Kokubun Konexión: Fun

Caroling for Christmas

3:16 PM

"We wish you a Merry Christmas, We wish you a Merry Christmas, We Wish you a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New year." Our carolers sang with enthusiasm! Wait, you might be thinking, but that's in English! Yes, it is :) It might have been the only carol we sang in English, but we sang it just the same! Last Saturday, we took our teenagers Christmas Caroling around the neighborhood of our church. We stopped at several elder members homes, as well as the local Police Station.

At our first stop, pictured above, Miguel was SO excited we were coming that he begged Daniel to bring the piano so he could hear all the music together. He loved having us come sing, and said it was the first time in 65 years that he'd heard of someone caroling. He thanked us for bringing the tradition back! We were more than happy to! One of the culture differences here, is that, at almost every home, the people invited us inside and insisted of giving us something to drink and sometimes a snack! By the time we were finished, we were full! Another odd thing for me this year, was that it was hot and humid outside! I don't ever remember sweating while Christmas caroling, but this time- we did! We were hot, and grateful for the pop and drinks our kind members offered us.

This is at another member's home. As you can tell, many of us had drinks in hand because of their gracious hospitality!

This is Hermana Alison's home. She has just had a recent battle in cancer. She was thrilled to see the teenagers singing to her. I think the kids liked it too!

Our last stop, was the police station. Our preacher suggested we go honor the police officers with songs, and thank them for the job they do. We had a great meeting with them. The next day, one of the girls who was at the police station with her mom came to church and got saved! We're excited about the other opportunities God will open as we develop a relationship with them.

Fun

Spring Work!

8:33 AM

There's just something about Spring Break that makes you want to change something, clean, remodel, or do something different, right? Maybe it's the fact that my in-laws completely redid their kitchen, or maybe it's because we're just ready to have our own house, but something inspired my husband last week that we should re-do his sister's bedroom. She's off at college, but we wanted to do something nice for her, so we decided to paint her room! This did include redoing her dresser and desk but we took on the challenge.

Of course it went off exactly as planned, no accidents, no spilled paint, no messes! Okay, maybe not..... I guess if you count only once that the dog got into the paint..... and walked all over the room with bright blue paws....and through the hallway....and into the kitchen.... it wouldn't sound so bad, right? Unless you saw me scrubbing the floors that is. :)

Of course when my husband and mom had painted the kitchen cabinets, we wouldn't have left them out on the porch overnight... only to wake up in the middle of pouring rain and a horrible storm to realize our cabinets were soaked!

Of course my husband remembered to shut the moon roof on our car the same night it poured and poured rain!

And of course when I was cleaning up after we had almost finished everything, I wouldn't have carried the tarp over my head to knock the paint pan onto the floor....allowing the paint to spill everywhere.... let's just say I got very acquainted with the carpet that day....
But through it all, we prevailed! Here are a few pics! Enjoy!