Gettin' Chilly and Headin' South

Michelin Mama Longs for a Wood Stove

It's starting to get cold here and I'm wearing so many layers, I'm starting to look like the Michelin Man! I know you're glad I don't have a picture to share!! Even as I sit here writing, I am wearing four layers!

The houses in Prilep have no heat built in; most homes heat with wood stoves. Even at the kids' school, each schoolroom has a little wood stove and throughout the day they throw in logs to keep the room toasty.

If you look behind Daniel you can see the stove in the corner.

We bought electric heaters (convection) for our house. Since Kyle has been travelling so much we thought it'd be better if I didn't have to worry about chopping wood and starting the fire each day. However, after our last electric bill, we are now reconsidering! Even wearing my four layers, I'm still cool and as I said, it's only STARTING to get cold!! As it is, we keep all doors to all rooms shut, hoping to keep in what warm air we have while trying to shut out the cold air. Walking out into the hallway or stairwell is pretty chilly! Many Macedonian families all sleep in one room (usually the living room) in the winter, so only one room has to be heated; we're considering that option too!

Last night we were visiting some new friends and their living room was so cozy that we are now very tempted to get a wood stove. I may have become a master wood-chopper and fire-starter by the next time you see me!

Christmas Party

Wednesday nights we hold conversational English classes as a way to meet the people of Prilep. As a result, our Arkansas volunteers were invited to visit some students' homes, some students joined the guys for football on Thanksgiving day, and some have come to our house for coffee. This Wednesday night will be the last class for the semester – except it will be a party instead of class and it will be at our ministry center. You may remember that our Arkansas volunteers helped paint it. We now have carpets, couches and curtains – and a Christmas tree! We'll have some of our Macedonian Christian books to give some away to our guests.

We will have another grand opening in January, when things get going again after the holidays, and we'll have regular gatherings in the ministry center (or cafe or reading room!).

We are so excited to get things started with the center. Our teammates Jeff & Amy Williams have really put a lot of time and effort into it! Thank you to all of you who have contributed to our center! We'd love to have you stop in for some coffee!!!

Christmas in Kenya

Kyle's parents, Cherry & Vance, have graciously invited us to Kenya for Christmas. We will be leaving Friday and will go first to visit Kyle's sister, Cara, and her family who are serving in Tanzania. We have never been to Cara's home so this will be special treat for all of us. Cara says it is “hot, hot, hot!“ there so I'll be shedding some layers before we leave!

Rebekah will turn 12 years old while we're there and is going to her very first MK (missionary kid) retreat and even though she's a European MK who'll stand out among African MKs, she is so excited to be going with her cousins Caitlynn and Laurynn!

We'll be in Tanzania for a week and then go to Kenya for the rest of our visit. We'll actually celebrate Christmas after the New Year when we're all together.

I'll do my best to update the blog from Kenya. Email seems to work well enough but we'll see how reliable the internet service is; I promise to write it all up offline and at least try to upload it!