A Merry Christmas!

Last week brought a very merry Christmas to us here in Kiari as I hope it did to you in your homes as well. We had a surprisingly traditional Christmas, thanks to some recent good finds on town supply trips. Tiffany and I opened our presents (together with our cats) on Christmas morning and fixed a gourmet breakfast of eggs, bacon, cinnamon rolls, and apple juice. Then we fixed our part of the Christmas dinner and went up to the Smiths for a dinner of ham, mashed potatoes, green salad, waldorf salad, ambrosia, rolls, and pineapple bake. Dinner over, we opened presents with the Smiths, played some games, and worked on a jigsaw puzzle. In late afternoon, we had dessert of cherry pie and nut pie. All in all, a very enjoyable day!

 

On Saturday afternoon, I invited my Sunday school class to my house to make Christmas cookies. I had made the dough ahead of time and cut out and baked most of the cookies, but I left one portion of dough for them to try their hand at cutting out. Then we frosted all the already baked ones and ate a few. The experience was a first for most of them as none of them have ovens and cookies are not a traditional part of their culinary skills:-) I was pleased that ten of the sixteen girls in my class came. We played pin the star on the Christmas tree, sang some Christmas songs, and I shared some insights from the Christmas story.

 

Yesterday (Sunday), I was a little ill (probably too many Christmas sweets) and unable to make the hike down to church. I was told though that there was a good attendance, as, just like America, people come out of the woodwork to come to church on Christmas Sunday. Megan, one of my teen girls who has wandered from the Lord, was there for all the services. Please continue to pray for her and for the rest of the teens that they will stand strong and continue to follow the Lord.

Christmas Program

Thanks so much for all your prayers for the Christmas program. It went remarkably well, considering everything. There was a good turnout of Sunday school children for their part in the program and also a good number of visitors invited by our church folks.

 

Most people remembered their lines -- pretty impressive considering it was the first time any of them had had to memorize a part in a play. I only did a little minor prompting. Also, it did not rain, which was a definite blessing as the rain falling on our tin roof would have made our soft spoken actors impossible to hear.

 

The biggest blessing of the service though was that one of the teenage girls from my Sunday school class came forward at the invitation and said that she wanted to be saved. She had tears in her eyes and seemed quite struck by the fact that Jesus had shed His blood and died that her sins might be forgiven. Her decision made all the work worthwhile.

 

Once again, thanks for your prayers. You had just as much a part behind the scenes as the actors on stage had in the foreground.

Paperwork

As you may recall, I have asked prayer for the approval of a work permit for Elizabeth Ellinghausen, a short term teacher for our Christian school. Recently we learned that the company who deals with the paperwork for us did notactually submit it to the government agency for approval until a few weeks ago! This not only affects Elizabeth, but also two short termers who are hoping to come to another village in PNG to do medical work and Christian school teaching. Please pray that the Lord will allow this paperwork to be granted in His timing and give wisdom and clear direction to all involved.

 

You're probably tired of hearing about the Christmas program by now, but it is a major part of my thoughts and prayers at this time. It will be held in the afternoon service on December 20th. That will be 3:15pm here, which would be 12:15am Eastern Time in the US. So if you think to pray for us before you go to bed on Saturday night, it would be much appreciated. We had our first full-scale rehearsal on Sunday and it went surprisingly well. Pleae pray especially for unsaved visitors and a clear understanding of the gospel message.

O Christmas Tree

As I'm sure you've noticed, the Christmas holidays are creeping up on us. On Saturday, Tiffany and I went out to chop down our Christmas trees. We don't really have pine trees, but we have a kind of tree that has needles that sort of resembles them. It looks a bit like a Charlie Brown Christmas tree though. I have been crocheting snowflakes to use as ornaments and also have some round glass flasks that make great balls when stuffed with colored tissue paper. Now if I can only keep the cats from climbing the tree or using the dirt base as a litter box:-)

 

Brother Randy had a profitable trip to town last week. Thanks so much for your prayers. He was able to get grass seed ordered and paid for and even found the type that he was hoping for.

 

We have 2 more weeks of school before we will break for the Christmas holidays. Practice continues for the church Christmas program. Until now, the actors and each Sunday school class has been practicing separately, but I plan to gather them all together for a complete dry run next Sunday. We'll see how that goes:-) It is planned for December 20th, so please continue to pray for that outreach.