Feliz Navidad!

Sorry, folks, I have Spanish on the brain. :)

Ah, Christmas break. School feels like it was 100 years ago. I'm at home, enjoying my family, my sleep, my Bible, and my Spanish studying, in no particular order. It's so lovely to not have deadlines and responsibilities and pressure on every side.

Lord willing, I'm planning on going to Mexico over spring break with a team from school (more details to come), and so I'm hitting the Spanish study really hard. I've worked on it every day for a couple of hours since I've been home. In spite of the fact that I'm rather overwhelmed with the amount of work that goes into learning a language, I feel like I'm actually making some sort of progress. Maybe, by March, I'll actually be more conversational. :) We're not sure how many Spanish speakers we'll actually have on our team, so Naomi and I have decided that if for no other reason than that, we're going to really work on Spanish. I have other reasons, of course, too...part of my heart is still in Peru. I'm not sure what will happen if I leave another part of my heart in Mexico... It's likely that for the rest of my life, no matter where I go, I'll be leaving pieces of my heart there. :)

Anyway...I'm still at home for at least the next few weeks, with my family. We're enjoying life together, making cookies, playing Apples to Apples, singing Christmas carols at the tops of our lungs (no kidding), watching movies, yelling at each other, laughing with each other, discussing Christmas presents at length, et cetera.

One of my Spanish projects is reading through the gospel of Juan, hopefully at least a couple of times before I go back to Emmaus. I read 3 chapters today.

Porque tanto amo Dios al mundo, que dio a su Hijo unigenito para que todo el que cree en el no se pierda, sino que tenga vida eterna.

I hope you all have a lovely holiday season with loved ones, whether at home or away. I've been memorizing Ephesians since I've been home, and it's been wonderful to reflect on the amazing blessings we have in Christ. He "has blessed us with ALL spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ!" Over and over again the first chapters say "in Christ...in Christ...in Christ"! It's all about Him and His glory. We live for no other reason. And all the gifts He gives us to enjoy are meant to draw us closer to Him so we can glorify Him all the more. Rest in Him today!

Anything special I should know?

Liz (about to use Victor's Mac to burn a CD, and trying to open the lid): Is there anything in particular I should know about this thing?

Victor (turning the laptop around on Liz's lap): Well, you open it from the other side...

Do It Later

Emmaus Family Christmas

Last night was our Emmaus Christmas event. We had a concert with Ginny Owens and David Klinkenberg, and that was really cool. Then we all went to faculty homes for supper and Christmas presents. Then we went ice skating. It was fun. Here are some pictures.

Naomi, Esther, Em and I made supper at the house of a couple from church, and had Victor and another friend, Micah, over to eat together beforehand. Here we are cooking...



And eating...



Victor was Naomi's date for the evening...



Esther and Emily and I stuck together. :)



Here's Victor the wannabe figure skater...




And my new favorite picture of the school year...Victor with his prayer support team. :) AKA, sisters in Christ who support him with considerable amount of prayer. :)



In news, only one more week till school's out for the semester! I only have two finals and a take-home one this week. It's great. Tomorrow is the Christmas brunch at church, and my kids (all of them from church) are performing their songs, which Victor and I have been teaching them for the past month-ish. I'm excited about that. :) I hope it goes well. I'm kind of nervous, actually. I'm playing a violin duet with another student from Emmaus, too. I'm more nervous about the kids than about performing myself. I'm super excited to see how the kids do. :)

Sorry I haven't been blogging much lately. I'll try to do better. :)