Happy Birthday Jesus!!

We survived our first Thanksgiving away from family, friends, and our US home!  Although the Skype session we had with my family almost brought the "ugly crying".  God has provided a good network of friends here to ease the sadness we feel.  Today is Christmas Eve and, again, God has provided people and activities to keep us busy.  And above all, God has been our ultimate comfort through these first holidays away.  He continues to reassure us that we are where He wants us.  Though we do miss our family and friends, we truly feel we are in His Will here in Nicaragua.

 

This month has been filled with many birthday parties for Jesus!  Our goal was to teach the children why we celebrate Christmas - JESUS!  The children we work with are not overburdened with "things".  The materialism that we, in the U.S., deal with is not an issue here thus far.  We were actually surprised when most of them did not realize Christmas was this week.  Many did not really know the Nativity story.  So our focus was teaching about Jesus' birthday and having fun celebrating His special day.  This fun included crafts, piñatas, chocolate cake, etc.  It was such a joy to celebrate with each group of children.

A BIG THANK YOU to all the people who donated money for the purchasing of Spanish Bibles.  We were able to pass out many to adults and children!

In Las Delicias we were able to watch the Christmas Story in Spanish.

 We also had an opportunity to have a Christmas party with our helpers for the Wednesday night children's program.  We had a nice time fellowshipping together by eating, decorating sugar cookies, playing some games, and reading the Christmas story.

For those interested...Coffee season has been in full swing here.  For around 3 months the coffee is picked and processed here.  These are the big money maker months for most people.  The children are on their "summer vacation" and a lot of the children we work with help their parents in the fields picking the coffee beans.  We were told a person in the field picking the coffee beans receives around $1 per basket.  This year the average is 3 baskets per day because the drought has affected the crop.  So the men, women, and children are working all day for around $3.  :(  We appreciate the coffee we drink so much more now that we have been learning about the process and work involved!

 
Please continue to pray for the ministry that God has given us here.  We treasure each day we have to spend with the children.  It warms are hearts to see their smiles, hear them actually call us by name, and feel a little bit a part of their world.
Please pray for hearts to soften to the Gospel...for salvations...for leaders to emerge and want to take over each children's program...our continual Spanish language learning...understanding the culture...and our ears to hear God's voice & broken wills to follow His leading.

Thank you and Merry CHRISTmas!!!