I woke
up the morning of the 26th with a familiar sense of excitement. I sat up in bed and tore open the
curtains. But instead of a white fluffy
landscape, I looked through the foggy windows to see the typical frost that lay
on the ground…but no snow. For the past
22 years I have asked for and been denied a white Christmas, it seems my first
Christmas in Africa will meet the same disappointment.
At the
beginning of the month we were all talking about how weird it was that we were
so cold in July. Which then lead to a
discussion about how said it’ll be that we all spent all year together in time
to separate in time for the holidays.
That’s what inspired the idea of having a Manna Christmas in July.
So,
shortly after we decided to commit to this we drew names for secret Santa. Then as Christmas approached we began
decorating. We made a tree and hung
bulbs for it, we then made paper snow flakes and a fire place.
Because
we had so little expenses, we had some extra money to buy Christmas
dinner. So on Christmas Eve we put the
ham in the crock pot. Then on Christmas
morning we went to church like good missionaries. When we got back we then preparing the mashed
potatoes, sweet potato casserole, cooked carrots, sautéed zuchinni and of
course gravy. Then for dessert we had a
big cookie cake.
Frank
and Cindy came over and joined us for dinner and then we began the gift
exchange. Frank and Cindy gave us a bag
of cookies as a team and as a team we gave them money for a date night. Sammie and I both got each other for secret
Santa. I got her a bar of chocolate and
made for her a home made devotional book of encouraging passages from the Bible
for 31 days. Sammie gave me some
chocolate and made me an awesome video from the past 7 months on the race.
Then
Amanda did a quick bible study on the geneology of jesus and then we watched
Elf. All in all I would say it was an
amazing day and one of my favorite memories with my team. I would also say its one of my favorite
Christmas’.
