Notes from the Mission Field: On The Home Front “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” (Luke 2:14) T
Notes from the Mission Field: On The Home Front
“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” (Luke 2:14)
This time after Christmas offers an excellent opportunity to send out a family newsletter and to wish a peaceful year’s end to everybody.
Christmas in our family has been wonderful! A feeling of peace has filled our minds and a deep gratitude for this restful break together overwhelms me. After all, there were several work trips that James ventured in during the course of Fall. The beginning of it went satisfactorily, but then November and the first half of December was continuous racing off to Sudan and Zambia and Tanzania. Hopefully you have been able to read about those trips from James’s Facebook. If not, there will be a newsletter coming out next week about them. However, without bigger troubles, we survived until this awesome Christmas holiday, and we have been privileged to enjoy it wholeheartedly! My mom and niece came to spend a couple of weeks with us, and we headed to the coast for some relaxation on the beach.
As souvenirs, in addition to the refreshed minds, we brought home still bad smelling seashells that we collected from the undersea kingdom of the colorful fishes during our snorkeling expedition and beautiful bronze tans which are now pealing off in big chunks. Tristan bought a turtle, who is now acclimating to the cooler Nairobi weather. He seems to be doing great, as he waddles around the yard a leaf of lettuce hanging from his mouth.
Our family received many movies as Christmas gifts, and we have spent some cozy movie evenings together while the logs crack in the fireplace and candles of the Christmas tree twinkle. James has postponed his work duties as much as he can, and I had a good two weeks break from my computer (which explains the Christmas letter becoming an end-of-the-year letter). Santa's sack also contained some family games, and it’s been a pleasure to play them together on the living room floor. Matthew and Jonas generally just run around and trip over everybody’s legs or steal the game pieces, so this is not quite yet the most relaxing activity. But maybe by next year this pastime will work out better. It is amazing to see how the kids are growing, and how many things are easier today than they were before. And the older kids are taking care of the little ones as properly as us parents!
As many of you have probably heard, we moved to a new location at the beginning of September. We are still renting, but are in a process of saving so that in the future we could buy land for a mission center and home. Our life in our current home has succeeded quite well. As usual we have experienced our share of electrical, plumbing, and other problems. Even to this day all final touches have not been completed, but it has been good to live here. Our work center is in the same building, but with a separate entrance, an arrangement which I have found workable. We have our own home, but I enjoy the company of the team members in the compound. Before their Christmas holiday, we had a pleasure to invite them all with their families to the Christmas celebration in our home.
Since the beginning of the New Year is at hand, I want to wish a happy and Blessed 2013 to all of you!
With warm thoughts and thanking for your support,
Tiina and the whole May family
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