Our Christmas Surprise

This Christmas, our family made many precious memories.  A few days before Christmas, we drove to the airport to pick up a missionary friend of ours, so our children thought.  They were surprised when they saw Nanny and Papaw walking out of the airport.

We spent the night in Monrovia and then traveled to our home in Gbarnga.  Our children were excited to introduce their grandparents to all their treasured pets and give them a tour of our house. 

Our time together was filled with a perfect mix of ministry and family time.  We visited with Quinta.  Quinta sewed all 250+ of our sponsored children's uniforms this past year.  From the profit, she started building this house, bought a new sewing machine, and purchased enough rice to feed her family for one year. 

Quinta's new sewing machine

We visited our sponsored school.  Currently, we have over 250 children enrolled in this school.

Andie did crafts with several of our sponsored children.  In this picture, we are at Civil Compound.  During the ebola crisis, this area was quarantined and many children were orphaned.

Here are a few of our children from Civil Compound.

Christmas Day, we loaded our car with sponsored children and carried them to church.  Here is picture of our first car load.

The church was packed as we celebrated our Lord's birth with a special children's program.  The children led us in worship, dance, drama, and even a short message.  

Nanny and Papaw had their suitcases full of special gifts.  They have an amazing way of finding gifts that make each person feel loved and treasured.  

Thank you Tom and Andie for this very special day!

Our family has a special Christmas tradition that was handed down to us from Melanie's family.  Each year, we set up a nativity scene.  Every piece of the nativity is on display throughout the Christmas season with one piece missing.  Christmas morning we read the story of Jesus' birth and then place baby Jesus in the nativity scene.  For our children, it is an honor to be chosen to place baby Jesus in the manger scene.  This year, we decided that this honor belonged to Nanny and Papaw.

Throughout the day, neighborhood children came to our house to have their picture taken in their new Christmas clothes.  Many Liberians received no gifts for Christmas.  A good Christmas in Liberia is a new set of clothes to show off and a good meal to eat. 

New Christmas Clothes 

New Christmas Clothes

After Christmas, we visited our Folobli pastor's training center. Tom and Andie distributed reading glasses.  Tom taught the men while Andie taught the women.

While Tom and Andie were teaching, a righteous pride grew in me as I realized how blessed our family is to have believing parents and family members.  From where I was sitting, I could hear both my father-in-law and mother-in-law speaking.  Both of them were passionately teaching the Bible.  Thank you Lord Jesus for my family!

After teaching, we loaded the bikes, visited our training center in Gbenequella, and then traveled to one remote bush town.

We returned home dirty but full of memories.  Never in my life time would I have ever dreamed that my mother-in-law would allow me to take her to the places I took her, nor have I ever seen her this dirty!  What a great day!

After a few more days of ministry, we traveled to Monrovia for some R&R.

We slept at a guest house on the beach.

We swam in the ocean.

Then we said our goodbyes.  For the first time, we were the ones staying and they were the one's going.  I learned that it is much harder sending those you love away than it is to be the ones who go. 

The kids didn't want to say goodbye.  They requested one last walk with Papaw on the beach before we went to the airport.  

God is good!  Tommy's Christmas wish this year was for family from America to visit.  That was all he wanted.  Little did he know Nanny and Papaw had already bought their airline tickets.  God's blessings come to us in many ways.  Let us be quick to count His many blessings and focus on His goodness even in our times of need.  For our family, Nanny and Papaw's Christmas surprise is a blessing that we are continuing to count.  Thank you Nanny and Papaw for the wonderful memories we made!