We Wish You A Merry Christmas And A Happy New Year

We trust that although this has been a unique year that you were blessed for Christmas!  We missed many family and friends this year but we're thankful for our small group that gathered. Christmas Eve, we gathered in Bismarck, ND at Matt and Sophia's ( our daughter) place with our sons Ethan and Timothy. We zoomed in our son Caleb, daughter-in-law Sarah and our daughter Ruth who were together in Carol Stream, IL. We had a lovely candlelight service, exchanged gifts, shared appetizers, and all watched A Christmas Carol --the Muppets version! I must say having a granddaughter makes this time of year so much more special.  For Christmas day we gathered at our place with the same group plus invited an older neighbor that had nowhere to be for Christmas and was going to be alone. It is always a blessing to share with others at this time.

Our family that gathered Christmas Eve 2020

As we celebrated Christmas this year, we can not help but think of Christmas pasts. These memories are filled with both joy and sorrow.  Four years ago early Christmas morning we heard that Dave's mom had passed and this is my second Christmas without my mother on this earth.  We thought about our first Christmas in Africa..... In early December 1993, Jana and I had been disfellowshipped, dined with expatriates empathetic to future genocidaires, were in Uganda with no missionary co-workers, and had yet to receive our household goods. Finally, after months of arguing with the Uganda Revenue Authority, we relinquished. We would pay the taxes even though we did not believe we owed any. We paid tax on personal effects. We even paid tax on Bibles. We filled out the forms. We were told to come to the warehouse on Christmas Eve, 1993 to collect our household goods. We came to the customs bonded warehouse early in the morning. No matter how difficult 1993 had been we anticipated on Christmas Eve we would receive our goods. We would go home and unpack and unload. Camping would end. We would sit on our furniture, sleep in our bed, eat from food preserved in our refrigerator, and cooked on our stove. Our toddler, Sophia would play with her old toys. We would be whole again. We spent the day waiting. We missed lunch. We asked questions. Where was the man with the key to open the warehouse? He was gone, but he would be back we were told. We waited some more. We asked a few more questions. Then finally the end of the day came. The guards began ushering all out of the outskirts of the warehouse. No man with a key had come. We were lonely, tired, hungry, and more discouraged than we had ever been. We left realizing that for a day people had been polite, but there was no intention of us taking our possessions home on Christmas Eve..... To read the rest of this story of our first Christmas in Africa check out our blog https://eadiasporacommunity.blogspot.com/2020/12/my-first-african-christmas.html

As 2020 is coming to an end would you prayerfully consider making a one-time gift. We depend on your partnership with us to enable us to serve East Africans here in the Dakotas. We are in the process of evaluating our year in ministry and making exciting plans for 2021. We look forward to sharing this with you in the new year.

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