December Leadership Camp Prep

The weekend began with a staff Christmas party on Friday evening. Melissa made an excellent spread of food. We watched the Truman Show in French and played some games. We all took Saturday morning off. (We normally work at least a half a day.)

We will have church at our home in Aneho this evening. Sunday evenings have worked best for our meeting time. The people in Aneho all have gardens that they work in the mornings. We have been running in the high teens on Sunday evenings. The Courtyard Kids program has had a consistent 80-100 every week. We are starting to see regulars on both Sunday and Wednesday.

Monday morning the staff and I will be headed up to Kpadape for two days. Jonas, Mazema, Abraham, and myself will spend the night then come back on Tuesday. We are also taking two young guys named Ben and Victor. We have been working on the church property for two reasons. The first is that really in need of some maintenance. The second is that we will be holding the leadership camp in Kpadape from December 26-31.

There have never been doors on the church building. A pastor in the US sent us a check to be able to have them welded and made. So we only have to paint and we will be finished with them.

The church had a small palm tree grove that produced palm oil. The land is a perfect location to be able to put a soccer field. It has taken quite a few weeks, but we are almost finished with the field. The week will include moving a few logs and stumps, leveling the soil, painting the doors, and cutting the grass.

On a completely random thought, I had the greatest conversation with Abraham the other day. Christmas is starting to become a bigger deal here, so I asked him about Santa Clause. He had never heard about him before. The most complicated part of the whole conversation was trying to explain what snow is and why people would wish for a white Christmas. Good times.