Dear Friends and Family,

It's almost Christmas! We've been playing the songs for two months now. We are going to the States for Christmas. It will be so great to have Caleb's first Christmas with family. His birthday is in January so my sister in law tells me we will have a Winnie the Pooh Party for him.

Yuko and I are looking forward to seeing The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I've been a Narnian for years. Yuko's idea of paradise this side of heaven is JoAnn's Fabric store. I don't mind, in fact I encourage her because she makes such lovely things.

The group you see below is the church at Suong. The lady standing on the stairs is Ti. She lives at the house with her two children, David and Ruhtanah (treasure). Her husband left four months ago. The development project really helps her make ends meet. She just delivered us some Bible book covers and wallets, yesterday. We had noodles and leaves and ground peanuts and vinegar for our Christmas feast. It was great. I get to drink an entire pot of jasmine tea while I preach and teach here on Sundays. Some people have all the fun! I'll share my tea with you if you would like to come out and help with the work for a while. There always seems to be enough hot water wherever I go.

Last month Yuko and I went to a photo shop in town and a couple of the recycle boys who study at the church came in and begged for some food from the employees. They gave the boys something from the god
altar. The god altars are at most homes and shops. They are for the water and earth gods, and the village and neighborhood gods. Anyway, the boys each received an old piece of bread with a meat center. In
other cultural observations, last week the aunt of several members of the church died. I'd driven her to the capitol a couple of times. On the day of her funeral, I drove everyone to the feast when the cremation
and Buddhist prayers were finished. Most of the family is Buddhist. While I waited I handed out some Christmas tracts. I followed the lead of Sarah, one of the deceased's family members, so it was not
inappropriate. A commune leader was a brother of the woman who died at seventy-three years of age. He read the tract from beginning to end and said he liked it, and that it was a clear message. I shared with
him that the prophecies about the Messiah are amazingly specific, giving such details as the place of birth, the family, the time of arrival and manner of death to name a few. I hope to see him again.  When I can listen more in Khmai, I will make a point of inviting him to church.

There is a small group of squatter shacks near our home. Several children from there usually come to attend the Khmai school at the church. One young man prostrated himself in front of my truck the other day so I could run him over and then give him money. It was a joke. I asked him if he wanted to die and he and his friends all laughed. The Khmai folks like jokes. It amazes me how people with nothing can smile so often.

Today a mentally challenged boy, a bit larger than the rest of our attenders, came to the Khmai school. He kissed me on the cheek, tickled me under the arm, knocked heads with one of the children and wanted to stay with us. I invited him to come back but let him know that we were finished for the today. The pictures of some of the children are below. We had a Christmas party for them on Sunday. Over one hundred came. We gave them Bible story books you can color in, and bags of goodies from an Assembly of God church in Australia. The kids were ecstatic!

Well, another year is finishing up. I don't know about you but it was a glorious year for us. I saw in the Free Methodist People magazine the words: "the bittersweet privilege of elder care." This year, as every year, was a mixture of blessings and difficulties, but when I hear the kids on the left give a hearty "Amen" after I pray for our bread, it makes it more sweet than bitter. Yuko, Caleb and I would like to say thank you for being our family and friends. We pray the Lord is close to you in the coming year and that you enjoy His
presence in a special way during the holiday season.

"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men!" Luke 2:14