Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from Arequipa!  We are wrapping up our celebrating.  Trevor is in the kitchen making a cheesecake (for our dinner!) and It's a Wonderful Life is playing in Spanish.  We had a party last night.  We shared communion, read the story of Jesus' birth and sang Christmas songs in Spanish and English, then we ate!  We ate lots of great food and played crazy games.  The kids FINALLY opened a few presents.  They had been waiting ALL.DAY.  I remember that anticipation.  I went to bed happy and tired.  It is tradition here in Peru to light fireworks at 12AM Christmas Day.  Wow.  The noise was incredible.Click HERE for a video that Garren and Trevor took.  Here are a few pictures from the past few weeks-

Thomas and Ella dressed up for the Christmas program at their school

Our group Christmas morning

Our little tree.  We finished decorating it with a foil star and dough ornaments.

I am glad they have each other-

Visiting Papa Noel-

Christmas hats from Geremias and Sixto.

We will be in Arequipa until January 4th.  Then we move to Puno!  We are all eager to get there and begin working there.  It is really overwhelming to reflect on the last year of our lives!  So much has happened.  Above all we can say that God has been faithful.  We have had fun times, sad times, hard times, but in all these, God remains the same.  In this move to Puno, we take on more work, new responsibilities and pressures.  To be honest, it makes me tired just to think about it sometimes.  Sometimes, I just don't want to go.  But, we will and it will be good.  We will see more miracles happen, lives changed, and God making great things out of nothing.  Thank you, thank you, thank you for your prayers, your cards and packages, messages on facebook and e-mail that keep us going.