Snow!

How excited were we with the snow on Thursday night? What a neat surprise! It was so beautiful, Kelli and I had to run outside for about five minutes to take pictures and chase each other with snowballs. I just loved this picture of my house...it's first snow!!!

Justice & Mercy

I was reflecting on Night for Africa which happened months ago at Northpoint, and was thinking about all that is going on even now in Kenya. These verses came up on BibleGateway.com and I just loved them. It's good to meditate on God's word, as Jeff Henderson pointed out this moring. Please keep praying for Kenya...

PSALM 68:5&6a (The Message)
Father of orphans,
champion of widows,
is God in his holy house.
God makes homes for the homeless.

ISAIAH 1:17 (The Message)
Say no to wrong.
Learn to do good.
Work for justice.
Help the down-and-out.
Stand up for the homeless.
Go to bat for the defenseless.

MICAH 6:8 (The Message)
But he's already made it plain how to live, what to do,
what God is looking for in men and women.
It's quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor,
be compassionate and loyal in your love,
And don't take yourself too seriously—
take God seriously.

We've No Idea

Please be in prayer over the violence that is occurring as a result of the elections in Kenya. This is an e-mail sent to my mortgage broker (who spent some time there and met this guy, Maurice, who is in ministry). I think that in America, we have no idea what it is really like in Africa. If you watch films like Blood Diamond or Hotel Rwanda you might get a glimpse, but really, it's all too easy to think, "Wow, that's rough. So...where do y'all want to eat for dinner tonight?" We are so isolated from much of the world, with the grand privilege of selecting what we choose to think about and not. Maurice and his family are thinking about things like where their next meal will come from, if he can get it back to their house safely without being robbed or attacked, and whether his wife will get the treatment she needs for malaria. Please think of them this week, and in coming weeks and pay attention to the news.

Hallo,

First I want to thank you for praying for us and our nation. It has been a very hard time for me and my family here in kenya as result to election violence. I happen to be in kisumu which is one of the areas hard hit by the violence of elections. But we thank the Lord that our lives are protected in the Lord.
Kisumu town is worst and many properties are destroyed and looted.

Many buildings and properties are burned down including motor vehicles and many lives are lost and i want you all to know that many people have died and the figure is higher than what you hear on the news.. In Muhoroni the area MP called for police to go and collect many bodies killed and laid by the roadsides and also here in the rural some bodies are found killed and some burned.

There are no means of transport up to today and infact I used a bicycle to go to Kisumun town today a bout 40 km away and back because Its only in the town center where one can find some foodstuffs to purchase and again the foodstuffs are very expenisve like more than 3 times than before.

We have gone without food for two days and its terrible and people seen with bags of maize flour are robbed of that by force because people are hungry.

Many old people are starving and they need urgent help as they cannot travel to the town to look for food. in the rural there is no food. as result of lack of food i guess

My son Donex is sick and dehydrating and Peggy too is having serious malaria and we cannot take them to hospital because all nearest hospitals are closed down so there are only few private hospitals in the town center and transport is a problem and cost of treatment has gone up.

Please we need your continuous prayers as you have done in the past because things seems to be getting back to normal as you can see I made it to town and pray that I will get back with some packets of maize flour for my family without any one attacking me on the road.

We also need help, besides what we need to use at this time as a family also help for the affected people we know around.

In my closest area we are having funeral of about 5 people who were killed as result to the violence.

As for our ministry, Our Kisumu rural office was attacked by rioting youths and the broke in and looted our 153 plastic chairs we have been using as income generating project and also a television and DVD machines we have been using to show our ISOB Discipleship clasess other small small things were also stolen but they left us the books in our library.

We want to go back to Nairobi soon but we are advised that if we cant wait then we will have to use air means of traveling to Nairobi as tribal clashes continues on the road to Nairobi , people of my tribe (Railas tribe are forced out of buses and slaughtered)

I have to go as its very expensive to use internet today and i have no money.

Maurice and Benter

Amber & Heather

Most of us think of heather as a plant that grows on the hillside in Scotland, amongst other places. And amber? Amber is that stuff that they found the mosquito in which they extracted DNA from in the film Jurassic Park, right?

Wrong. People everywhere are redefining these words. They are, in fact, becoming substitutes for my actual NAME.

Yes, that's right. I have been called Amber on more occasions than I can count, and most recently, I became "Heather."

Other popular substitutions for my name include August and my favorite...April.

I just want to know why it is that people cannot remember my name. If I can remember the very ethnic names of most of my students, and pronounce them correctly, then why can American adults not seem to remember my name, a synonym for the season fall? It's not that difficult, people.

AUTUMN. A six letter word. Memorize it. Embrace it. I'd do the same for you!!!

The Grinch!!!

"Every Who down in Whoville liked Christmas a lot

But the Grinch who lived just north of Whoville did not!"

Here are a few pics of the play from this evening! One kid threw up backstage before we even started. Another got sick in the middle of the show and had to come sit down in the audience. Ah, all in a day's work. Good times were had by all!!!

The Grinch & Max (This is in rehearsal...Max did actually have a dog costume for the show!)

Me with Cindy-Lou Who

Reynolds & I with Cindy-Lou, post show

Stille Nacht

Pictures from my White Elephant Party this evening!

The table is set!

Stacee, Julie & Moi

Small Group: Natalie, Kelli, Ashley & Me

The boys small group: Justin, Scott, Jeff & Chad

Julie & Mike with the Severed Head Singing Santa

Waumba Crew acting crazy (as usual)

How the world's most famous Christmas carol came to be written

In 1818, a roving band of actors was performing in towns throughout the Austrian Alps. On December 23 they arrived at Oberndorf, a village near Salzburg. There they were scheduled to perform the story of Christ's birth in the Church of St. Nicholas.

Unfortunately, the St. Nicholas' church organ wasn't working and would not be repaired before Christmas. (Note: some versions of the story point to mice as the problem; others say rust was the culprit). Because the church organ was out of commission, the actors presented their Christmas drama in a private home. That Christmas presentation put assistant pastor Josef Mohr in a meditative mood. So, instead of walking straight to his house, Mohr took a longer way home. The longer path took him up over a hill overlooking the village.

From that hilltop, Mohr looked down on the peaceful snow-covered village. Reveling in the wintry night's majestic silence, he gazed down at the glowing scene. His thoughts about the Christmas play caused him to remember a poem he had written a couple of years earlier. That poem was about the night when angels announced the birth of the long-awaited Messiah to shepherds on a hillside.

Mohr decided those words would make a good carol for his congregation the following evening at their Christmas eve service. However, he didn't have any music to which that poem could be sung. So, the next day Mohr went to see the church organist, Franz Xaver Gruber. Gruber only had a few hours to come up with a melody which could be sung with a guitar. However, by that evening, Gruber had managed to compose a simple musical setting for Mohr's poem. It didn't matter that the organ was broken. They now had a Christmas carol they could sing without it. On Christmas Eve, the little Oberndorf congregation heard Gruber and Mohr sing their new composition to the accompaniment of Gruber's guitar.

Weeks later, well-known organ builder Karl Mauracher arrived to fix the St. Nicholas church organ. When he finished, Mauracher stepped back to let Gruber test the instrument. When Gruber sat down, his fingers began playing the simple melody he had written for Mohr's Christmas poem. Deeply impressed, Mauracher took the music and words of "Silent Night" back to his own Alpine village, Kapfing. There, two well-known families of singers -- the Rainers and the Strassers -- heard it. Captivated by "Silent Night," both groups put the new song into their Christmas season repertoire.

Silent night! holy night!
All is calm, all is bright,
'Round yon virgin mother and Child!
Holy Infant, so tender and mild,
Sleep in heavenly peace,
Sleep in heavenly peace.

The Strasser sisters spread the carol throughout northern Europe. In 1834, after they had performed "Silent Night" for King Frederick William IV of Prussia, that king ordered his cathedral choir to sing it every Christmas eve.

The Rainers brought the song to the United States in 1839, singing it (in German) at the Alexander Hamilton Monument located outside New York City's Trinity Church. In 1863, nearly fifty years after being first sung in German, "Silent Night" was translated into English (by either Jane Campbell or John Young). In 1871 the English version was published in an American hymnal: Charles Hutchins' Sunday School Hymnal.

Long time, no blog!

I realized that I have not blogged in forever, so here it is! My blog! So much has been going on lately that I have been sidetracked. My small group (left) went to the Cagle's Dairy Corn Maize once again this year and it was harder than we remembered! Still, fun times!

Thanksgiving break was a marvelous way to catch up with myself, and to relax but also get some things done around the house. During the break I was able to completely repaint my kitchen, which I am very proud of! Now it's two very subtle and calming shades of green that I am enjoying. Next step---cabinet gutting and renovation! I'm thinking this will happen post-Christmas though. Trying to be responsible with the funds!

At school we are working hard to prepare for singing next Thursday evening at the PTA Southern Supper with Santa. Then, on Friday we have our first chorus field trip to see The Nutcracker and that evening we sing at the Gwinnett Gladiators Sing for Santa event. Busy busy! Then, two weeks later we have our big Christmas chorus show which involves the singing of many carols plus a reinactment of How the Grinch Stole Christmas. I'm excited!

I guess that's about it for now!!!