December

"The Joy of the Lord is my strength"

This is so true!!  I painted this on one of the walls in our house and it's such a good reminder, daily. 

We are entering "visitor season" which usually lasts until the end of July.  We are thankful for all the visitors that come and appreciate the energy and encouragement they bring.  Along with this season, there seems to be more of a battle of knowing how to prioritize time.  One thing that could possibly happen is that this blog may not get much attention, or maybe we will figure out how to shorten the posts and try to still let you know how we are doing briefly.

December is our birthday month, which we celebrate 3 of them....Jesus, Conrad, and Nicki!  We have lots of cake for a short time, cause this mom don't usually bake a cake unless there's a birthday.  

Every other year, our churches have a Bible Conference which is geared toward encouraging the churches. This was the year for that and Bro, Raymond Burkholder was an excellent speaker for this week and taught out of the book of Acts.  We were so encouraged and challenged to walk closer to Jesus.

This was the group that attended most of the messages of the Bible Conference. These are Members and attenders of the Limes and Laborie churches.

Bro. Raymond planned a drive around the island to unwind from the week and these men were happy to join him.  There's some interesting videos on youtube that Ryan posted from their day.  Google 'Ryan Horst Grenada' if you want to see more.
L.- R.  Arlen Kraybill, Raymond, Marvin, Josh High, Ryan Horst

One Sunday was a community Christmas party in the Limes and there were donkey and horse rides in the pasture.  The bigger party was on the court, but we didn't attend that.

Every Friday night, Guayve, a big fishing community about half way up the West side of the island, has booths set up and sell foods with fish.  It's called 'fish Friday'.  This was the first time we went and I'm pretty sure we'll go again.

Danny found a way to bless us with a Christmas present.  He trimmed our overgrown bush.  Sure was a blessing!

 Christmas Caroling at the Spiceland Mall (IGA)

Nicki and baby Tessa, Sammy and Jana's little girl.

Wes, Heidi and their family came December 24th.  We had so much fun just being together.  We did a little Christmas caroling......

 spent a day with church folks and ate good food (this was 'Boxing Day')......

 helped out with a cottage meeting, and spent time with Sammy's since he made us a pot of 'oil down'.

 We also spent a night in a hotel on the north side of the island and did some sightseeing on the ride North.  This get-away was probably the highlight for our family.

Gwyneth ate and ate, but I guess she was still hungry:)

The children spent some time on the hammocks that were on the veranda where we stayed.

This was the scene from our douplex.

Eating at the restaurant where we spent 2 days.

Oh, Charlie, what a cutie!!

The boys played and played.  This was a game of 'S-P-U-D'.

Airports are a happy place, and a sad place......it was hard to see them leave!

The day Wes' left, we had 'old year's night' (New Year's Eve) for the community.  There are planned games and then a pinata.  We had a pizza snack and then looked at old pictures on a projector.  I wish you could have all heard the laughter and hooting at the pictures.   Around 11:30, the group went up a mountain to watch fireworks.

Thanks again for praying for us!