A Christmas Extravaganza

We have had some exciting times these last few weeks.  We have had ample opportunity to think on, reflect and share our reasons for celebrating Christmas!  We love being able to share so much of who we are with our friends.  This really serves to deepen our relationships here.  It also helps our friends be able to understand us better.  Basically it is an awesome thing all around!

We have been changing up our coffee shop nights at our language center this past semester.  In the past we have had open conversation nights where we play games, sip coffee and allow our students to practice their English.  However, we were looking for something to spice things up and increase the educational opportunities this fall by adding a bit more structure and preparation to the time.  What we came up with were nights where we had Q&A with your teacher, a period of time where you rotate between games or planned conversations, and then ended the night with some open conversation time and enjoyed some cake and coffee.  We also hosted our very first American culture night!  It was a blast teaching our students about American sports, dance, slang, pop culture and history.  In that same vein we used our Christmas party to impart some wisdom as well.  Scott did a wonderful presentation on the cultural and faith-based parts of Christmas.  Our students really liked it and came away with a better understanding while also learning how to string popcorn for our center tree!  The thing is here, people believe that Christmas and New Years are the same thing.  Over these past four years we have worked with our friends to differentiate between the two.  This has worked well with those close to us…so well that we got a bunch of calls on the 25^th wishing us a merry Christmas!  It was wonderful to have that display of care for us and showing that they remember!

 

We also hosted our traditional Christmas drama with our international fellowship.  We invited all of our friends and had an amazing 160 people show up this year.  A wonderful group from Wyoming came out and put on a drama for us depicting the Christmas story through the remembrances of an elderly Mary.  We enjoyed conversation and Christmas cookies together afterwards.  One family who is in the baking business brought a HUGE cake in the shape of a cross to share with us!  It was a wonderful and elaborate surprise!

 

 

The other opportunity we took advantage of was having our ladies together again at our center to celebrate the season.  Some friends from New Jersey blessed us with a suitcase full of special treats, gifts, decorations and an ornament craft.  It was a smaller group that was able to come, but it made for a very intimate event.  We are really blessed to be able to do life together with our friends here and share our time, culture and sacred beliefs.  We ended the afternoon with one of our interns teaching us a really fun dance!

 

 

We hope that your holiday was spent in a meaningful way and that the things God is teaching you will continue to grown and deepen as we begin a new year.  We are very thankful that God has us where He does and are grateful to serve among these people.  We are also thankful to all of YOU who support us across the many miles and think of us especially this time of year!  Coming next…a family update.  Stay tuned!