This morning Jose’s brother and mother arrived in the Mole! The kids were SO excited to see them! Chrystian has never been to the Mole and Mamita has only be here once – she came last year for New Years. This is our second Christmas without Jose’s sister – Nora. They say time heals the heart…..but this Christmas is just as hard as last year. The one beautiful difference though for us – is that we can celebrate this Christmas together with Mamita & Chrystian. What a blessing for our families to be together during this time.
This afternoon we hosted our Staff Christmas Meal. Each person went around the table and said what they were thankful for. There were many tears shed as we reflected on all that God has brought us through these past 12 months. He is faithful through the good and the bad. His fingerprints are everywhere – and they were easy to see as we each shared the many things He has personally done for us.
Everyone got to eat and eat! There was enough food that everyone could take a plate home for their family. Just like last year – this year we played our version of Secret Santa – Secret Kindness Partners! In November everyone drew names. You had to perform 3 acts of kindness for the name you drew without getting caught.
Yesterday each person told me who they “THOUGHT” was their partner. Tonight was the BIG reveal. Sitting in front of each employee was a little red shiny box. Inside the box was Hershey Kisses and a pink heart-shaped paper with the name of their Kindness Partner.
So it worked like this: I called out Nene’s name. I then said Nene yesterday you told me that you thought Pierre was the one who performed acts of kindness for you. Now open your shiny red box to see if you are right. When he opened the box – sure enough Pierre had his name! Pierre then said the 3 things he did for Nene. Since Nene answered correctly he won the prize.
If Nene would have guessed someone else – – than Pierre would have won the prize. So there were two ways to win: you could win by correctly guessing the name of the person who drew your name. Or you could win if you did three acts of kindness – and the person you did it for – didn’t correctly guess you. There were 18 players and 9 correctly guessed their partner.
Tonight we laughed and laughed with each red box opened and each Kindness Partner revealed! Hearing the things that they did for each other – it was beautiful. They helped with folding clothes, sweeping, giving presents, putting minutes on their phones. giving candy, giving cokes, giving perfume, helping with gardening, babysitting, cleaning, giving haircuts, etc. They were so sneaky how they did things….it was great…just great!
Tizzie’s name was guessed by more people than anyone else. There were 4 people who thought Tizzie was their Kindness partner because she was just so kind to them over the past month. Tizzie is our orphan manager. This is a testament to the kind of lady we have caring for our orphans. I gave her a special prize tonight for being the “kindest” person since everyone thought she had their name.
Back in August we bought small Christmas gifts for the employees and shipped them to Haiti. Tonight they drew a number out of the hat. Their number corresponded with a particular present! Everyone walked away with a special gift!
This year has been a rough year to say the least….but God is SO good. The employees said they never dreamed we would be able to do this special meal together with the funds so tight. They’ve seen the way we’ve had to cut back on special activities over the past several months. It’s been difficult to say “NO” to so many things that we used to be able to help with.
They asked that I say a special thank you for some sweet friends who helped pay for this meal tonight. We created a beautiful memory that will last a life time. They told me it was a reminder that God hasn’t forgotten them – that He still hears them and sees them. Sometimes we all just need a little reminder of that…….and tonight we accomplished that.
