Dear Friends and Family,
I hope this finds you well and warm. I understand there was a huge snow storm that hit the U.S. last week - A white Christmas a few weeks early! We don't get to see snow here, but we do get to see a lot of the warm liquid version of snow (called rain). It is the rainy season and we are literally floating here. Even today, Marti had to park our car in the neighborhood and walk home in the mud. The only passable road (of 3) was blocked by a broken down truck. But, we are enjoying the holiday season anyway. The house is beautifully decorated, Christmas music is played continuously through the day, and scented candles burn to fill the house with the aromas of Christmas.
November was a fairly good month. We were able to slow down just a bit compared to September and October where I was working hard to get caught up on things. We were able to have a small Thanksgiving Feast with Marti's mom and a couple of missionary friends. We also had a wonderful Poetry Night where the kids were able to do recitations of works they had memorized as well as share original works. It was great to see them do such a great job. And, we even had a chance to see Sarah perform in a mini ballet recital. She has really enjoyed getting back into this since our return.
Our medical student ministry is going well, but it now beginning a new chapter. Last week, we celebrated with the senior medical students who passed final exams - we had a coat and tie dinner at a wonderful local restaurant. It is kind of sad to realize that the past two years has gone by so quickly…my work with them will continue but not as often or intimately. Fortunately, one of the senior students will be doing his internship at the same hospital I work at, and so we hope to have a small weekly time of prayer and devotions. Before sending them off to Internship, we have decided to have a 4 Day "mountain retreat" December 15-18. I will be taking them to Mount Kenya where we will tackle the challenging and difficult mountain. We will hike and camp over a 4 day assault on the mountain. I plan to have daily devotions and the time together will be a memory of a lifetime I am sure. We pray that the lessons of this weekend retreat and time spent in the past couple of years will bear fruit as they move on to Internship.
We thank you all so much for your dedicated prayer and financial support. Christmas time is our favorite time of year. We plan to "slow down" to enjoy it. Besides the Mt. Kenya trip we have very little planned. We hope that you will be able to "slow down" as well and avoid the hustle and bustle of Christmas. Let us celebrate both here and there, the incredible fact that God became Incarnate.
God Bless. Merry Christmas. Happy New Year.
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