A Christmas Gathering Part 1

Greetings and Merry Christmas from Kenya! There was so much happening and so many pictures taken at our Christmas celebration ...we'll have to post it in two parts. Here's the first part….

Preparation and Celebration!

On the twenty-first of December a few StoneHouse Fellowship members gathered at the StoneHouse Gathering Place and began decorating for Christmas… it turned out to be a whole lot of fun and everyone helped... even the little ones.

We put our tent up in the outside courtyard of our Gathering place and to our delight it was a perfect fit.

When we finished fixing the decorations some of the young ladies began fixing their hair! We all left tired but feeling very Christmassy. 

On the morning of the twenty-second our friends, family and guests began to arrive. The first to show up were the ladies who would prepare our feast. It was great to hear them singing together while preparing our food.

Everyone who came loved all the colorful Christmas decorations including all our wazungu missionary friends. They said it made them feel like they were home.

Even with many of our church family traveling ‘up country’ visiting relatives for Christmas we still had way over a hundred people attending. There was plenty of time for talk and fellowship. Most everyone stayed over six hours!

Jesse and Janet, our missionary friends, had to leave early for Nairobi to catch a plane for the USA. We felt the need to cover them with prayer so we placed them in the middle of the room. Then as everyone there surrounded them we prayed for their safety. They told us they loved us all very much and left. Fifteen minutes later we received a call informing us a drunk driver crashed into their car. They thanked us for our prayers because no one was hurt and the damage to the car was minimal. In two hours they were on their way again to Nairobi. 

Soon after hearing they were safe, our home groups began bringing assorted skits, dramas, songs and dancing!
Here is the Paradise home group...

The next was the Jerusalem Group...

Everyone encouraged the performers.

After thirty minutes we took a break and ate some delicious birthday cake. It was so good!

Mama (the sweet older lady in red and her daughter whose house we are starting a new church in Engashura), loved the cake so much she and her daughter got up and started singing. She invited everyone to get up and dance, and they did! 
(To see dancing click here.)
We believe the church in Engashura will bring much life to that area.

Next up was the Monikie home group. These are some of the most talented folks we have in StoneHouse.

After their performance we introduced some of our honored guests.There was Glibson, the supervisor from Nakumat who expressed his gratitude for the dedication we had shown in teaching Nakumat's employees each and every Saturday.

Then there was Paula, the owner of May Harvest Restaurant and her staff expressing their gratitude for all the teaching her employees received each week…

Then we all devoured the feast. Thanks be to God who multiplied the food so there was plenty of for everyone.

Well that's the end of part one, we hoped you enjoyed it, and in a few days we will show part two, which begins with a wonderful skit our youth preformed called ‘The Gift of the Magi’. For those of you that know the story you will love the Kenyan flavor. If you can think of anyone else that would enjoy seeing our Celebration …put this link up on your Facebook page.  

Till then, may God richly bless you and all who love the first coming of Christ. 

From the hearts of your Kenyan Missionaries and the whole StoneHouse staff… Merry Christmas!                  
 Dave, Cynthia and the entire StoneHouse family.