Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone. 
Hope you found time in your busy schedule to remember the reason for the season.

Guitar Blessing!

So most of you know that I was not able to bring my guitar to Portugal.

I have certainly missed playing and worshipping with it.

Recently our pastor here decided to purchase a guitar for the church. This means I will once again be able to play and even lead worship once a month.

Total blessing, but pray for my fingers as I haven't played in six months!

Snowman...sort of

Europe has been hit with lots of snow lately, which has resulted in airports closing, people stranded and general chaos. 

Being in Southern Europe, we have missed most of that. Although it does snow in Northern Portugal, we do not get any here.

Unless, of course, you let the fridge go too long without a defrosting! 

Perhaps we'll get the chance to go up north to see some real snow...

Emi Turns 6

Emi celebrated her 6th birthday today!

We went downtown to see Christmas decorations and get some dessert.

Christmas Program

Our school's Christmas Program was Friday night. Although it was a lot of work, I think everyone had a good time. More importantly, they definitely heard about the true reasons for celebrating Christmas.

Emi and Mika's Kindergarten class had a fun presentation.

They were singing in English, Japanese, Greek and Portuguese.

Takako's Visit

Our good friend Takako came for a visit!

The girls were so excited to eat such yummy Japanese food again (as we all were).

It was so good to have long talks with such a wise, spiritual woman of God.
We have been much encouraged!

Book Review: On this Day in Christian History, by Robert J. Morgan

On this day in Christian History by Robert J Morgan is a book with an interesting approach. Each day of the year you can read about an important event in Christian history. Naturally, the book is arranged by date, with one page for each day. While this would not be an appropriate replacement for daily Bible study, it does give some fascinating episodes in Christian history. Morgan chooses some interesting people to include, although not all would be considered “heroes” of the faith.

However, while the events included are significant, one is left wondering what was left out. As there is only one event listed per day, surely other important events were not included. In fact, in most cases the “Day it happened” is totally irrelevant. Also, while there is an index arranged by subject, it would have been better to have an index of persons. I will likely remember an event, even a name, but surely I will not be able to remember the day that it happened making it difficult to find later. Still, even with these minor annoyances, Morgan has done an admirable job of presenting a variety of incidents in a brief, interesting manner.

Christmas Countdown

Well, we've done this for the past couple years; we like to countdown the days of December as we approach Christmas. We try to keep the focus on Christ, so we will read a Bible verse each day and talk about one of the many symbols of the season.

This was a cool display at the local mall: it is the town of Bethlehem. At the top of the village is the manger. Not sure how often you get to see a public display in the U.S. these days, but they are quite common here.

Of course, on the other side of the tree was the fat guy in the red suit...