Three Christmas Happenings

Christmas day
started at
7:00 with us
joining our
neighbors, the
Stenstroms and
the Dubbers,
to take Chai
and cinnamon
rolls to the
guards at
our three gates.




















Later Titus and Cassidy stopped by to get the gifts we'd gotten for them.
















At 2:00 we joined them again to enjoy a fantastic Christmas feast. There were sixteen of us in all. Dinner was followed with games and we finally left around 7:30.



























HAPPENING #2


Jim Holt, our neighbor,
wanted to do something
special for Christmas for
the African workers who
work in our neighborhood.
So he planned a goat
roast. Sami, a Maasai who
works as a guard at one of
the RVA gates, arrived
about 9:00 with the goat.
It was soon slaughtered,
skinned, and was hanging
in the backyard. They cut
it up and roasted it.





















































In the meantime Gladys and her
niece, Mary, were busy in our
kitchen making chapatis, sukuma
wiki, and goat stew.





































About 1:00 dinner was served with twenty-five
of us eating. About eight were Americans
and the rest were Africans. Everyone seemed
to enjoy the meal and went away full - Ben,
our worker, said, "It's not good when one leaves a
meal hungry."









This is Gladys and her
son and daughter-in-
law who came to
Kijabe to enjoy the
goat feast.










Sami and another
worker went and
got their
daughters to
join us for the
roast.








HAPPENING # 3

All first term the children's Sunday School offerings were saved to buy food to deliver to needy families the day before Christmas. Before the students went home, they helped pack the bags. Dec. 24th, bags of food were delivered. Ten African workers here at RVA selected six families from their neighborhoods who would benefit most from some extra food. Below one of 10 cars is being packed. Ephantas directed us to his home area about three miles up the hill.































Here is the first home we visited. The elderly
home owner was sick and not at home but we
were graciously received by her son and
daughter-in-law. At each home, Ephantas
explained the family situation and we
sang two Christmas songs and had prayer.
Children peered in the door to see
what was happening.



















































Every inch of land
is carefully used.
Notice the beautiful
gardens on the
hillside. This area
receives more rain
than Kijabe does,
so the gardens are
doing well here.





Because water is a huge issue,
rain water is saved in barrels like
these you see here. Nearly every
home has animals (a cow,
chickens, and sheep) so saving
water for them is a must!




























Christmas decorations in this home couldn't hide the sad history of the lady on the right. Her mom, on the
left, shared how her daughter had brain damage from a sever tooth infection that went to her brain.

















These sweet children were being cared for
by their grandma. She seemed to be
responsible for several of her grandchildren
and was very thankful to receive the bag
of food.





















At several of the homes we had to wait for the ladies to come in from the garden. At one home they were harvesting spinach to take to the duka (shop) to sell.



















Ephantas, our leader, Ben, Emma, and Jenny from our group surround this very elderly lady. She lives alone in a very small house. She had built a little fire on the floor to keep warm. You may not be able to tell, but she was barefoot! No doubt she owns no shoes.































Children continued
to appear from
everywhere. They
loved to see them-
selves on the
digital camera.














I couldn't resist asking to hold
this baby at one home. I was
happy that she wasn't afraid of
wazungu (while people).









Our final goodbye was to this happy group (this little guy was afraid of me!) Processing all we saw will take awhile. My immediate reaction is that happiness is not in the things and comforts we have!