As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life
worthy of the calling you have received.
Ephesians 4:1
Dear Friends and Family,
Holiday greetings from a bright, sunny Sierra Leone. The mood here in Freetown is festive and raucous as Christmas house parties give way to block parties. The louder the music, the better. Our new downstairs neighbour commented last week how much he preferred Christmas in Freetown to Christmas in London. "London is boring", he said. "In London everything is so quiet and everyone stays in their houses. Here in Freetown, people know how to really party." And party they do, with music and dancing in the streets as the anticipation of Christmas builds.
We're happy to report a successful transition to our new home. Erin, Keyara, and I are enjoying the relative peace and quiet at our new house. Thank you for all of your prayers and encouragement during this process of looking for a place for ourselves. We began looking in earnest back in April and it's been a long, long process. The house is perfect for us and is still within walking distance of town. We even have an extra bedroom here for any of you who might be interested in visiting some time.
Being away from friends and family during this holiday season has not been easy for either of us. At the same time it is a joy to celebrate this special season with our youth and the kiddos down in Kroo Bay. We are throwing a couple of Christmas parties and celebrating the birth of Hope right here in Freetown.
Keyara is doing wonderfully. Its seems like every week she is doing something new for the first time. This week she has really begun responding to my voice and almost every time I come into her line of vision and say, "da-da," she gets a big smile on her face and cackles. 🙂 Our Lighthouse youth simply love her. Whenever we show up to a meeting or we see them, Keyara just gets passed around with plenty of love and attention. We are so grateful for the health and well-being she's been blessed with here in her first three months. Thank you again for all of your prayers for us in this regard.
We're realizing that the cost of doing ministry here extends beyond our own salaries. Take, for example, the Christmas party for about 250 kids down in Kroo Bay December 20th. The total cost for the food and a small gift for each of the kids who attends will be about $800. We're also having a Christmas party for the Lighthouse kids and that will cost about $200. Our Sierra Leone staff are supported out of our general ministry fund. Pretty much everything we do as far as ministry here: school fees and lunch money for our youth, the nutritional and medical program Saturdays for the kids in the slum, administrative expenses, etc, come out of this ministry account.
While our support account has been meeting our own monthly salary, our general ministry account has been falling behind these last couple of months. We would like to invite you, our friends and supporters, to be a larger part of WMF Sierra Leone. Would you prayerfully consider supporting our field general ministry account? By our committing to support the general ministry account, we hope to dream bigger about what WMF Sierra Leone might look like a year or two from now. If you would like to help support the general ministry fund you can simply designate an amount and "WMF Sierra Leone field fund." The office can sort out between our personal support account and our field ministry accounts.
Thank you again for all of your encouragement and support. We really could not be here without such a great team praying for us and encouraging us onward.
With Love,
Chris, Erin and Keyara