Wednesday Ken took the day off and went to Feilding to hang out with Tony and do a Star Wars Marathon (including the newest movie, Clone Wars)! Needless to say, I was intrigued and joined them half way through. It was a really fun time, ending at 12am Thursday morning!
Thursday evening was the PLT Christmas party at Chris and Denise's home. It was a really fun evening visiting with everyone - you can tell the leadership team of the Manawatu Parish are not just leaders, but really good friends. There is such love and commitment to both the parish and each other among them. Really cool!
See the white rectangle dish on the left of this photo that's empty?? That was my dish that I brought over - guess it was yum!
Ken and the blokes outside
Our Kiwi "parents" Judi and Lawrence
Look at those awesome desserts!
Friday morning Carol came to the church to help Ken and I decorate the Christmas tree! It was a lot of fun - we rocked out to some carols on the church music system while hanging the chrismons up. Made me think about Mom and Dad being out last year to help decorate the church tree with me...That evening was Ken's first official FREE night from youth! As of last week, he is done! So we decided to meet up with Jen and Sam for a beer after work since we hadn't had a chance to talk with them in a while.
Carol and I with the finished product
Saturday evening we went to the Clausen's for another Christmas party. Roger also showed us a slide show of his latest motorcycle adventure - all across Europe! He rides with Jo and Garreth Morgan, two Kiwi riders who do a lot for social justice through their rides (as well as write books - we have their America ride, "Backblocks America," that is filled with pictures of Roger Clausen - and he signed our book too!)
Sunday morning was the Children's Christmas production. It was a cute show about finding out who is Jesus. Ken gave the devotional message following the production. That afternoon we had choir practice - two more members joined up (yeay!) and we sound really nice. I am looking forward to Christmas Eve. Sunday night Ken lead about 14 people in a James Bond Bible Study (only Ken could do this!) - we went and saw the film, then had a discussion about the nature of evil and being sinners and saints. It was a really good discussion - some of the participants had never thought about our lives in Christ that way (that in Him we are saints, but at the same time we will still sin). There was a lot of good discussion and I think some people walked away with a bit to think on. One of the members thanked Ken for all the studies he has led in the parish this year for adult education - there is such a hunger to learn and grow in the faith here. Please keep these adults in your prayers that they continue to desire to learn more about their faith!
Because Christmas is coming up so quickly, Ken and I decided to work again this Monday. He is still working on that world religions book. Four people have signed up to buy one so far. He is also preparing sermons for both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day (he will be leading services at both St. Luke's and Trinity and I will be doing all the music, along with my choir). We also took Pepper to the pet store today to pick up a chew bone (Santa will give it to her come Thursday morning). She choose a pet Christmas Cracker - meaning it is a rawhide bone that is shaped like a Christmas Cracker (the kind you pull the ends and goodies come out from the middle) - and her cracker is filled with more rawhide goodies inside once she chews it threw! She saw us wrapping her presents earlier this week and got sooooo excited! She already tore a hole in one of them that's under our little charlie brown tree! What a cutie.
As we come into the Christmas season and end advent, we are reminded that the faith we have in Christ is not so much different than that of our forefathers in the faith. Before Christ, believers were long awaiting the time when Christ would come. Now Christians today celebrate when He came as a baby on Christmas, but we too await the time when He will come again with glory at the end of time! May you and your family have a blessed Christmas this week - enjoy the festivities of parties and fellowship as we celebrate together the birth of Christ. Merry Christmas!
No comments:
Post a Comment