Tico Tuesday, December 11th

Happy Tuesday to you! My goodness, enough has happened in the past week I could easily write a whole Chronicle, but I won't.

Yesterday we had our big annual Christmas and Thanksgiving service with ALL the children and staff from the Bible Home and school we have on-site. It was beautiful! All the different groups of children and personnel performed music or a skit and each house contributed a couple children to put together a Christmas pageant. I was with the children and house moms at their rehearsal on Friday, and to help set the mood and inspire them, we watched a brief cartoon movie of the Christmas story. Once Mary gave birth to Jesus, the donkey pushed the manger toward Mary as if to tell her to put Jesus there-- and it just hit me. A manger: where animals ate and possibly drooled. That was Jesus' bassinet. I've been hearing and talking about it my whole life so it's like I wouldn't expect Jesus to be born anywhere else. Duh! Of course Jesus was born in a manger! No! Not duh. People aren't usually born and placed in a pile of dirty, perhaps slobbery hay. It was like I'd heard it for the first time all over again. Talk about humility, talk about love. What an incredible miracle Jesus' birth is! I had a different attitude as I helped the children and house moms rehearse and work out the blocking and scene transitions (hooray for being able to apply things I learned in the drama club in high school!). They did a fantastic job in their performance yesterday. You never would know they'd only rehearsed twice... And some people think the kids we work with are hopeless and good for nothing!
Thank you so much for making it possible for me to be here and serve these children and everyone else at the Bible Home. God is doing amazing things in them and in me! I'm still looking for 10 more people to join my LAM support team at $50/month. Special gifts are a huge blessing and more than welcome, but it is still very important for more regular givers to join. If you can't commit to $50/month, you are welcome to commit to whatever amount the Lord places on your heart. He is more than faithful and will surely provide for you and me! And if you could please do me the favor of telling your friends and family about me, that would be great!
Thank you for your prayers for financial provision and for my health! (I haven't gotten sick!) Please also pray for the 20+ children who are getting ready to leave the Bible Home for good next Wednesday. A lot of them are anxious! Thank you!
With love and joy,
Carrie