Dear friends,
Sometimes people wonder what our holidays are like here in PNG. Of
course, we miss our dear families in the States, and wish we could be
with them, but we mostly find ourselves counting blessings. Here are a
few:
We don’t have any of the USA’s lovely poinsettias, but Hadassah’s
friend gave us a beautiful arrangement of orchids for Christmas.
We don’t have any snow, but the breeze off the Pacific Ocean and the
clouds coming down off the mountains have cooled our hottest season
down quite nicely, and the view is unbeatable!
We don’t have any shopping mall, but our little Christmas tree runneth
over anyway. One source of great joy to me was taking each of my
oldest three daughters Christmas shopping. The oldest two get a weekly
allowance of $1.00, and they save a portion of that every week for
their Christmas shopping at the end of the year. So armed with $10.00
each (which seemed like a fortune to them) they managed to find
lovely, thoughtful gifts for each sister and parent.
Of course, many things we do here are the same. I make the same
Christmas tree rolls my mother made every Christmas when I was growing
up. We eat a shocking amount of chocolate. We decorate Christmas
cookies and sing carols at the hospital. Our children occasionally
have a scuffle over a new toy. We find ourselves overwhelmed by the
riches of the season–great food, great loved ones, great gifts, and a
great Saviour.
Have a wonderful rest of the holiday season!
Love,
Diane Reese (with Marcus, Hannah, Hadassah, Rochelle, and Faith)
Our family at the end of 2008
