Merry Christmas 2020

 The last three years was such an honor to be able to celebrate Christmas with my family in the US. This year's Christmas was different for the whole world. Many are celebrating with less people than last year due to Covid. Then of course the restrictions prevented travel, making it difficult for loved ones to connect.

Despite all the craziness this last year brought, we were still able to have a wonderful Christmas in Nepal and I hope you all did as well. 

Our Christmas:

Normally our Nepal Christmas' consists of a full day at the Nepali church and then a feast with all our brothers and sisters in Christ. But with Covid restrictions including the churches not opened back up yet, we were not able to do that this year. Instead on Christmas eve we joined with about 20 other missionaries and local Christians to worship quietly the birth of our Savior. It was absolutely lovely. After we read through scripture together and sang worship songs, we stayed and ate/ fellowshipped together. It was a wonderful afternoon. 

We came home from that and the girls and I baked some "Christmas cookies" I say this in quotes as baking in Nepal is only for the advanced levels in baking. Our oven doesn't have a thermostat and so there is a lot of guessing and hoping! Thankfully, they were edible. :-) My parents were able to "give" some gifts to the girls through a video call that evening.

On Christmas morning, I gave he girls a few second hand items that people had handed down to me (two bikes (broken now but we will fix them), some warm clothes, books, and other toys. The girls did not care at all that they were secondhand! They were ecstatic and had a grand time. 

We left our house soon after and went to Simon's parents house and had a feast of Nepali food! We prayed together, praised God for His birth and celebrated such a joyous occasion with them. 

When we got back to our house that evening, we "celebrated" one last time through a Zoom call with my whole family, including my brother who is in Germany! 

Other fun facts:

-It is around 40 degrees here at night and in the mornings and around 55 during the day. Our house is freezing, but Simon's parents house was super warm because they get a lot of sun. So it was so great to get a break from the cold!

-No one in Nepal celebrates Christmas so everything is opened and it looks like a normal day on Christmas day. 

I pray everyone had a very wonderful Christmas, even if this year brought hardship. 

Lastly, thank you for those who have donated toward our scooter, we finally got it and we are so happy as the timing was perfect since the borrowed one was recently sold to someone else! God is so good!