The Season?

This is not the first time I have been in a warm climate during Christmas time ('89 I was in Hawaii doing my Discipleship Training School after graduating high school).  I think it was different then because I was in the US where you see Christmas decorations and hear Christmas music.  Santa & palm trees was pretty strange but it was nothing like this.  I keep telling myself that I should get out the Christmas lights I brought with us (where am I going to hang them?) and hang up our stockings (really?  now?) but so far I have not been able to convince myself.  Is Christmas really only 3 weeks away?  So strange.

I think we are going to take the kids away on a little vacation somewhere for Christmas.  It will be their Christmas gift & make it more special, instead of just staying here & being like any other day.   It will be nice to have a get away together.

The girls have been busy.  Christine is trying to get her online studies done, but it's very difficult because it takes a long time & she gets bored or frustrated with it sometimes.  She also has joined the dance team at church & is leading as well.  KaLia is dancing with them too.  KaLia and some of her friends had initiated a bake sale at her school.  Together they raised $600 that will be given as a Christmas gift to the Home of Innocence and the Home of Hope (a Mother Theresa orphanage in Kigali).  Christine also is brainstorming some way that she can raise money to buy clothes for the children who live on the streets.  Very proud of our girls!

Of course proud of our boys too.  Our Rwandan son (no, not officially, but our son none the less) Michael gets to come home from boarding school this week.  We are all so very excited.  He's a great boy, so smart, and we all love him very much.  We all love Nate too, even if he does toss baby kittens in the air, or sneak big glasses of water right before bed, or cry and fuss when it's time to do school work-- he's our Nate!  We love him and we also know the sweet, tender, loving side of him.

Thank you for your prayers for us.  We would appreciate your prayers for our family's financial needs as in January we are going to need to pay several months rent, and it will be a financially strained month for TTI as well with school fees, rent, Christmas party, etc.  We've got to go shopping & buy full outfits for 40 kids!  I have a feeling my Christmas shopping is going to be a little different than yours- probably most of you will not be shopping at an open market and bartering for best prices on pairs of shoes... 

I pray your Christmas time is filled with reflections on Christ and what it means to receive the greatest gift of all time.  For many of you this is a busy, busy time of year filled with activities and to-do lists.  I pray you find time to stop and rest and thank God for all the gifts he's given you.

God Bless You,
Lisa