It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

You noticed I said that it is beginning to look (not FEEL) like Christmas! We went out yesterday to finish our Christmas shopping. The mall and stores are all decorated for the holidays. I even noticed the decorations that the city hangs on the light poles. Their decorations might not be what you would use......I even saw a purple Christmas tree the other day! Also, the stores are playing Christmas music (mostly in English). But, it is definitely not feeling anything like Christmas. The temp has been in the high 80s with it feeling like 100 with the humidity. Jon and Autumn went swimming Friday, that just seems crazy for it being a week before Christmas

This week will be really busy for us. Starting yesterday after shopping, Autumn and I spent the entire afternoon making cookies for our small group today. We are having a fellowship for Christmas. Of course, I said that I would bring some cookies like we eat in America and they thought that was the greatest thing. So, I wanted to be sure that I had plenty because there will not be any left! We are having a Christmas party for all the Africans that help us on Wednesday afternoon. So, I need about 200 more cookies for that! We will celebrate Christmas with the McAfees on Christmas Eve and on Christmas day we will have family time and make us a Christmas dinner. It will be the first time that I make dressing! We will see how that works!

Enjoy your family and friends this holiday season! Remember the reason of Christmas is the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Continue to lift us up in prayer especially during the holidays, it is much harder this time of the year. We appreciate and love each of you!

Teresa

Thanksgiving with our African friends

our language helpers
my friend with her baby girl
the guys table!!
Jolie tried to help decorate the tree!

I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends! We spent the day with our team mates and some of our African friends. It was a great day of fellowship (all in french!) I don't know if all our friends was greatly impressed with the traditional Thanksgiving food, but they braved it anyway! ;) We feel blessed to have some great friends here! Continue to pray for our muslim friends to come to know Jesus as Lord and Savior.

The day after Thanksgiving we started some of our new family traditions. We woke up and made us a yummy breakfast with bacon (sent from the good-ole USA!), played Christmas music as we decorated, and drank some apple cider. It was a great day together as a family! We do miss our family and friends more during this time, so we are trying to make it as much like home as possible.

Ministry is still going well here in Abidjan. The small group is doing great. They are going out sharing their faith with the muslims in their community. We have been having women come the last few weeks, so that is an praise! Continue to pray that these men (and women) will grow in their faith and will continue to tell others about what God has done for them.

We had our language evaluation this past Friday and it went really well. I was really nervous, but gave it to the Lord and he answered the prayers of many people. We are at the level that we should be at this time. We will continue in french for about 3 more months and then will begin an African language.

Enjoy your holiday season, and remember the reason for the season: Jesus!

Love,

Teresa