Happy Christmas Season 2007

Our holidays always begin with making cut out cookies. This year it seemed somewhat hurried as I had just returned from Africa and Christmas was just around the corner. After loading the 5 batches of sugar cookies into the fridge I left for Concert Choral dress rehearsal. Our cookie weekend and Holiday Pops Concert happen to fall together this year.

After topping off my Starbuck's mug with Caramel Delight I was off to my sister's house to make cut outs. Yeah. I was warmly greeted by my niece Lauren. She had a bright smile on her face and said she was ready to "rock and roll". What a pleasant blessing to be greeted with early Saturday morning.

We spent about 4 hours cutting, baking, rolling and decorating. I'm sure we had several cups of coffee between baking episodes also.

This year our cookie baking staff consisted of Lauren, Delene, myself and Ellie (my golden, the taste tester). We had a delightful time and lots of giggles. Most of our cookies graced the desks of clients this year, however, several were left for family gatherings we had through the remainder of the year.

What a blessing to have a tradition to pass down to children in our family. I trust their children will have as much fun with cookie cut outs as we do.

Africian Blessings

Being blessed in the US is something I know I take for granted too often. The blessing of modern conveniences like technology, indoor plumbing, electricity and gas-operated appliances are simply a luxury in many parts of rural Africa. Even though I found myself missing many of these conveniences, which make my life much easier, they didn’t seem to matter much in the scope of what we were there to do. Building relationships aren’t contingent on electricity, indoor plumbing etc.; they are built by spending time together and sharing life.

Returning to Kipkaren and Ilula villages reminded me of the blessing of building relationships. Over the many days, I was consistently reminded of the luxury of simplicity. Much of our time was spent on building established relationships and developing new ones. It didn’t seem to make a difference if we had electricity, indoor plumbing or a TV to entertain us. We could sit by candlelight on Thanksgiving night telling of the many blessings God had so richly bestowed upon each of us over the past year. What did make a difference was the humble disposition I found my heart resting in.

Living a thankful life was a daily event I saw so many of my Kenyan friends executing. Maybe it was a quiet conversation with one of the children's home parents or a lively conversation with the Rono young adults. Blessings were difficult to miss and almost never ignored. Great is God’s faithfulness to all of His children.