deri rhomro jeuh krit janma din

Merry christmas.. that is what the title says by the way– in case you were wondering. Merry merry christmas to al my faithful readers and family and everyone that i just feel so blessed to know. Thank you for all of your encouragement and prayers for me during my first christmas away from home!! I am also praying hard for all of you! So you guys have not celebrated christmas yet, but I have been celebrating for 8 hours now.. how weird is that huh! So let me tell you about my christmas festivities.. so christmas eve day and afternoon were filled with all my nepalee friends coming over to visit and wish merry christmas. It was so much fun. Then christmas eve night I came over to my friends house from our sunday house fellowship and our whole fellowship got together nad had dinner and then made sugar cookies (again), watched christmas movies and played maffica (a card game) it was really alot of fun, and then all of us girls spent the night here. except i did not sleep because i was staying awake until 3:45 am to call my church during their christmas eve servivce. it was hilarous.. a christmas all nighter.. i felt like i was waiting all night for santa clause or something. IT was great to talk to my church family though– i just love them so much. Then I woke up this morning and cooked my families traditional christmas breakfast for everyone. monkey bread.. plus sausage balls, sausage and bacon. IT’s so crazy to cook here. I had to hand make the biscuits and flavor the sausage with seasoing because you can not buy sausage here… how betty crocker did i feel. Then the guys from our fellowship joined us for breakfast, (one of them came dresed in a santa suit.. how hilarious) and we had a fabulous breakfast together. Then we started cooking for dinner.. an amazing christmas dinner.. i mean we havce literally bene in the kitchen cooking all day long.. and i think it will be the biggest christmas meal i have ever had. I think food is just a bigger deal to us here. We eat rice and dhol (lentils) most of the time, so this is our treat day.. and although it takes all day, we are going all out. We have green bean casserole, green bean bundles, rolls, chicken, pot roast, mashed potatoes, hmm.. i’m forgetting all the rest.. we will eat in about an hour. IT’s way more fun and crazy when you have to cook everything from scratch adn we have 15 people in the kitchen with christmas music blaring. Then this afternoon we will do a white elephant gift exchange and play some more games. But the highlight of my day besides talking to my family this morning was when leah and i walked out to buy a gift for our white elephant exchange and we had to walk by the biggest buddhist stupa in the world. This stupa is where all the tibetan buddhist go and walk in a circle and say prayers to buddha. Wow. Leah and i both walked up to it, and were just stunned by the lostness and the hopelessness and the darkness of all this people walking in circles, fingering their prayer beads, hoping to find hope. we both cried and prayed at this stupa. It made me remember why it was worthy the sacrifice of leaving everything and everyone i love behind and coming here. Isiah 9, those walking in darkness have seen a great light.. those in deep darkness have seen the light of Christ. For unto us a child is born unto us a son is given.. a savior has been born.. who is christ the lord.. and no one walking around that stupa knew that they wer supposed to be celebrating that today– they were just walking in circles looking for hope. SO I had to give up being with my amazing family for christmas.. had to not be at my church for the christmas eve service. those walking in darkness have seen a great light.. for unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given!
i love you