We had a great day worshiping the Lord! The attendance was down, but we are so thankful that God is working in the hearts of his people. Please remember to keep this work in your prayers.

Upcoming events...on Friday the Leadership team and their wives will be coming over to our house for a small Christmas party. Then on Sunday morning, the kids at church will be receiving their Christmas treats and Sunday evening we will be having a "Family Christmas Party" at church...We are going to be having a "Birthday Party for Jesus!" The church will be providing the meat, which we are grilling...and everyone else is helping by either bringing rice, menestra (lentils), salad, colas, plates, cups, napkins, forks.... This is all a "new" idea for the culture here, so we will see how it works. "Potluck dinners" are not a normal thing in Ecuador! :-) But everyone seems really excited about it and is looking forward to a great time. We will be exchanging ornaments...each family that wants to participate has been bringing ornaments and putting them on the trees at church...The ornament has their family's name on it. The idea is that we will exchange them and then each family will pray for the family whose ornament they receive, during the coming year. We have also asked those that would like to participate to bring a wrapped "birthday gift for Jesus". These are to be toys that we will be giving out to the 2 children's homes in our area. We are looking forward to a great time of fun and fellowship!

We are excited and looking forward to Christmas at the Anzalone house! We have been baking and decorating. This week we are planning to do some shopping. I pray that each of you has a wonderful week as you prepare for this most precious time of you!

God Bless you!
Joy