Dear friends,

Well, it seems hard to believe that it has been nearly a month since the last time I wrote here.
Hopefully you have all received my latest newsletter update since then. I will try to catch you up on the happenings of the village over the passed few weeks.

Christmas brought new experiences for all of us. Many of our children had never experienced a real Christmas until this year. One of the exciting things we were able to do was to prepare a Christmas program and take it out into the community and share it with the local people. I have posted a few pictures to give you the flavor of the event. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend due to one of MY new experiences. I caught a nasty bug and was confined to my home for a few days. I was disappointed to miss the activities but loved hearing all about it. Over all getting out into the community to give them this gift has been very good. When we go walking outside our village now there are little children everywhere waving and calling out to us. They are no longer afraid of the "whi pepo".

What is it like to be six years old and to never have had your own Christmas present? I really do not know, but let me tell you about our Patience. What a treat it was for her to have dining room duty the night our director and his wife brought the Christmas presents in to place under the tree. Each child was to receive three small gifts. Patience peeked around the tree curious to see if her name might actually be on one of those presents. Dave teased a bit about her being left out, but to her delight she discovered that there was something there for her. As "Mr. and Mrs. Santa" left the dining hall, they peeked back in to get the full effect. Patience, was literally dancing her broom around the tables. I can't help but think of the classic Rogers and Hammerstein's Cinderella,dancing with her broom. Patience life very much parallels that story as she, too, was rescued from a life where she was expected to serve others and receive less than adaquate care herself. We call her our little Cinderella.
And so there was joy in sharing Christmas here in Liberia, the joy of giving and the joy of receiving. We watched our children learn of both and in the process we learned anew.