Christmas on the Equator

Most of our local friends and neighbors are hindu and do not know that Christmas is even a holiday. It has given us some great chances to share with them. Still, we wanted to spend Christmas with others who delight in the birth of our savior. So this year for Christmas we went to visit friends who live in another part of the country. We had so much fun sharing this special season with other believers. We had all sorts of new experiences as well as some that were reassuringly familiar.
Jody got to go scuba diving,

and be a couch potato.
We learned what divinity looks like when it is 99 degrees outside,
opened gifts,
and visited the most beautiful beach we had ever seen!

Christmas can't be very far...

On my birthday we had a wonderful time up in the mountains with some friends and their precious daughters. Even though this was only 45 minutes from our house, the altitude is over 6,000 ft and it was around 50 all weekend with rain which made it feel even colder. We enjoyed time by the fireplace together as well as time playing outside. It made us feel like Christmas wasn't very far away!

Happy Birthday!

One of the things I really like about this place is the culture surrounding birthdays. When it is your birthday, it is your responsibility to treat your friends, so everyone looks forward to the birthdays of their friends! This year for my birthday I wanted to celebrate a teenager that lives in my neighborhood named *Karen. She will celebrate her 15th birthday on Christmas day and in all her life, no one has told her whose birthday she shares...until this year. We have had so much fun together each week reading the word together, so on my birthday I wanted to treat Karen. We got her a cake and a few small gifts and threw her a birthday party with the family that she nannies for. She has never had a birthday party before...she comes from an underprivileged family and has to work to send money home. She dropped out of school after 3rd grade. Pray that she would have a real encounter with the One True God. Here is the story of her party:

Dreaming of a white Christmas

This is the view I get from my window each night this month...no, that is not snow. Those are hordes of termites! It is as close to a "White Christmas" as I will get this year!