Merry Christmas!
Christmas at the mission was beautiful. The children preformed a little play before Christmas Eve mass. Many of the kids here have gone to stay with relatives for the week. There are still about 50 children here and we have been enjoying the vacation from school with ball games and trips to the beach.
This past week 600 sick and elderly people came to the mission for a special mass for the sick. The older boys helped these old men and woman up and down the stairs of the church. To see the priests give them all the anointing of the sick during mass was very moving as they all had made a big effort to come to the mission, arriving in taxis, trucks, and buses. The people were served lunch (which we had the pleasure to help make the night before) and were given a bag of donated clothes and fruit. They were so happy and kept coming up to me to thank me. I felt a little awkward as I was just an observer and was being thanked, but I enjoyed talking to them all and shaking their hands.
Since I work with the smaller children here, I pulled some strings and got Santa Clause to visit for an afternoon. When he entered the room with the children he asked, "Do you know who I am?" In unison they all replied "Jim!" It was quite funny. I think they enjoyed the cookies and the chocolate then seeing "Papa noel."
3 comments:
Jimmy,
Sounds amazing. You are in my thoughts and prayers. I can't imagine seeing and understanding how appreciative these people are for things that we take for granted. Must be awesome.
Jim- Thanks so much for starting this blog- its great to see what you are doing! My kids have been very inspired by the pictures and stories you shared. Keep it up- you are in our prayers!
Good to see that you can finally grow a beard.
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