Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas everyone!! We hope wherever you are and however you are celebrating this Christmas that you are experiencing God’s love for you in new ways. We are so thankful for each and every one of you and your love and support of us!
Life in the village has slowed down yet still somehow we remain busy! Harvest is over and the snow has started to fall. But we are running at full speed this Christmas season. Over the next two weeks we will be part of over 20 church services and we will have the opportunity to spend a number of meals in people’s homes. Another fun tradition we do at Christmas time is go to surrounding villages with our church’s brass band and spend the nights carolling in the streets. We can’t wait to join in with this again this year.
Last night, we had our annual “Agape Dinner” with our youth. This has become one of our favourite traditions. It’s potluck style, which basically means each teen brings over their mom’s best dish! Again, this year did not let us down as we had a feast of schnitzel, Hungarian meatballs, Hungarian scalloped potatoes, sausage, pickled macaroni salad, home-made bread… it was delicious!! Part way through our dinner we lost power and spent the majority of the night in darkness. None of us really minded and if anything it added to our message that night from John 1 as we spoke about Jesus coming as the light of the world! It was a powerful illustration. Another fun part of the evening was when we taught the teens the “White Elephant” Christmas present stealing game. It was hilarious to see their reaction as they learned about the rules and the allowance for stealing presents! We ended the evening by watching “Elf”—luckily our power came back just in time.
Construction continues at the camp. We have seen so much progress over the past couple of months. It is great having the Wagner’s working at the camp. They are both so skilled and such servants. We’ve also been able to hire a couple of the men from our village, which has allowed work to move more quickly. The renovation project of the farm house to staff house is almost completely finished. We are so excited as the completion of this project allows us in the short term to host construction workers at the camp and in the long term, camp staff! Take a look at the pictures! Next up is our water and sewage system and two duplex cabins—permits pending. Please pray for these permits to come in as well as funds to be provided.
We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas celebrating Jesus coming to the world, with your friends and family! We look forward to celebrating it here in the village with our neighbours and friends. We also somehow ended up with the responsibility of the children/teen Christmas pageant, so we look forward to telling the story of Jesus coming into the world tomorrow night. The youth have worked hard rehearsing and we can’t wait to share this message with the church! Blessings to all of you back home. Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Paul and Tanya
