DECEMBER 2023

We hope you had a merry Christmas and a happy new year! After spending the last couple of years in the UK over Christmas, this year we celebrated Christmas in Kenya. It is interesting being away from home and family this time of year. The last time we spent Christmas in Kenya, the UK was still coming off the back end of the pandemic and enforcing lockdowns and social bubbles and such. We had also not been in Kenya long so it did not feel like we were missing out. This year was different and after spending the last couple of years in the UK being away from friends and family seemed to hit a bit harder. Despite missing friends and family and all the familiar Christmas traditions there are definitely some benefits to spending Christmas here. Everything in the Great Rift Valley is certainly less frantic and less consumerist and although being warm on Christmas day doesn't feel right, there is a benefit to more vitamin D and nice weather during the holidays.

On Christmas day we spent the morning at Naomi's Village. It was so much fun. Each of the children got a stocking, new Christmas pyjamas, a Christmas outfit and a personalised gift. The morning was full of joy and laughter as the children tried on their new outfits with plenty of photographs taken. The personalised gifts remind each child that they are known and loved as an individual. After all the fun and excitement, a short chapel service was held with carols sung and the Christmas story told. It was a special morning and we were reminded of the lyrics to the Christmas song "Here comes Heaven''. The first verse says:

"Children weep no more

Hope is on the horizon

Weary world behold

Your promised Messiah "

The Christmas story tells us of how hope has come, that although there may be suffering, hardship and difficulty we can weep no more. That even if we are lowly and tired, the promised Messiah, Jesus, comes with a message of hope and redemption and says to us "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest... For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." (Matthew 11:28-30) and that “Behold, I am making all things new.” (Revelation 21:5). Indeed, whatever 2023 served up and whatever 2024 has in store, we know that Hope is on horizon and that is good news.