My husband should win an award for Knowing How to Deal with a Foreign Spouse. He really has a lot of insight, or maybe just a lot of love in his heart. That's why he undertook the task of motivating a group of people to go Christmas caroling last night. We started out with two tap-taps and ended up all fitting into one. It wasn't the "cool kids group," but it was a group of some of my very favorite people, a few from the Cazeau congregation, and most from Blanchard. I heard Z

If you have known me for awhile, you will know that I love people, but I have a strange tendency to poke fun at "perfectly traditional Mennonite events." I used to secretly hate bridal showers. Or maybe not so secretly because one time I wrote an extremely sarcastic post about them. You can read it here: Probably here is where I'm supposed to confess to just being jealous of all the glowing 18-year-old brides-to-be, and that was part of it probably. But I think in my personal

Joy always comes in if you let it. Wafting thru your heart like the neighbors kompa music - A soft seranade. Like the bougainvillea branch creeping thru the church window adorning the house of God with bright pink flowers. Like the half moon hanging above the palms. lighting up a dark city God’s light - much more beautiful than mere streetlamps. So dance to the music. Let the flowers bloom. Let the moon light up your world. Joy Always com

Sometimes, our Bible Story Book nativity scenes seem more like a comfortable 21st century Christmas gathering than the real truth - a very young woman, physically and emotionally exhausted and afraid. She had endured the months of gossip about her pregnant state, held on to faith, only to be abandoned, sleeping in a dirty barn with her firstborn child. Was she really so calm, peaceful, and serene? We read to our children, "Spotted Cow mooed softly. Wooly lamb tinkled his bell