Christmas trees, remembering where the decorations are stashed, singing Christmas Carols or rehearsing for the famous ECC Carol Sing (so sorry I won’t be there this year!), finishing the last touch on that last present, or maybe just starting your shopping list, December is upon us!

This December is so very different from those when I was growing up…..  There are fat sleek watermelons swelling in my front yard along with hard dark green pumpkins both testing my patience for how long it will take for them to ripen.  We are putting up decorations, counting the days before Christmas and can’t wait for Emma to come home for her long school break in less than two weeks!

Several surprising adventures have happened with the neighbors.  The boys across the street have continued to help me keep the yard free from weeds and now somehow seem to think I am the ‘go to’ lady for all their problems.  I have bandaged cut body parts, taped up hopeless flip-flops (repeatedly!), glued school book covers and helped with homework, just to name a few.  While having my door bell ring constantly all day can be a bother, I also see these interactions as opportunities to demonstrate the love of Christ.  The next door neighbor girls have come to get practice with their English, too.  One day I sewed up a split pair of pants, and big brother asked if I could fix some pants for him, too.  I said “sure” and the next day all four brothers brought over a stack of things for me to fix.  It wasn’t hard as most were just ripped seams but I didn’t know what was coming.  Over the next few days neighbor teens I have never seen came bringing stacks of clothes, and cloth to make new items!  I had to turn them all away (I already have a job!), but found a new possibility for work when school is over this year! 😉

Corey and Katie got a cute little puppy that is growing by leaps and bounds, literally!  A happy, energetic, friendly pup who greets you when you arrive and just won’t let you out the door when you leave!  Corey is confident he will make a good guard dog.  On their roof their rabbits have finally had babies!  There are two cute tiny baby rabbits, also growing every day, and now even have fur!

We are all very glad to have Corey back from his trip to the USA.  He learned a lot and made new friends who will be important contacts as he goes forward with publishing the Wolofal Bible.  He is currently working on publishing a booklet with the Christmas story for distribution throughout Senegal this year.

While the cooler temperatures are minimizing the need for cooling efforts, the hot season will be upon us sooner than we would like.  I have finally gotten a fan motor, but the electrician says it needs some capacitors, and I have no idea when or if he will be able to find them.  So still no working fan.  But I DO have the next best thing: krinting for the roof, my Christmas gift from my daughter and her husband.  Krinting is long mats that are placed on cinder blocks on the flat roof.  They create a buffer of shaded space so the house doesn’t get the heat of the sun directly.  This is designed to lessen the heat that builds up and is retained by the building, creating an overall cooler house.

We had a lovely if quiet Thanksgiving at Corey and Katie’s house.  Not a traditional roast turkey since the neighbor who raised it thoughtfully cut it up in pieces when she plucked it, but turkey all the same!  We are excited to make a fun week-long Christmas trip on December 10 to pick up Emma from her boarding school, have our annual SIM team Christmas party and have an early Christmas celebration with some close family friends who live near Emma’s school.  We will then have a quiet home Christmas with just the family.  We are all looking forward to a break from school and getting to spend time with Emma!

The girls are zipping through school: we are more than one third through the year!  Wheaton has finished the Civil War era and we are fascinated with the development of manufacturing and a plethora of new inventions that revolutionized life in the USA between 1850 and 1900.  Wheaton is also exploring electrical circuits and making some of her own.  Molly has emerged into recorded history and is even reaching the change of time from BC to AD.  It is illuminating to see the correlation of the big-picture events of history on various continents across the centuries.  Molly is having fun discovering how water works as surface tension creates fabulous possibilities and cohesion and adhesion work together to do amazing things.

I have gotten an answer back from Dakar Academy.  They hired another Bible teacher.  While it is disappointing to not have gotten that job, it is also comforting to know that door is shut and some other one will be opened.  I do not feel pressured, but know that in God’s timing, the right NEXT THING will materialize.  I will be here for the next seven months and there are many possibilities for further service with SIM world wide as well as in the SIM USA office, so much prayer and watching are required!

Be sure to check out recent pictures HERE

In the mean time, Christmas is coming!  Let us rejoice together as we recapture the excitement and anticipation of the arrival of Jesus as he identified with us in the miraculous and amazing union with us in humanity as a tiny baby.  But also we need to celebrate that he grew to be the man who loved us so much he died and rose again.  For without Easter, Christmas has no meaning.  Blessings to you for a joyous Christmas Season!

Prayers:

• Thanks for Corey’s successful trip to the USA
• Praise for Emma’s good adjustment to boarding school
• Praise for a good 14 weeks of school with Molly and Wheaton
• Praise for many helping interactions with my neighbors
• Wisdom to know how much and when to help neighbors and when not to
• Prayer for the needed parts for the fan
• Protection for our Christmas trip
• Praise for an answer to the Dakar Academy position
• Wisdom and direction to recognize the next step after school this year