Making Christlike Discples In the Nations.

Singapore was a beautiful city. Extremely clean and easy to get around, full of people from every land.

We spent our time discussing our mission strategy, personally and as a whole. God renewed Scott and My's vision for the people who have not heard about Christ, my friend and Savior. We discussed real, day to day choices that bring non Christians into our lives, and how to have intentional conversations with people.

Who does Christ have for you to share with today?

Singapore Food!

Upon our early arrival to Singapore, we toured the city, eating and shopping. It was amazing! What does a missionary crave who has not been out of the world of resturants for 9 months, let me tell you....a Whopper (from the airport! at 9pm at night!)

Sushi, made by someone else. Scott does a great job with making sushi, but it is quite labor-intensive. So, it was nice and cheap at Singapore.

We had ice cream 3 different times. My favorite was strawberry cheese cake from Baskins Robbins. Or what it the strawberry sorbet with my team?

A trip to a first world country would not be complete without a Big Mac. I was in line at McDonald's, to get a kids meal with apple dippers, but then a large coke was calling out to me! Just so you know in Singapore, there is not an option of super sizing, and all of the people are tiny. Shopping was not as productive as eating. I bought men's shorts because the large in women's was too small! How is that for humbling?

The city is beautiful and we had a great time getting around Singapore. The island is only 18 miles by 28 miles and I am pretty sure that we walked at least 18 miles every day for 3 days! So, we are thankful that we didn't gain weight with all of the eating as it was counteracted by the walking!

Children's Christmas Drama

December 7th, the children did a wonderful drama of the Innkeeper's Daughters. Allison, Emma, and Elena were the daughters.

Remo and Lorena were the Innkeeper and his wife, Sarah.

Jerome and Chiara were Mary and Joseph.

Olivia was a wise man. I was so proud of all of the kids. Some of the Swiss children at the beginning of the school year would hardly speak to me one on one. Now, these kids said their lines so loudly and sang so beautifully in front of a large crowd of people. It was a wonderful time to start off the Christmas season.

Singapore Wishes for 2009

Scott and I just got back from being gone for 10 days to Singapore. It was a wonderful time of spiritual refocusing. We were there a few days before the conference started. On Friday night we went to the Nutcracker and in the lobby, they had tons of big white beach balls that they wanted people to write their wishes on.

Then, as we took a late night boat ride on Saturday, we saw all of the white ball in the harbor. If you look closely at the water you will notice them. Quite fun. What would you write for your wishes for 2009?

Christmas Decorating

Saturday, we got out the tree and our decorations. This year, the girls were big enough to put up the tree without my help. So we started a new tradition of making gingerbread men on the decorating day. The girls helped me after the tree was done.

Not the best picture of Scott and I, but I wanted to show our new shirts! Neat huh?

We are excited about this time of year and celebrating Jesus's birth. Christmas is different here because the weather is 70-80 degrees every day and not the icy Kansas that I am used to. Christmas is also not very commercialized. A PNG family would celebrate Christmas by going to church all day and eating a meal together with their church family. Here, a church family is your neighbors, and your neighbors are family.
Some of the stores in town are decorated for the holidays and even 2 extremely large, blow up, nylon Santa's and one snowman are living on the roofs of stores in town. Gift giving and Christmas trees are the exception in a PNG bush house, definitely not the norm. No stress of finding the perfect gift and maxing out credit cards!
So, as we live in PNG and anticipate Christmas we are pleased to be able to focus on the important parts of the season.

Adorable nephews!

I can't help but brag on my cute nephews! I had a dream the other night that I got to hold Colton and I was so thrilled. They will be 18 months and 13 months when we finally get to hug and kiss them. I am thankful for email and pictures!

Thankful in PNG

We had a school party on Wednesday. Our school consists of my 2 girls and 5 children from Switzerland. All the kids enjoyed dressing up like pilgrims and Indians and eating our Thanksgiving feast together.

Grandma brought black olives for our Thanksgiving meal. What a yummy tradition!

Set up and decorating were quite easy this year, as we celebrated in the work and witness house.

We are thankful for a God who cares, a family who loves, parents and siblings that give, and a place to serve.