Merry Christmas! We wanted to post a few pictures of what the holidays have been like for us here in Zambia! We hope that you all have had a wonderful time celebrating with family and enjoying a bit of a break from work/school. We miss you all very much, but we look forward to seeing you perhaps next Christmas! On December 21, Jason and I had the opportunity to help with a youth Christmas party in Musenga (the village next to Amano). Jason prepared a few games and a short devotion to go along with the youth leaders' activities. There were some younger village kids who sat in the distance to watch what was happening. We had the chance to try and talk with a few of them after the party. Below are some pictures of the party.

(water balloon fight in cardboard tanks)

(Jason giving a devotion on the obedience of Mary and Joseph in the Christmas story)

(the young children who watched the party from a giant ant hill in the distance)

Christmas Eve was mostly a baking day to get things ready for Christmas day. Now I'm starting to know how all those moms feel with sore feet and backs after cooking all day. :-) We went to the candle light service at church which started at 6:30. We had planned to eat together (the 6 of us) after the service. Since we're in Africa, the service went a lot longer than they said, so we didn't get to eat until after 9, but it was still a nice evening. Below is a picture of the choir singing at the service.


We celebrated Christmas day with 4 other people: Dave and Tine, who are missionaries with Liebenzell Germany; Judith, who is also with Liebenzell Germany working as a midwife about 10 hours from here; and Hilary, the headteacher at Amano working with CMML. We decided to have a progessive dinner between three of our houses. It was quite nice and we enjoyed all the yummy food and learning about each others' family traditions. Appetizers were served at Dave and Tine's (above) mobile.

The main meal was served at Hilary's house (above). We all helped with parts of the main meal and enjoyed a delicious duck. From left to right: Tine, Kelly, and Judith We are relaxing at Hilary's waiting for the main meal. Dessert was served at our apartment.

Here is a picture of our missionary family. This is in our apartment. Left to right: Kelly, Jason, Hilary, Judith, Tine, and Dave. We ended the evening with some sparklers on the veranda.

Merry Christmas from Zambia!

Christmas is Coming

Hello Friends,

We closed off the school year with some Christmas concerts, and Kelly's kids all participated with various roles in the play. Here is a shot from the "Countdown to Christmas" performance put on by the primary students.

We decorated our flat with the stockings we brought from home and some other decorations some friends let us borrow while they are at home in Germany for the holidays. Here is a shot of us wearing the chitenge clothes we had made by a woman from church who owns a shop in Chingola that does tailoring work. "Chitenge" is the local word for the type of material that almost all women use for skirts that they wear, sometimes just a big piece of material wrapped at the waist as a long skirt, sometimes made into an outfit with a matching shirt.
We took a nice trip to Lake Kariba on the southern border of Zambia. We saw some game and visited a crocodile farm which breeds thousands of crocodiles each year, taking troublesome crocs from the wild and catching them to place in a created lake so they breed. The eggs are collected each year and hatched by hand as shown in the picture. The babies live in a nursery with close control so they don't catch diseases or stop eating if they are too stressed, and they are then moved on to the next holding areas as they grow. I (Jason) got to hold one of the day old babies, see picture) and we got to drive through the breeding area with no fences and they threw meat to the crocs to get them close to the truck, which is the last picture (the feeding)



We hope to take a bus down to Livingstone in a week and a half to celebrate the New Year and our first anniversary at Victoria Falls. The kids are scheduled to return on Jan. 7th, so we are gearing up for a new year but enjoying this break while they are away from campus. We plan to celebrate Christmas with a few friends who are still around campus and are looking forward to our very different Christmas this year amidst the warmth and rain. We wish you all a wonderful holiday season and hope you enjoy your celebration of our Savior's birth and of the New Year to come.