Christmas in Africa

We are back again in Nampula. We returned yesterday from our trip to South Africa for a prayer retreat. We have been on the go so much lately. Thank you for your prayers for our safety. God has blessed us with His protection throughout all of our travels. We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. On Dec. 22nd we went to the orphanage and decorated a paper Christmas tree and ornaments. Then we decorated sugar cookies…it was the first cookie decoration and tasting for all of the orphans. They loved it. Then Jenni took the girls and taught them how to make them. They are excited to venture on their own and make more of these new delicious treats. We also spent time sharing the true meaning of Christmas with all of them. We challenged them to share this message with at least one of their friends and they all committed to doing it! We were excited. We had such a blessed time with them.

We had a wonderful Christmas, although it was very different than what we are used to. We spent time with our new supervisors Eddie and Janice. It was great! They spoiled us and made us feel like family. Also, we were able to talk to our families in the States and actually see them on the web cam. Thank the Lord for Skype and instant messaging! Eddie and Janice are blessed to have a fast internet connection, so we had a blast and took advantage of seeing our family. It sure made our separation easier. We can’t complain since we were able to actually see and talk to our families. We are so grateful that God has blessed us with Skype and a missionary family that took us in. Being away from family, friends, and pretty Christmas decorations and goodies was hard, but God made the transition wonderful. Whether we have any of those things or not, we still celebrated the most important thing…Christ’s birth. It doesn’t matter where you are in the world, the meaning of Christmas remains the same. It was actually weird to be stripped from the commercialism of Christmas, but it was wonderfully weird. It helped us to focus only on the birth of our Savior!!!

After Christmas, we drove to South Africa. Can you say culture shock??? We had adapted to having nothing, and all of a sudden we felt like we were back in America. We went from a land with huts for homes and bad dirt roads, to a land with beautiful homes, movie theaters, hair salons, real grocery stores and PAVED roads! It was so weird…we felt like we were in America, however we were missing everyone we love so much. Everything felt so familiar, yet it felt so empty without our family and friends. We miss all of you so much!! Here is a picture of the first place we went to in Johannesburg…yep that would be Micky D’s! It was like a party in our mouths!!! Who knew fries, nuggets, and a McFlurry could taste so good!!

The Prayer Retreat was wonderful. There was a team who came from the States and they led us in worship and Bible Study. It was awesome to praise God in English! The days were very full of prayer time and worship time. We enjoyed it very much. At night, we had free time, and we took advantage of it and went to the movies. We highly recommend Charolette’s Web to everyone! Jenni also got her hair cut and styled, which was quite the experience. In the States you can just say I would like a cut/style. In Johannesburg, you have to be very specific and say you want your hair washed, then conditioned, then cut, then blow dried, and then straightened…Why??? Well because you have the privilege of paying for each and everything done to your hair. We know for next time, but it was quite an expensive, frustrating experience. It did turn out good though, so no complaints there!

Upon our arrival to Nampula, we were blessed with several Christmas packages awaiting us! We want to thank all of you for the time and money in postage/package materials that you put out to make us feel so special. We felt so loved and we appreciate the kindness and generosity that you showed us. THANK YOU!!! Now we are refreshed and stocked up on lots of yummy American food that should cure some cravings!

We had a meeting with Samaritan’s Purse when we returned to Mozambique a couple of days ago. We are in the process of looking at a bunch of AIDS ministry materials and making some big decisions on how to do ministry here. We need your prayers as we seek God to lead us in this decision making process. We also need you to pray for us this week as we search for an apartment to live in. We need to move ASAP out of our house, because the house we are living in now is going to be the home of our new supervisors. We had found a great option, but it fell through. Pray God would lead us to a good home and that the move would go smoothly. Also, pray that we would just lean on the Lord and not worry about the details of the move and decisions we need to make! God bless you and we hope that you are all having a wonderful New Year!!