December ’21 Family News

Ministry

Anja

Band

This month, I was scheduled twice again, as I used to before Yuna’s birth. It was good to be back on stage, being able to stand during both, the rehearsal and the worship time. To my surprise, I was once scheduled as tenor instead of alto. That must mean that I have made some progress since I became a band member. Tenor is a lot higher than alto and I know that they were not too excited about me singing that high in the presentation during the school of worship.

Since it was December, we included some Christmas songs. To be honest, I was not too excited about that because I am really not a fan of singing the same old songs every Christmas again. To my surprise, when we were singing them, I was quite okay with it. Once again, the key was to focus on worshipping God instead of the songs that I don’t like. For He really did give us the greatest gift by sending His one and only Son. In Him, we not only have forgiveness of our sin and therefore, reconciliation with God, but also the privilege to live with Him forever. If that is not praise worthy, then nothing is!

Livestream

I was mixing the sound every Wednesday and every Sunday, which was quite a lot. I tried to make it work, but with Chris doing lights or supporting another light master, there was only so much he could do to help. In addition, Ziva had a runny nose all the time, which made it impossible for us to bring her to child care. To come to the point, there was a lot of back and forth with the two girls and it was quite stressful for all of us. However, it didn’t seem to have any bad influence on the sound.

One time, Pastor Mike mentioned during the staff meeting that the sound had been amazing and asked who did it. The team leader then said that it had been me. On another occasion, I was in the studio mixing the sound when Pastor Mike walked in and asked me if I was doing the sound. He then said it sounded amazing and that I had “a good ear”. Needless to say that it was great to hear that from the leader of the church who is also a worship leader.

Fit 2 Serve

We had our last roadshow (Christmas Edition) on the 18th. Our surprise guest was a team from the Fit 2 Serve headquarters in Las Vegas and they brought us smash balls (heavy, semi-soft balls that you use to exercise with). I bought bananas, trail mix, electrolytes and put together a Christmas workout playlist so we could celebrate a bit in a healthy way – after all, we are called Fit 2 Serve, not Fat 2 Serve. For this special occasion, I reached out to 55 people to invite them to the workout. We ended up being 8 locals and 6 from Las Vegas. I had hoped for more people to attend, but I am glad that we had at least three first time guests.

• 

• 

Chris

Getting Ready For Christmas

During the whole month of December, we decorated the stage to make it look Christmassy. In other words, we removed the middle pillar to make more space for the band and decorations. We also removed the covering and the led lights from the corner pillars, and painted the metal beam black. Without the lights in the pillars, the stage looked more plain which meant that I had to adjust my strategy on how to do the lights.

Christmas Concert

• 

As already mentioned in the last newsletter, we were planning a Christmas concert. It was an even more professional production this year. The general theme was more plain and elegant and we even had a violinist and a cellist on the set. We started practicing on Thursday evenings. The original plan was that I would have a light master as backup for that event, but nobody could come on Thursdays so I was all by myself. The concert itself was a blast. Pretty much everything worked out according to plan and we had a good time.

---

Family

Christmas Time

Christmas Time is the busiest time of the year when you are serving at Calvary Chapel Rosarito! Chris was gone a lot to prepare for the Christmas concert and we attended different Christmas celebrations (servants appreciation desert, worship team, media team, staff, marriage fellowship and English speakers). Here are some impressions:

• 

• 

• 

New Year’s Eve

A couple that we know from marriage fellowship invited us to their home on New Year’s Eve. They had some friends over from California and we spent the evening talking, playing with the cats and playing games. Ziva’s highlight probably were the grapes (she LOVES grapes) and the cats (she LOVES cats). Unfortunately, the cats did not like her as much and ended up hiding underneath the couch. Our host and one of her friends were excited to hold Yuna. Unfortunately, Yuna ended up having cramps and since we forgot the meds that we usually give her in that case, we left at 11pm, so an hour before midnight. When midnight came around, Anja was sitting in bed, feeding Yuna while Chris was putting Ziva to bed. Happy New Year!

Dedication Ziva and Yuna

If you would like to watch the dedication, here’s the recording. It starts at bout 29:26:

Ziva

Ziva turns out to be quite fond of dresses. Ever since we put a dress on her for her dedication, she keeps asking for and pointing out dresses. Ziva would pick a dress over pants any time. Combine that with a bow in her hair and her new pair of ankle boots and you have a lovely outfit. To be specific, Ziva’s new favorite outfit is a red dress with white detail, a red bolero with a white collar, white tights, white bows and black ankle boots. Whenever we put that on her, which we did a lot during Christmas time, Anja would call Ziva “little miss Christmas”.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Of course, Ziva picked up a couple of new words, too. She now says ketchup, fish, dress and gracias (thank you in Spanish). Anja also showed Ziva how to play with the kitchen set she got for her birthday. Together, they would put food on the plate and “eat” it and pour each other “tea” and drink it. Ziva seems to really like playing like that. She even sits there, all by herself, pretending to eat from her plate. Ziva’s favorite thing to do is to remove the greens from the vegetables and to put them on her fingers. Anja calls that “vegetable hands”.

One day, our friend from the graphics team at church asked us if Ziva could model the new t-shirts. We said yes. However, Ziva was not quite as excited and started to cry when we put the t-shirt on her. After a while though, she even started to pose for the camera and she did a really good job at it. We didn’t get a free t-shirt, but some nice pictures of Ziva posing. For those who wonder, the text on the t-shirt is in Spanish and means, “My God is love and truth”.

Yuna

Yuna is super popular and everyone wants to at least look at her. People who know us better also ask if they could hold her, which we are usually fine with. Sometimes, people are lucky enough to not only get one of Yuna’s amazing smiles, but also have a conversation with her. She can be quite talkative, especially when she is hungry. What we hear often is that people are surprised how alert Yuna is. The funniest thing we heard though was a child who asked her mother if Yuna was a real baby or a doll 😀

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

As it is common in Switzerland, we made a baby announcement card and handed them out to people who gave Yuna a gift or who we know well. Everyone who received a card seemed super excited. Some even wanted to return the card because they thought it was just for them to look at. It really doesn’t seem to be a thing here.

---

THANK YOU!

We would like to take the opportunity to thank everyone of you who supported us this year in one or the other way. Through your gift, you partake directly in the amazing work we are able to do here. The Lord will bless you for your generosity. May He provide for all your needs.

---

Prayer requests

• Health (Chris’ and Anja’s backs, Ziva’s snotty nose and Yuna’s digestive system)
• Appointment opening for Yuna’s Mexican passport
• Finances and favor for Ziva’s permanent residency