Christmas

It's hard to believe that we're already nearing 2007 and we've been in Guinea for four months now. We had a great Christmas on Monday. In the morning we woke up to fog(almost the same as snow ;)). The day before, missionary friends from Bantun came by. They had gone to Conakry and picked up our mail for us while they were there. We were so surprised to get gifts from friends and family back home on the 24th! So Christmas morning, we ended up unwrapping a ton of gifts, more than I think I've ever gotten in all my Christmases combined as a kid. We felt tremendously thankful to have such wonderful family and friends that went out of their way to make us feel like we were back home.

We had our Christmas service in the morning at the chapel and invited all the Sambouya and Bilingkoro people to come. Many attended as you can see from the pictures. The children did a great job on their play and our volunteers and workers put together a play in Malinke that was both entertaining and showed the birth of Christ. It was interesting to see and hear the villagers' reactions. The women and children were pretty quiet during the plays and songs, but the men commented and talked loudly throughout the entire service. It was interesting to see roles reversed since we're used to shushing children and not adults.

It's difficult to imagine, but these people have never been to a service before where they're just supposed to:

1. show up on time and
2. sit and listen.

After the service was over we handed out some goodies to everyone that came. It was a little chaotic, but everyone got at least a little candy. Since this is a diaperless region, we had a few puddles on the floor after everyone had left, but we're hopeful that it all had an impact on some of them. It's hard to tell, but at least most of them heard our message and it may have helped lead to some future discussions with those we know well from our villages. More than just being good teachers we want to have a ministry here for the locals. Please pray that our language skills would continue to improve and that the Guinean people would be prepared for the message.

After the service we enjoyed a lunch of fried rice and fish made by our volunteers with the children. In the afternoon we gave the children some coloring books and crayons as Christmas presents. For dinner we ate together with the Kim family and played some games.

All in all it was a wonderful Christmas. We hope that you enjoyed celebrating Christmas back at home too. Happy early New Year and hooray for two more days of school until our break! :)

Love,
Shannon and Carol