A wonderful Christmas 2009!

This Christmas season really has been a good one for our family. Now that we have adjusted more to life here and have found so many new ways of doing our own traditions, despite the lack of available materials and ingredients, we are able to fully participate in the season. I would say our celebration really started last weekend with our Christmas production.


We have been working over the past month or so to prepare for putting on a big drama with music and sharing about the true meaning of Christmas. One of our interns did a ton of work planning out a drama that could easily be followed by non-native English speakers and putting together a cast and practice schedule. When the night of arrived it all came together beautifully. We had put up about 80 chairs thinking that we were dreaming big with all of the inviting we had done. As we began our play the people kept coming and coming! It was difficult to get a full count but we had atleast 110 people there, of which around 75% were first time visitors! It really was a blessing and we were even able to share our tradition of a candle light service with people from here. The funny thing was that instead of helping eachother light their candles, many pulled out their lighters and started lighting candles around them, so the glow started at the back of the room instead of the front! It was a wonderful evening and we look forward to seeing how God wants to use it.

For Christmas eve we decided to start a new tradition. Zeke was allowed to open the gifts in his stocking and Scott and I each opened a gift of our choosing. We also shared with Zeke a very simple version of the Christmas story and then enjoyed a glass of juice together. However, our juice was supposed to be some berry conconction, but it ended up that it tasted just like Dimatap! Same consistancy and all! It was a wonderful night, though, and it really primed Zeke for Christmas morning!

Christmas morning we woke early and had a skype call with Scott's family. Then the gift opening commenced... Zeke was so excited he could barely stop to look at all the toys he was oohing and awhing over! We were blessed by many this year who sent us all sorts of treats and comforts of home. Thank you to everyone out there who thought of us over this Christmas. We really do appreciate you! Zeke's excitement over his new toys has continued as he plays non-stop with them all day long and even babbles on about various toys as we are trying to get him to settle down for sleep!

We have 3 interns who are here for the year assisting our team with teaching at the center as well as with many other projects that come our way. Scott and I decided to invite them over to spend Christmas day with our family. Together we were able to have a wonderful brunch together (complete with donuts that I just learned how to make) and enjoyed a relaxing afternoon of watching the movie "A Christmas Story." It was a blessing to get to know these guys better and also to have their help in preparing for Christmas dinner.

Including Zeke we had 12 people around our table for Christmas dinner. Because we don't have access to what is often a tradition in American family Christmas dinners, instead of ham we made thanksgiving dinner all over again. Fortunately for me, I love turkey and all the fixings! We had quite an international group at our table as we had 4 different nationalities represented. The cool part of that is knowing that in Jesus we are all family. It really was a wonderful time and no one left with an empty stomach!

To top off a full Christmas day we attended an engagement party for some friend's of ours! It was wonderful to be able to celebrate their coming union together as well as an opportunity to sneak in a few more Christmas goodies before the normal rules of healthy eating were reinstated! We realized, however, that as ten'o'clock hit that Zeke had been pushed to his limit for the day and we headed home to all happily crash into bed. We really enjoy both the spiritual and cultural aspects of the Christmas holiday. It is always good to be reminded of the importance of family and traditions as well as to continually be refreshed of the sacrifice that God made for us all through His Son. We really are blessed to be a part of what God is doing around the world and know that these reminders can find us no matter where God asks us to go. We hope you all had a wonderful and meaningful Christmas as well! God bless!