On Christmas Eve, our pastor who has been following up with the care of Stella and her premie baby came over. He was planning to go to the hospital to visit them. The baby had been admitted for sepsis. In the hospitals here, nothing is provided, so he wanted to make sure her basic needs were taken care of. I had offered to help before so he was taking me up on the offer. I found another woman who is here on a short term trip to also go with us.
When we arrived at the hospital, we found the two of them and her 4 year old son, Ezra. (Good name.) We were able to talk with a nurse about the medical needs of the baby and request that he be weighed. They had not yet done that. He is nursing well, and is now up to 2.6kg. with a little onesie on. It was good to hear that he is now nursing well and beginning to gain. We also found that there were many things they lacked, washing soap for cleaning cloth diapers, soap for bathing the baby, something to fetch hot water to use for washing the baby, and food for Stella and Ezra. So we went with the pastor down the street to get a few items. When we returned we had the opportunity to prayer with her before we needed to go.
I was so thankful that the pastor asked us to join him. I can think of no better way to spend Christmas Eve than caring for a mother and baby in need. Jesus said, "Whatever you have done for the least of these, you have done it for me." It felt as if we were privileged to be able to care for Jesus this Christmas. Please continue to pray for this family and for the church to have wisdom about how best to care for them both physically and spiritually.
I drove back to GSF and we arrived just in time for Christmas caroling. I had been looking forward to this for a while. The missionaries and some guests who are here visiting walked to the children's homes singing Christmas carols. Then we gathered the children and all walked to a place where the story of Jesus' birth was retold and the children were given stockings and ice cream! One of the cutest moments was when all the toddlers came to the door of their house in their pajamas, but I didn't have a camera ready. Here is a photo of Zeke and Bobby at the party. These boys have so much fun together. 
It is interesting to hear the story of Jesus' birth in a place where there is a donkey (named Daisy) and some of these children may have been born in similar situations, maybe in a mud hut in the village rather than a stable. The children answered questions, and Claudia shared the reason Jesus came: to save his people from their sins. It was a beautiful time! 
In the morning, we woke and waited for the generator to come on so that we could see our Christmas gifts. ;) We also ate cinnamon rolls! Amy organized the baking of 200 cinnamon rolls from scratch so that there were enough for all the children, house moms and missionaries. Amazing! Our children picked out gifts for one another and our two boys both have slingshots. This should be interesting.
Here in Uganda, the tradition is that people go to church on Christmas Day rather than on Christmas Eve, like the American tradition. So we walked to the village to worship. It was a very encouraging time! I got a little nervous when the pastor said that he was going to preach on the story of redemption and began in Genesis. Church here can sometimes go very long, particularly when you add in time for translation, and I thought we might be in for a very long sermon. But the pastor preached about creation, the effect of the fall, and that Jesus came to restore and redeem that which was broken. It was good to be reminded of the work God is doing and has done through Jesus. Here is a picture of a precious little girl from the village at church. 
After leaving the worship service, we went to the Gwartneys house for a brunch and gift exchange with our team. It was a very fun time celebrating together. Elijah was given a drum by one of the older boys who has been helping him learn. He was thrilled and practiced much of the day. ;) After the gift exchange Alex fell asleep under the Christmas tree. It was too cute!
Then at 2pm we went to the pavilion to have the Christmas meal with the children and house moms and several of the big brothers and sisters from GSF who were back visiting. It was a Ugandan feast with matoke, rice, beef from our bull, pork from our pig, chicken, chipatis and pineapple. The meal was a bit different than our family is used to, but it was good to celebrate together. Here are my older students enjoying the party.
Claudia organized a program on the spot asking several people to share a Word or a song impromptu. There was much laughing and rejoicing. Then the children all received a gift. As you can see, Moses loves his new truck!
We walked back to our house after a full day, and I began packing. On Thursday evening Ezra and I will go to the airport to leave for the US for a month. I am writing this in the middle of the night because I cannot sleep, and I decided that just thinking about how much I will miss the rest of my family isn't so helpful. Please keep us all your prayers as we are apart this next month.
We finished our Christmas Day celebration by watching the movie "Elf" and eating popcorn. I required the three children I will be away from this next month to come cuddle with me during the movie. They were fine with it as long as I didn't eat all the popcorn. ;)
I hope you and your family had a merry Christmas. Jesus has come! He is working to restore and redeem! There is much to celebrate!
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