December 20′ Family Update

Ministry

Anja

Livestream

The leader of the livestream team is so happy with my camera work, that I haven’t been in any other position for a very long time. He would acutally like to be on the camera himself, but as the leader, he has to make sure that everything is running smoothly. One time, I joined the team in the studio after having positioned the camera for the sermon, when the team leader told me that it was as if I had been able to read his mind with my choice of picture, i.e. he didn’t have to tell me what picture to take. And the media team leader, who was standing in the studio as well, was nodding in acknowledgement. I was like, okay?!

New Ministry Opportunity

One day, out of the blue, the pastor in charge of missions and counseling approached me and asked, if he could talk with me. He then asked me if I had ever done counseling and if I were interested in helping him with counseling couples and taking over some women for individual counseling. I was surprised! I had been doing counseling when we were still with AMI in the States, but only as an assistant. I told him I was interested, but I would like to pray about it and also talk with Chris about it. However, I said yes. Now I am waiting for the pastor to get back to me. I am excited as well as nervous. It is a huge responsibility!

Today’s Good News

At another occasion, we were sitting in one room with Senior Pastor Mike Vincent, he said, “Anja, by the way, you are going to do a Today’s Good News devo in the new year. You’re ready!” This did not surprise me though because I knew that one of the teachers had been telling him that I would be a great candidate and she had also talked to the leader of the women’s ministry so she too, went and suggested me 😉 I am looking forward to doing that since I really enjoy it! I am basically just waiting for the date and the verse, so that I can get ready.

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Chris

Christmas lights

As promised, here are some pictures from the Christmas decoration at church:

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On our appointed decorating day, we split up in teams. What I only realized then was that I was in charge of the crew that would do the stage decoration. This was a whole new challenge and I found myself running around and sorting out problems. In the end, thanks to a lot of amazing helpers, the stage was well prepared and I was working a bit longer to get all the lights ready. The same day, in the evening, we had our Christmas concert which was the deadline to get everything done. Although I was a bit tired after a long day of work, it was a very good experience and I could learn a lot.

Moving Heads

To have more lights is not always better. Soon after I put our new back lights up I noticed, that the band members are not always standing in the same spot. To provide the best possible light scene, we could, theoretically, simply put up more spots. But just a while ago, we got some small moving heads for that job. They are not the brightest, but do the job and add a lot to our flexibility. In addition, with the older two moving heads, we can now realize spot lighted scenes, which look pretty cool.

Today’s Good News

During December, we had a special Christmas edition of our Today’s Good News. I also got to preach one of them and for the first time, I was able to do it without reading the teleprompter. Speaking before the camera is completely different than what we practice in church planting class.

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Church Temporarily Closed

About two weeks before Christmas, the authorites in Rosarito decided to close all churches due to an increase of COVID cases. We are currently back in the reds… Calvary Chapel has a certificate from the government that should allow it to stay open, but for some reason, it didn’t seem to matter. Immediately, Senior Pastor Mike Vincent announced that we would be going back to car church services. At the same time, they tried to reason with the government, but without success. We held one car church service and only right before our Christmas services on the 19th and 20th, the government changed their mind and allowed the churches to be open again. So we could celebrate Christmas together in the sanctuary as a church family! Glory to God!

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Church Christmas Celebrations

There were a lot of Christmas celebrations we were able to attend. We even decided to not attend one for English speakers, only to find out later that it got cancelled due to COVID. The first Christmas celebration was at our friends’ house, the ones we usually spend Friday evenings around the bonfire with. It had rained on that day, so only a few people made their way to their house because it is only accessible by a dirt road. The men were watching American Football, while we ladies were talking. I made an effort to entertain the only Spanish speaking financée of one of the guys while our host was taking care of the food.

We had a Christmas celebration for the staff, white elephant gift exchange included. For those of you who are not familiar with it, each person brings a wrapped gift and each person is given a number. The person with #1 starts by picking and unwrapping a gift. The person with #2 can then either steal the gift from #1 or pick a new gift. People with a higher number can steal from anyone who came before them, but the same gift can only be stolen twice. After the game, Chris had a scarf and Anja had a pair of gloves, a beanie and socks, who were not color matched at all. However, Anja was able to trade for a cheese grater that a 9 year old had ended up with. Chris was able to change his scarf for a speaker that a 13 year old did not want. He then traded the speaker for a garden hose. So in the end, everyone was happy. The church also gave gifts to each child. Ziva received a small keyboard that she has been playing on daily.

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Our third Christmas celebration was with the media team, where we also played the white elephant gift exchange. Chris got a case for small electronic stuff and Anja a mug and gloves. The highlight, however, was each team member sharing what they were grateful for, concerning the media team, this year. The team leader of the livestream shared that at first, he wasn’t sure what to do with Anja, when she first joined the team, but that he is happy that she is on his team now. Then the leader of the media team added, that Anja has perfected the art of operating the camera (wait, what?!). We had a good time together and Chris noticed that all the people who have been coming to serve in the lights ministry are Spanish speakers and speak little to no English. Is the Lord making a point here? Should Chris start to learn Spanish?

We spent our fourth and last Christmas celebration at a pastor’s house on Christmas Day. He had invited a couple of families and we all sat together, ate and watched movies. It was a reather relaxed afternoon.

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Family

Provision

At the beginning of the month, our finances were quite tight and we did not know if we would have enough money to buy Christmas presents, or even groceries. We lifted our concerns up to the Lord and He responded in an amazing way. Out of the blue, we received additional donations from different sides and so we were able to get each other some Christmas presents. At this point, we would like to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who supported us financially this year. Again and again, your support has carried us through and we are very grateful for every single one of you. You might think that your contribution is only small, but you have no idea how many times this “small” contribution was literally exactly what we needed. So thank you, again. May the Lord bless you abundantly!

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First Christmas on Our Own

This year was the first year that we, as a family of three, celebrated entirely on our own. Before, we were either celebrating with our families, and after our move to the US, with AMI. Now, however, it was just us, and the question was, how are we going to celebrate it? To us, it was important, that the reason for the season, the birth of Jesus Christ and the relationship with Him, would be in the center.

We started the 24th by calling our relatives in Switzerland. Then it got a bit hectic. We had ordered our gifts late and they were delivered to our friend’s P.O. box in the States, so we had to go by their place to pick them up. One of the gifts however, we needed to get at a different friend’s place because he, too, had the key to the P.O. box and he had picked the very last package up this same day. However, Anja had to start cooking lasagna, so Chris and Ziva drove to their place out in the boonies and hang out with them for a bit. Ziva had a blast playing with the kittens and roaming the property. When they came home, the table was set, the food was ready, so we could just sit down and eat. We then exchanged gifts. As it turned out, Ziva was not interested in her presents at all, not when they were wrapped and not when they were unwrapped. However, she started discovering them later. When all of the gifts were exchanged, we watched “The Star”, a cute, animated Christmas story that was a lot funnier than we thought. After we put Ziva to bed, at around 7pm, we watched the Christmas Chronicles 2 and then went to bed. It was a nice, relaxed Christmas evening that we enjoyed greately.

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Ziva

Ziva is now 88cm tall and 13.5kg heavy. In comparison to all the Mexican babies around us, she is quite big. We had to get Ziva t-shirts for 3 year olds because her torso is quite long and the t-shirts for 2 year olds don’t cover her back when she bends over anymore. Well, they are rather short and snug in general. The pants for 2 year olds are still rather long though 😉

Ziva’s vocabulary seems to change every so often. Her latest, most obvious change is that she says “meeeeee” instead of “mommyyyyyyyy”. We are not sure if she knows the difference, but it’s funny. And just now, she started to make a noise that sounds like “woof”. She does it when the dogs outside are barking, so we think she is trying to bark.

We finally dared to remove the gate in front of the staircase that leads to the second floor. We left it on for so long mainly because the first five steps have no reiling or anything on one side. However, Ziva has been doing really well climbing up and down the stairs by herself. We still have the gate upstairs, mainly to ensure that she doesn’t go or fall downstairs during the night when she wakes up. Her room is right next to the stairs, so it would be a possibility.

We have extended our walks with Ziva. Instead of just going to the fountain, we go around the corner and up to the street. There, she discovered the pebbles in the garden area and has plays with them every time we go there. A little further, there is a billboard that shows an iPhone and every time we walk by, Ziva goes there and pushes the home button, as she does on our iPhones. She is always surprised that nothing happens 😀 At the end of that street, there is a, most of the times abandoned, police station. One day, a police car pulled up and Ziva stood there, all fascinated. Both police officers smiled and waved at her and she waved back. She even gave them fist bumps. It was really cute.

Just the other day, Chris was having a closer look at the gate, which was suddenly very hard to open. When he had taken it apart, Ziva walked up to him and handed him the covering and also tried to “help” him, using the screwdriver. She is always very interested in what Daddy is doing. She’s her Daddy’s girl after all 😉

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Weather

After a rather cold and sometimes foggy November, December surprised us with mostly amazing weather and mild temperatures, as high as 26 degrees celsius. It rained maybe twice so far, which is completely different from last year, where we had so much rain that the streets got flooded.

Our landlord came from the States to have a look at the house (because of the mold) and to bring us some paint. We originally intended to ask a guy from church for help with painting, but he wasn’t able to make it, so Chris thoroughly cleaned the walls in Ziva’s room and painted them, as well. We used the same paint that is on the wall in the rooms where we didn’t have any mold, so we hope that with this change, the mold problem is solved. Chris also sprayed the carpet with a baking soda and vingar solution to make sure that there was no mold in the carpet. We just now moved Ziva back to her room and so far, she has not been caughing, which is a good sign. Chris will continue the same procedure in the office and in our own bedroom during our days off.

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Last But Not Least

We wish all of you a blessed, happy new year! May God give you what you need and fill you lives with joy and peace! Thank you for your financial support and your prayers. We really appreciate it!

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Prayer Requests

• More people who are willing to support us financially
• A solution so Anja can do graphics
• Healing for our backs
• General health for all of us