Journal Entries:

Monday, December 26, 2005 11:27 AM

Subject: Happy Boxing Day!

Dear Family and Friends,

Happy Boxing Day from 4 Castle Road, Southall! I learned this week that “Boxing Day” is the day after Christmas which was a day off for the servants who worked all day on Christmas. I pray that you and your family had a wonderful day yesterday – enjoying each other and remembering the love that God showed us through the incarnation.

Jos’ deserves the day off today after helping cook up a feast for 12 yesterday here at our new house. After moving last weekend and then scrambling to get the house together, we hosted another missionary family and two singles, an intern and a Romanian who is an au’pair for a Muslim family. It was a fun day for everyone as we hosted our first meal in our new house. Of course, the kids loved the gifts, with the highlight being the trampoline we brought on the container from St. Louis. Jos’ is questioning the wisdom of this gift as it takes up most of the back yard – but Rahel and Kaleb love it!

We are thankful to be spending our first Christmas in London as we look back on everything it took to get us here. In some ways, I think we are all in a state of shock that this move has actually happened. Every day we find out more about our neighborhood and our life here – some wonderful while others are different from what we are used to. In it all, Jos and I realize that God has been so good to our family this past year.

Here are two pictures of our family:

checking out the lights in central London

and the kids enjoying their new trampoline in our backyard.

Blessings in Jesus,