Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!!!

 (This is the Nativity Scene from the hospital's courtyard.)

We want to wish you a very happy holiday season filled with lots of wonderful memories!  Love and joy and hugs to everyone!

What's been happening here so far?  Well, first we had a lovely Christmas program at school.  Since this is only the third year that Christmas is officially a holiday here, everyone was excited.  The kids worked hard and were FANTASTIC!  Here they are practicing:

The program began with a march by the older kids that was fun. 

Here are the adorable little ones singing:

Besides classroom songs, we also had a couple of plays--one was Nepali and one was about the birth of Jesus.

We also had a costume parade and a song, which was really special.  I loved it!

Notice the little one bowing too soon!  Too cute!!!

The parents were as happy with their children as we were!

Our shipment isn't here yet, (NO IT ISN'T) so we looked for a few Christmas decorations.  I was able to find three boxes of Christmas decorations in a Kathmandu department store and picked out a few things.  This Santa and wreath were made here by women who are part of an organization that helps women with their own businesses.  You feel good buying something from them.

One day we were able to get away to this picturesque hotel for some photos of the mountains.

Here's the sign that tells you what you're looking at...

...and here's what you see to the left of the tree:

Beautiful, don't you agree?  Now, let's zoom in!

(No words necessary!)

Look at that sky!  That's a plane heading towards Kathmandu.

From this beautiful vantage point, we took our Christmas picture.

(Can you see the mountains?)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

On Christmas Eve we had an outdoor Christmas vespers service beside a campfire...

...and a very full house on Sabbath for Christmas.  There was standing room only inside the church and even spill-over outside!  How wonderful it was to spend the day together as a church family.  We had a nice lunch and the weather even cooperated too.  

That evening we had a Mexican haystack supper with the other missionaries and needless to say, enjoyed ourselves!  Sometimes, when you haven't had it for awhile, Mexican food just tastes so good and was the perfect ending of a great Christmas in a Hindu country.  We certainly are counting our blessings and we're thankful to the Lord that we are able to be here.

We're also hope everyone reading this enjoyed their holiday and we wish you a Happy Holiday Week this week!  Good-bye for now from Nepal!  I'll leave you with a couple more great pictures!

Baptism

We had a baptism today!!!  What a beautiful blessing to see precious souls take a stand for Jesus when it's not always easy to be a Christian here.

We had a full house at church.

and enjoyed special music from the youth group at a children's home nearby.

Bless their hearts, they did a wonderful job, as usual.

This sweet young lady (who sometimes translates for me) gave her mother a break and babysat her little brother.

Ramon and this little one enjoyed a nice little conversation!

After church, everyone found their shoes (Yes, even when it's cold, no one wears shoes inside.  I bring heavy socks to put on, and I confess that today my feet were cold even in my heavy socks.) and went outside for the baptism.

Someone had a little accident.  Oh well--THE SUN IS SHINING!

Thankfully it was a nice day--a little cold, BUT THE SUN WAS SHINING!  Amen!

We gathered around the baptismal tank,

the candidates lined up,

and the pastor said a few words.

One of our Kindergarten students happily babysat the baby of one of the girls who was baptized.  Both are so adorable!

The grandpa you see here in gray raised his hands up in a cheer to show his happiness when he came up out of the water.  It was so beautiful!

Afterwords, we got in a circle to pray

and then walked around the circle to greet everyone--very nice!

Finally it was time to eat!

Wish you could have been here with us--you would have been blessed!  Thanks for your prayers which help us every day!

School Picnic

Recently we had our school picnic to celebrate the end of the term, the second trimester.  We have only about three months of school left (one more term) and the new year will start again in April, when the Nepali New Year begins.  (It will be the year 2068!)  There's no "summer vacation" like we're used to in the States.  Instead there are breaks of various sizes between the trimesters, as well as numerous vacation days for festivals and holidays.  (I've written about some of the festivals.  Check the archives if you're interested and you missed the posts.  Sorry--I don't know how to hyperlink yet!) 

Well, we had a beautiful day with an amazing sky! 

Into the bus we climbed

and we were off to Dhulikhel, a neighboring town with parks and hotels because of the views!  (The picture of Ramon and me in our profile was taken there.  We must go back now that the "real" mountains are visible, since the rainy season is over and take another pic!)

The town itself looks just like Banepa (only smaller).

As we drove on, I noticed the children were chanting.  I thought they were just singing, and then I noticed they were saying, MOUN--TAIN!  MOUN--TAIN!  MOUN--TAIN!  I looked over and here is what I saw:

AWESOME!!!

We arrived at the park, jumped out of the bus,

and headed to "our" section.

We made friends with the dogs hanging about.  They were all so cute and friendly!

 

I could have taken this dog home.  He was an angel!  I'm wearing a kurta, which is what women usually wear here (as well as saris) and my Harry Potter shoes, which are surprisingly comfortable!  (Check out the post "Big Foot" in the September archives if you haven't read it yet about when I bought those shoes!)

Hey--look over there!

Let me zoom in:

Again--awesome!!!

OK, so let's play already!

Story anyone?

When are we going to eat?

SOON!

Line up everyone!

Yes, we rewarded this little guy's patience with some leftovers!

We had some neighbors.  On one side there was another school (I presume).  Some of the kids begged me to take their picture and give them chocolate.  Since I didn't have any chocolate, I took their picture!  They were very happy.

I wish I had a picture of their smiles as they looked at themselves in my camera!

On the other side, there was a wedding reception.

They were playing music and when one American song came on, one of the girls said, "Oh, I love this song!"  I said, "Did you hear it on the radio?"  "No!  MTV!"  :)

Right past the wedding reception, there was an army camp of some kind.  Even they were enjoying the views.

At one point, two girls pulled me over to the other side from where we were sitting.  "Look at the 'thing!' "  they kept saying.  (I'm writing 'thing' because I never did understand the word they used!)  "Come Kathy Miss, you've got to see the 'thing!' "  They pointed here.

Do you see something, way in the distance, on the hillside?  Here's a close-up:

(Remember you can enlarge by double clicking.)

It's pretty interesting to see!  I then heard that there are a thousand steps on the walk to see it.  Not sure when we'll be doing that!

Well, all too soon it was time to go back home!  Our principal gave instructions about cleaning up.

As we were leaving, I noticed this little store by the entrance.  Next time, we'll take a look and see what's inside!  (WHAT IF they have Salt & Vinegar Potato Chips?!)

Goodbye Dhulikhel!  Hope to see you again soon!