Christmas

Sunday, December 23rd, Christmas Carol service

Karo and Joy joined Collins and I for the evening Christmas Carol service at my church. I manned the laptop, projecting the songs onto a screen. An adult choir, a violinist, the praise and worship team, some children, a few soloists, and the packed-house congregation all joined in together singing rousing renditions of many of the traditional songs. Silent Night was sung by candle light. We enjoyed miniature mince pies, cookies, and mulled wine afterwards.

Monday, December 24th, Christmas Eve

Interestingly, Christmas Eve is a normal working day in Kenya. I spent the entire day shopping for groceries and cooking for my guests due to arrive the next day!

Tuesday, December 25th, Christmas Day

I had 14 friends over for a scrumptious lasagna lunch on Christmas Day! Mark prayed for the meal in Dinka and Moses read Luke, chapter 2. Besides all the food we consumed, we also sang some praise and worship songs – English, Dinka (the language of south Sudan), Kikuyu, Luhya, and Luo (mother tongue languages of Kenya). Everyone, including the children, really got into that. I gave each person a small paper sack with an orange from South Africa, plus a few other simple age-appropriate items.

In spite of the fact that there was no snow on the ground, the temperature was 80 degrees, I didn’t have a Christmas tree, and we didn’t eat any traditional American Christmas foods (except sugar cookies)... it was a lovely and unforgettable way to celebrate the birth of our Lord! We all thoroughly enjoyed the day!

Eight of my guests spent the night.

Status of water in my house: Sporadic during the entire day.