Hiya Everyone! Hope this blog finds everyone doing well! I can’t believe it’s already December, or that I only have about 2 weeks left. I have some serious mixed feelings about leaving haha. If you had asked me about 2 weeks ago if I was ready to go home I would have immediately said yes and asked if you could get me the soonest plane ticket. However now every time I think about leaving Wales, I get misty eyed. How can I leave these amazing people God has surrounded me with these great 4 months of my life? We head to London for debriefing with everyone that served with Hands On in Western Europe December 15th and then fly home December 18th. I’m not especially looking forward to debriefing in London seeing that as soon as I leave Wales I’m just going to want to go home. But it will good!
So this past week was Thanksgiving, and we definitely had a memorable week. The Sunday before Thanksgiving a couple in the church we attend had all of us Americans over for a Thanksgiving Feast. The food was amazing, the couple was adorable, and did I say the food was amazing:) Unfortunately, we weren’t able to celebrate Thanksgiving on the actual day because we have teaching all day on Thursdays, but I was able to skype with my family which was great. Saturday all the American girls got together to cook a Thanksgiving feast for all the Brit students. There were 23 people there in all, and all the recipes we were using had only ever been used by our mothers, and on top of all this the spices and such aren’t the same over here. So many things could have gone wrong. But God blessed and we had plenty of food to the point that everyone went home with leftovers, and the food was amazing despite the different spices and being the first time we all had cooked the stuff. That day will probably be one of my sweetest memories of my time here!
This week Carrie and I are going into the schools to teach the Christmas lesson. We will have almost an hour with our equivalent of 2nd graders to teach them the TRUE meaning of Christmas. This is an amazing opportunity to share Jesus with these kids. I’m really excited to see what God is going to do! Please pray for us as we do this though that one it wouldn’t be about us but it would be about God and that He would allow us to clearly present Him to these kids. Also that He would be working right now in these kids’ hearts opening their eyes to the truth found in Him. We’re going to teach the lesson by dressing up as elves named Jingle and Jangle, I know isn’t it great, and we’re on the search for this Ultimate Gift, being baby Jesus, that we’ve heard about with our Guidebook, the Bible. Our performances are on Thursday December 3rd, Friday December 4th, Monday December 7th, Tuesday December 8th, twice on Wednesday December 9th, and Monday December 14th. If you all could especially lift Carrie and I up on those days, that would be wonderful. Our last performance is on the day before we leave for London, so we’ll be pretty busy to say the least.
I am also working on getting a children’s Christmas play together with Esther for the church we attend. We’re performing December 13th which will be my last Sunday here. The basis of the play is that the kids are getting ready for their big Christmas performance. As they’re in their last practice they are singing through the song Lord I Lift Your Name on High and one really annoying kid keeps stopping the song and asking well what does it mean Jesus came from Heaven to Earth to Show the Way or How could a Baby Show the Way? And through the child’s questions the story of Jesus and salvation is revealed. I’m really excited about the play and whatever the outcome the kids will always be cute:)
Please pray that the Lord would sustain me in these last few weeks, and I would find my strength in Him. Thank you so much for those of you that have been praying for me! Your prayers are felt on a daily basis. The Lord has kept the whole entire team from getting injured as well as keeping me from getting sick which I am the type of person that always gets hit with at least one serious cold each semester. But the Lord has kept me well through your prayers so thanks! Ok the British word of the day is guillotine which is not just a place people get their heads chopped off at! It is also what they call their chopping board! Have a great week everyone:)