Merry Christmas friends and family! We know Christmas has already passed but our wish for each one of you is that you had a very merry Christmas together with your family wherever in the world that might be.
We had a very busy month of serving at ICF. We were involved in some way in every Christmas party they put on. We worked extra hard since we know that many hands make light work. It is always a joy to serve but towards the end of the month we begin to feel a bit of exhaustion. We asked for prayers a few times for strength and passion to carry on. After a busy month of service, many ICF volunteers will take some time off to rest and regroup. Our family is also resting this week which we will share about in the next blog.
Enjoy all of our Christmas pictures from the month of December at ICF Siem Reap!! :)
Afternoons are sometimes spent brainstorming together for upcoming programs.
Khmery and Kristy hosted a Adventure Kids Christmas Party. We hosted this party in our home. We had a small group of around forty people including children and volunteers.
Decorating our living room for a Christmas party for Jesus.
We had a time of singing and worship. Khmery shared the gospel message with the children as well as the story of Jesus and his birth.
We had a small skit for all of the children. Gracie and Carter were Joseph and Mary.
Britton prepared sausage links a few days ahead with his Brazilian friend, Robson. They prepared and wrapped all the sausage in links and grilled it together for the children.
A birthday cake for Jesus
We enjoyed a yummy dinner and a gift exchange together with the children. It was a successful party.
Catching up with friends from Phnom Penh.
Gracie enjoys serving in the Mighty Kids Program on Sunday mornings.
ICF had a staff Christmas party. We enjoyed this night even if it was raining all night and the party was outside.
A lot of staff that work at ICF!
Our boys love to jump in and help. They were helping move the tables because of the rain.
Gracie and her best friends here in Cambodia.
New friends and fellow co workers. One is from the Czech Republic and one is from New York.
Hours were spent making decorations for the Kids Christmas Party.
Homemade Christmas candy with walnuts and coconuts brought from Walmart.
Early morning village Bible studies
We had dinner guests over and we made some Christmas candy together. It was an enjoyable evening.
Our older three had a youth event. They enjoyed making Christmas cookies together.
Our family also had a designated evening for decorating Christmas cookies. It is a yearly tradition we always enjoy.
The children in the After School program are enjoying coloring together.
Another morning, another village. This village is a new one for the Outreach Team. There are a lot of children at this village. Most of them already know about Jesus but they associate Christians to "people who give me things". We do not hand out anything at ICF. We teach them about Jesus and build relationships. If they participate in the morning and do well listening we will give them a small box of milk. It is quite harmful to go to a village and hand out anything depending on the circumstances.
A very typical wooden Khmer house.
The little building is a bathroom.
A few days were spent tying bows on around one thousand water bottles to hand out as Christmas gifts during the Adult Khmer Christmas Service.
A sweet note was dropped off for the Adventure Kids team. Thankyous are always appreciated.
The next several pictures are from the Kids Church Christmas party. 1,600 children joined this party one early Sunday morning. There were around 25 trucks who went out to pick the children up. Each one of the children who come to ICF is accounted for and looked after by the Social team through ICF. Kristy was the leader of the decorating team. We had around two thousand balloons to blow up so we got an early start around 6 am.
Lots of great helpers. Everyone pitched in and did their jobs. This all took alot of planning and preparation months and weeks in advance.
Savanna and her little friends from Brazil and Switzerland.
Filling up the bag for the balloon drop.
The Khmer Adult Christmas celebration was also on this day. Britton is apart of the Outreach Team and so he spent the morning serving close to one thousand guests.
It was so cold for us this morning hence the blue fingers. The degrees was around 60 and windy! Much colder then we are used to in Cambodia.
Gracie was helping with the Mighty kids as usual this morning.
A organization donated all these backpacks for the children. They say 'Jesus loves me' in Khmer.
Lots of happy volunteers!
Carter and ToLa, one of the worship leaders at ICF.
The Kids Christmas was a huge success.
Time for our little family Christmas celebration. We enjoyed a simple time together.
We always enjoy our little tradition of sleeping all together in the living room.
Opening presents and eating a yummy Christmas dinner in our blanket nest was just perfect. We took several naps throughout the day, watched our favorite Christmas movies and made a Christmas dinner together.
Handmade cards are always a favorite.
Thankyou to Grandma Fisher for sending a very special Christmas box through the mail! This was so special!
Following co workers to the village one early morning.
Our town has a big Ferris wheel!
Trying wood fruit for the first time. It is as gross as you would imagine.
Sweet little ones at the Bible study.
Carter and his drum teacher.
Britton and his coworker witnessing to the guard at one of the shops.
Our Swiss friends invited us over for a small Christmas celebration.
Meat fondue. We enjoyed this evening with our friends.
Here we are helping for the ICF youth group Christmas. Our family helped with food and beverage.
We packed around 700 bowls of spaghetti.
Our sweet Khmer friend, How.
Helping prepare ice for the tables.
Photo booth
The ICF Adult celebration also had a big Christmas party. They only sold 600 tickets. We didn't help much this evening so it was fun to enjoy!
We invited our language tutor and our friends from the market. We always buy our fruit from them.
Candlelight service at ICF.
This was a happy and busy Christmas for our family. Thankyou to everyone who supported us through this month. We so much appreciate all your prayers. We made it through and this week we are resting a few hours south from Siem Reap. We will disclose our resting place in the next blog ;)
Love and blessings to you all!
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