I promised to write about Christmas, so here goes: We decorated our little house here at LBN with a small artificial tree that Niel found in the attic and some white twinkle lights that we brought with us. Put up more lights outside and Christmas bulletin boards, etc. It was festive!
On the 23rd, Niel showed the film "the Nativity Story" to our local congregation. During the film, I kept thinking that these Mayan people so understand life in Jesus' day, because they live it every day here. And after the film, they were so touched by it, that it led into a wonderful time of praise , prayer, and adoration of our precious Savior! It was a very special night for us.
On the 24th, Christmas Eve, the church gets together again, for a time of singing , games, and eating. It was really good to be there, because they have accepted us into their Christian family, and joked around and included us in games, etc. Later, a relative of Martha's, our caretaker here at LBN, who was here for the services, told Martha that most of the missionaries she has known always kept themselves separate from the people they were ministering to and she was happy to see that we were joining into the "family" activities of the church, wearing their clothes, etc. It was interesting to hear that because we just thought that missionaries were supposed to do that. Isn't God good? Even in our ignorance, He enabled us to do the right thing.