peace fell upon Him,
And by His wounds we are healed.
What is our response? To “fear” – this is no ordinary child that can be overlooked. This is not even just another king. This is the King who came to give Himself for us.
And so we look into the past at the Baby in a manger, perhaps first in curiosity or confusion, but then when we know more – in fear and awe and reference and thankfulness.
It is a shame that for some reason some versions of this song cut out the last lines of the second and third verse, simply repeating the last two lines of verse 1 (“Haste, haste, to bring Him laud, the Babe, the son of Mary”). This takes away from the responses that Dix intended. First, we hurry to praise Him. Now we acknowledge Him both for who He is and His purpose in coming.
He came to sacrifice Himself to bring us salvation from sin and death. “…the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10).
