A very late Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone!  Time slips by and it's already the second week of January.  My first Zambian Christmas was wonderful.  The eve of Christmas Eve we had dessert, exchanged gifts and sang carols with our fellow missionaries. I even pulled out the viola.

Spent the majority of Christmas day at church. Singing worship songs, kids performing Christmas story and songs, special music, challenging sermon, carols (viola and all), Father Christmas visit and dinner. Very sorry I didn't get pictures. Father Christmas and his wife came all the way from Botswana! Not sure too many Americans would spend 9 am to 3 pm at church on Christmas day, but I had a wonderful time.  They really made me feel like family.  Looks like I'll be joining the worship team weekly with my viola aka "violin."  Then I had a lovely dinner (always eating this time of year) with the McMillens and Christine with a time of prayer and reading the Luke's Christmas story from the Message.  

Before we set off for South Africa, I had an  exciting day at Liteta. This very dull looking picture has an intense story. In the middle is a broken piece of a sewing needle. The other instruments are what I used to get it out of a woman's wrist. It got there while she was washing her clothes. On xray the one end looked close to the surface and at the entrance on her wrist there was a small whitehead. Choices were sending her to a hospital an hour away or trying myself. I wish the lidocaine numbing medicine would have worked a little better but after 2 hours and the patient holding a light for me 1/2 the time, we had success! In the middle of it she told me she would give me a chicken if I got it out. By the end she said I needed to come to her home and she would give me a goat! I think I at least owe her a chicken pie lunch. She was incredible enduring the pain. We had a big hug at the end.