Sunday, December 21, 2008

Bonjour,

This morning, Lenell's choirs were doing a Christmas program at the
Anyama church. The children and I went to the Anyama church. I videoed
the program for Lenell. Gilbert and Danny stayed right next to me. The
ladies passed Bonnie around. The choirs did a great job. Lenell works
with them every Saturday. There were about fifty children and twenty
teenagers who participated. Most of the people here don't know many
Christmas songs. So, it was nice to hear Christmas songs in French.

The last time we went to the Anyama church, it was for a baptismal
service. Gilbert kept asking me when they were going to dunk somebody
in the water. He saw Lenell conducting the choir and told me that I
needed to flap my arms like a bird too.

Joe and Romeo went on to Belleville. They had good services. Joe
preached in the morning service. The attendance was down due to the
holidays. There were 56 in attendance this morning. Everyone is out of
school, and many people have gone to their village for the holidays.
New Years is a bigger holiday here than Christmas, but they do celebrate
them both.

The evening service went well. Romeo preached tonight. I played some
Christmas songs on my clarinet. We made little booklets with twelve
Christmas songs in them. One of the men at church tonight wanted to
know if we could sing them all because he had never heard them and wants
to learn them all. They sing all the verses to each song. I get a
little winded after one song and have to take a break. We did three
songs tonight.

Today is my sister Amy's birthday. We called her this evening to sing
to her. Danny told her, "Happy Birthday to you!" Then, he said, "Let
me get you a present." He went over to the Christmas tree to get a
present for her. The boys keep asking about opening those presents. So
far, they haven't tried to open any of them.

A demain,

Joe, Laura, Gilbert, Danny, and Bonnie