Our Big Christmas Season in the Village

I love the holidays!  I love making the whole season fun and special.  Our house was full of the sights, sounds and smells of Christmas!

 Christmas Cookies

Christmas clothes
Here they celebrate Christmas with new clothes and food (meat and rice especially). 
My friend Jane does a wonderful job sewing our designs.

For school this year we did secret Santa gifts.  Everyone had to make a gift for their person.
I had Grace so I made her Christmas cupcakes.  She loves decorating cakes.

Luka had Malai and he painted her a race track for her cars.

Grace had Josh and she made him one of his favorites - maple bun bars!

Lydia made an ornament for Luka.

The kids found stocking hats at market and they thought it was so fun for Christmas - for our hot Christmas weather :) 

Every month the FIC teachers get together to pray.  For December we invited the teachers and their spouses for a Christmas party.  A small way to say thank you for all they do.

We played minute to win it games!

And we unwrapped a present wrapped in a giant ball of cling wrap.

We also had a time of worship together, ate together and celebrated Jesus' birthday with a Jesus cake.

Grace's Jesus Cake

We are very thankful for each volunteer teacher with FIC!  The family is growing and door continue to open in prisons, on radio and in schools.  We continue to offer ourselves to what God wants to do, where, and with who.
It is our joy to see people set free by the truth!

And we had to have a youth group Christmas party!

More minute to win it games.  The youth really get into it and the boys are super competitive.

We sure love the youth!  The group continues to change with some youth moving on and new youth joining us.  Sharing God's love with each one and helping them grow in Christ is a privilege.

Happy Birthday Jesus!

Merry Christmas or Yoga Ebaga!

We had a Christmas party with some of the missionaries in Soroti. 
We played games, ate a yummy ham supper, and had candlelight Christmas carols.

My kids made a dance to Little Drummer Boy - they are so awesome!
(See the video of it below.)

We enjoyed a family Christmas party on Christmas Eve.

We wanted to have a family jumping picture for Christmas so we set the camera on self timer...
we had a good laugh at what we got! 

Got the kids!  It was so fun!

Christmas Eve appetizers

Presents!

Malai was super excited about her sandals she got - just like her friends have here!

Lydia wrote Josh and I an amazing book thanking us for our love and care.

After our presents we went to a couple neighbors who are struggling and gave them presents.
I like to say we went on our sleigh to deliver Christmas joy.  We sang Christmas carols along the way - ok Josh and I did.

Christmas Pizza?!

Christmas Day we were with our church family.
Our kids did their dance in church.

Some of the youth did a dance to Go Tell It On the Mountain.

Josh taught on the people who were there on the first Christmas Day

Drawings of Joseph, Mary, Wise Men, Shepherd, and Angel

Then the couples who have been wed were called up front with the choir to dance.
What a riot!  Josh put on such a show we were given a tip by two people in the audience
(that is what they do here to appreciate something you did very well).

After church we all ate lunch together 

And played volleyball!
They love it and it is so fun.  Fun to see the adults being playful, everyone trying, and the leader beat the youth!

And soda for a treat after the games.

We also had a Christmas Crusade at the prison.  FIC teachers and some of our church members joined us in the prison.  They were, as we all are when we visit the prison, touched by the praise and worship of the prisoners.  "They praise God more than we do as people who are free."  One of our FIC teachers is a former prisoner and he shared his testimony of how God transformed him.  Another inmate gave his testimony how he learned about truth in FIC and how he told the truth to the judge and the judge reduced his sentence and allowed him to give his testimony in the court. We thank God for the church in the prison and the 25 new believers who gave their lives to Christ at the crusade.  

Merry Christmas everyone!
So very thankful God so loved the world that He gave us His one and only Son!